Day 7: Powerhouse

Welcome back. This is class number seven of your 30 session challenge. I'm looking forward to doing some one to chair exercises today about 20 to 25 minutes. Not too long, but certainly going to be challenging your powerhouse in every possible way. And I'm really glad that you're sticking with this and whether you do it perfectly today, try to take the words I can't out of your repertoire cause you can do everything here and we're just going to keep working towards it cause we're within our first 10 sessions right now and when we get to your last 10 sessions and revisit these exercises, I bet you're going to do them even better than today. So let's get started with the foot work. We're going to have two pads. So the springs are one top one bottom.

And I have two pads. I'm gonna put one down for now to sit down for my footwork, the arms can be placed in many different positions. We're going to start with you sitting as close to the front edge as possible. Toes are going to be in Pilati stance. And then you're going to put your hands behind you just to open up those collar bones.

Now let's get our spine nice and in alignments we can move quickly through all of them. I'm going to draw my box, pull my belly behind the line of my hips, make sure it's pulling into that lower back, draw the ribs nice and in alignment with my spine. All right, so we're gonna pretend we're against the backboard of the big chair or lying down on the reformer. Let's go for 10 we're going to pull in and up and two and three just as much energy pulling down and up, pushing down, pulling up. Seven, eight, nine, 10 if that was easy, put your hands here on the side. Switch your feet to arches squeezing and one pulling up in and up with the powerhouse. Growing taller out the crown of your head. Rounding those feet, trainees the back of your legs as much as the front eight, nine, 10 and if that was easy, then go ahead and put your hands like in your [inaudible]. Sit opening those collarbones, scooping in that belly in and up.

And here we go. 10 more. One Taller, grown out the crown of your head. Five pushing down, pulling up, down, pulling up. Eight, nine and 10. Let's go for the tendon stretch. So we're going to step off, turn around, get close to your, actually take a, yeah, take, get close to your chair. I'm going to get rid of my pat here. Reach your arms up. Nice and firm legs. Nice and firm. Belly in and up. Nice reach and we're going to work each transition, getting into position hands. Go on the chair, one foot to the chair, bring it down and we're going to put your hands on the back and I'm going draw my belly in and up into the back of my ribs. Then a whole my position there as I stretch my tailbone down my hips, two, three, squeezed my inner thighs and draw that lower belly in and stretch down to three and draw up into a big C curve.

Stretching away the pelvis from the ribs, creating space into your c curve. Try to inhale as you go down. Try to exhale [inaudible] as you come up in with the air. Let's do four more inner thighs. Exhaling. Okay. And stretch, stretch, stretch.

And let's do one more. Hopefully pulled up in your powerhouse, one foot to the floor, releasing the pedal with control. Return the other foot back down. And we're going to roll up always working in our transitions and lifting up even more. I'm going to turn my charities so that we can do a little bit of mat work right now. So I'm gonna put it right here. We're going to start off with the hundred.

This little area is one of the hardest places to do your mat work and it might not feel the best. It's a little challenging, but it's a great way to feel whether your spine is nice and flat. So we're going to keep working towards getting back in the groove here. You're gonna have your tailbone just a little bit off the front edge. And let's roll back. You can just a little ginger with my tail on there. We're going to start with the a hundred strong firm arms and draw the belly in.

And up and here we go. [inaudible] nice from presses. Yeah, I'm trying to squeeze my inner thighs and draw my belly in and up. You can pretty much feel whether your hips are on, whether the bottom of your shoulder blades are on. Okay, that's 40 [inaudible].

Really use your parallels if the legs are too low than bring them up higher. But make sure you feel your belly pulling into your back. [inaudible] because we're going to do the series of five and you need to use your stomach. Okay, let's do two more. [inaudible] linkedin, those legs away. Pull the billion and up last one.

[inaudible] draw the right knee and bring in for the series of five. Here we go. Single stretch, single leg stretch. Really feel your stomach. Pull into that chair. Yeah. Three more. This is our warmup from arms out to the side, squeezing that seat. Last one and double leg stretch. Inhale. Nice long and lean.

Exhale. Just try to pull your belly in. Think of the mat that we've been doing. You want to have from legs, from belly into your back. One more for me. Single straight leg. And we're going to pull up onto the bottom of your shoulder blades and switch.

Little double pulse and switch and one more. And then two tempo, three stretching and enough both hands behind your head and stretch and pulling up. Keep the range where you feel comfortable. Five more. Yeah, fuel the back on the books. One more. And we're going to do Chris Cross. Here we go, twist and I need to pull up higher to the knee. The last one. Hug in the knees and sit on.

All right. The next set of exercises we're going to do require just one spring in the middle. So I'm going to turn my pedal so you can get a little side angle and I'm going to drop to one spring in the middle. All right, so the next exercise is the push down. Let's really get a nice articulation of your spine.

So I'm going to stand about a box distance, plot his box distance away from my pedal and I'm going to send her myself strong, long legs, pulling a powerhouse in and up and reaching my arms up. Here we go. We're going to end with the air and exhale, peeling off an imaginary wall. Reach your ribs away from your pelvis instead of pushing your pelvis back to get your hands, heels of the hands on the pedal. And I want you to stretch your upper spine away from your middle spine, away from your lower to go down and then start with the lower back as you curl the tailbone under, pulling up in the middle, back in upper and upper back. First really working on your articulation and we're going to squeeze those inner thighs. Draw that pelvic floor up into our lower back, and we're going to go down one more time, okay.

And squeeze those inner thighs, lifting the arches, lifting the inner thighs, your pelvic floor, lifting your lower belly, and then keep your weight more on the ball of your foot as you round all the way up. And with Nice beauty and grace, we're going to go and just swan. If your chair's not too padded, you could put a pad here, but we're going to lie down with our ribs and chest off the front edge. Shoulders over the hands. All right, nice long. We're going to press just like we did on the Cadillac. We're pressing our pubic bone and pelvis into the chair.

We're pulling our belly and in trying to keep the alignment of our ribs reached those legs long, three pumps, staying long and tall. Bending and stretch. I'm going to slide back just a little. Here we go and pulling up, opening those collarbones and stretch one more and we'll come up with that swan, pulling the pedal up, up, up and press down and I'm going to use my powerhouse to open my collarbones. Lift my chest lift, lift and back down three pumps. One I'm really working the back of my arms and opening my collarbones and shoulders and chest. Press down, scoop caressing the pelvis in. And one more time.

We're gonna pull up [inaudible] pulling up. Try to feel yourself in space so that when we do our pushups, you're going to feel where you are last up, up, up, and keep the pedal down while you return your feet. Let the pedal come up. Hands here and we're going to keep the weight on the ball of our foot as we round up and pushed the earth away growing taller. And you're ready for your teasers. Join me for teasers.

Grab a pad then in about a hands with distance from the back edge and we're going to turn around and get ready. Okay, we're going to sit back and when your knees, all this is going to be nice on my tailbone. Who? Yeah, when your knees are up, you're going to check and see that you have a hands with distance. Now your knees are down. Alright, and now I'm gonna Balance and have my weight into my lower back and I'm going to extend the legs and then reach your arms, palms up, bend your elbows behind you. We're going to do the first teaser with our legs up at this level. So you really want to squeeze your inner thighs, dry your pelvic floor, because you're going to use your lower abdominals to go down, keeping the legs there. And now I'm going to use my upper abdominals to come up my middle and my lower and lower, middle, upper and upper.

It's really works on your articulation and getting your powerhouse back right and one more upper, middle, lower and back, back, back. All right, next exercise. Now we're going to do a horseback, so let's grab both paths. You, if you have thicker ones, you can use those up. They might feel better and we're going to straddle many ways to get on, but we're today we're just going to swing a leg over and then have your bottom kind of on the little half moon shape that's out here. We did horseback on the last one on the big ladder barrel, so hopefully you're warmed up and acquainted with horseback if you haven't been doing it for awhile. I have a straight spine right now. We're going to get rid of that as we have that ripple effect into a c curve and then we're going to stretch our ribs away from our pelvis as we do this.

All right, here we go. Squeezing the inner thighs, drawing that pelvic floor scooping in. Hopefully I got that ripple effect. I'm trying to work evenly reaching down my hands. And now stretching my upper back. Oh, away from my middle, away from my lower. And now we're gonna pull that pelvic floor in curly nut, tailbone and stretch. I feel like I'm a little uneven, so I might even myself out on the next one. There will be a next one. One more spine stretches forward rather than the shoulders up to your ears and then squeeze those inner thighs, draw that lower belly in and sitting.

So I felt a little uneven. Hopefully that helps. All right, one more set. Here we go. Flexing those feet. I think it's a little wide for me. Maybe I need to work on getting wide bigger. Stretch here. Alright, we're gonna point and squeeze those inner thighs. Draw that pelvic floor. Squeeze evenly with those hips. Maybe I'll work on that tomorrow with or on our next session with the big chair and we're gonna stretch and we're going to [inaudible] exhale and we're going to end with the air and we're going to exhale and we're going to end with the year.

Think we'll end with circles two and exhale, rolling up your spine. Be aware of that new mountain climb and circling. One and two. How's my seat Kerf keep working it and sitting down. Nice job. We're going to do pushups now, so swing a leg over. I'm going to turn my chair so you can see a little bit better angle.

We don't need any pads. Still one spring in the middle. Turn it. Hopefully. That's okay. All right, and we're going to start, I'm going to start with my left hand. Almost square. There we go. So I lined myself up with the floorboard. Okay. Nice.

Tall spine from legs reaching up to the powerhouse. Roll off an imaginary wall. It's so important how you start so that the rest of you is good. A left hand is going to go onto the pedal. Do not push down, right hand goes flat down. Watch your feet. Walk out preferably in three steps, and then lower into a plank position.

You want to even out your shoulders. All right, we're gonna press down one, let it up, press down two and I'm working on my plank. Squaring off my box one more and release. Walking my feet back in. I haven't done this exercise in a long time so hopefully it's looking as good as I was trying. All right, we're going to come onto this other side and cause I'm getting back into the groove with you guys. This is real time. Here we go. Right hand onto the pedal. Left hand in the middle of the chair.

Watch your feet as you walk back. Get down into a plank, even out your shoulders and one when in doubt, squeeze your belly more. Pull it in, squeeze your bottom more to one. I wish I had a mirror to see if I was aligned and straight and I'm going to walk back so I'm just trying to find out where I am in space and both arms. Extend. Squeeze those inner thighs, draw that public floor, roll it up. Then press down. Next is one of my favorite exercises. It's called the twist.

It might be your least favorite, but is one of my favorites because it is the exercise I thought I could never ever do because I am more stiff. And I remember watching Kathy Ross Nash do it with Ramana and thinking never. But that's what's great about is you build the foundation and the layers and then you can do whatever you want. So I draw a diagonal and I even out my hips. Here it goes, my tailbone again for a moment. Cross the right leg over the left reach.

Make sure you're in your powerhouse. Bend the right arm, put it on the back corner of the chair. You're going to use your box evenly. I'm going to use the outside of my hips and we're going to twist onto my right hip twisting, reaching those legs working. I'm going in slow motion to really give you an idea. Square hips over, hips lengthening. Now I'm going to twist my ribs, okay, coming center and I'm gonna Scoop in resisting my pedal as I come back up again in with the air. And then exhale, the breath really helps. And then in with your and an exhale. Okay.

Yeah, here and then we're going to come up. Really try to keep your shoulder away from your ear. And one more pelvic floor. Lower belly reaching those hips. Everything's long. And then twist.

Okay. And untwist and scooping control. Beauty and grace. Both arms. And we're going to do the other side. So I'm going to move this pat right here. Line myself up again.

The left ankle is going to go over the right and extend both arms and I'm gonna repeat. Bend my elbow, reach back. All right, here we go. Pelvic floor, inner thighs back the legs. Get into a nice solid straight position. Yes. And then twist further and untwist and scooping in, controlling with the powerhouse. And two more. Make sure you're not using your quads. That's only going to prevent you twist, twist, twist long.

You want to feel the back of your thigh so you can stretch. Okay, here we go. Okay. Be aware of your knees. Are they rolling in and trying to help you, but that's not going to help you la. So twist further, ringing out that air. Arms. Trying to stay close to your ear and control backup for the last time and both arms extent and we're going to step off with beauty and grace.

All right, so the next exercise is pumping on knees. I'm going to turn my chair again. I don't think I need a pad at all for this one. Pull it back just a little and I'm going to keep it on one spring in the middle. Then we'll start switching springs. So pumping on knees, you're going to kneel up.

You might have done this more with an instructor holding you, holding your ankles and that's a great way to learn it, but it's also a great way to get a little too dependent. So even though I might sit back a little bit, I'm going to really challenge myself to do this exercise without someone holding my ankles. Your goal definitely is to keep your hips right, your knees. Here we go. We're going to draw those inner thighs. Lift the pelvic floor, lift up in the power house all the way to your fingertips. Yeah, and we're going to lift and in with the air and then roll off an imaginary wall going down, down, down to the pedal. Your knees are just a little shy of the front edge. K, keep trying to die down. If you sat back, I feel like I have. Then you're going to take your hips forward over those knees and lift up into a big C curve. Okay. Here we go in with the air and exhale and the slide back. Just a little monies and we're going to go down.

There we go. And curling up. And three more. Let's do four more. Okay. I'm trying to find my hamstrings to squeeze forward too, and one more and roll up your lower back, middle back, upper until you're all the way up. All right, great job. Now we're going to start switching some springs.

We're going to do the table neck, so we'll put one on the bottom as well. You have one middle already. Let's add a bottom so that we can work our bottom. Okay. Here we go. So we did this in our first class I believe, and we're going to put your hands, let's revisit it. How are we doing with it? Okay. Hands are on the back edge and I'm going to pull in my pelvic floor and lower belly and use the back of my thighs to lift into a nice table and give me 10 pulling up and two and three and four, five, six, seven bullet up, up and one more.

I wanted to do the last one a little steadier so there we go. Okay, pull up. We did this also in the first-class. Keep it on this spring low or put one top and one bottom like you did last time. I'm going to see what it looks like. Keeping it at one bottom, one middle. Working my way too. A little less tension. This is class seven so maybe we're getting a little more fit. Okay, so I'm going to use the earth and lift up always.

Again, the transitions are so important to get you into the right place and you really want to get a good c curve cause mountain climb is our next. And final exercise and you're going to want to make sure you have all the control in your powerhouse. Here we go. We're going to end with the air and we're going to exhale to pull up and down and exhale. [inaudible]. Wow, Paul, squeeze those inner thighs. Pelvic floor. Let's do one more and all the way down with the control. Okay?

All right. One foot down, hands to the back edge. Release the pedal other foot to the floor and you're going to roll up with always with the beauty and grace and we're going to switch our springs to one top, one bottom for mountain climbing. So we're going to drop, actually I have one spring on the bottom, so we're going to put one the middle spring, we're raising up to the top and we're going to grab a pad and we're going to put it on for right foot. And you guys ready for mountain climb? It's so much fun. You just have to really be in the mood for it and keep a good rhythm. All right.

Like I said, it's always important to start off correctly, so we're going to reach out, stretch through the body, and then curl down and exhaling. That breath is so important. That's why we went over it. Bring down the pedal in the for a second. Third-Class sorry. Dirt. All right, I'm going to put my right foot. Just a little turned out in between my sternum and my shoulder. Toes almost pointing to my shoulder. Just a tiny bit.

Turned out my hands are going to rest here and I'm going to try to pump my left knee above the chair in a nice c curve. You don't want to hold on for dear life. We're going to say eight counts pumping, eight counts to come up, eight counts holding it, eight counts coming down just in case I can't talk much while performing it. Okay, here we go. Nice c curve and let's go for eight. We're gonna go one, two, three. Working on my c curve said eight and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and hold and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight and curve two, three, four, five, six, seven. And eight other side foot down, left pad over. All right, my left hips, my weaker ones.

I'm going to really work to keep my hips squared while doing this. Hands here, scooping in left knee, right knee over the chair. Eight counts. Here we go. And we're one, two, three, four scoop, seven, eight and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and hold. And one, two, three stronger. Hips, six, seven, n a n damn upper back curve, middle back curve, lower back and eight and done. You're going to put your left foot on the pedal and well always end well. Bring your right foot down, left, pedal up, left foot down. Press the earth away with the balls of your feet.

Lifting all your weight in with their hand. Exhale, and you're ready for your day. See you in class number eight.