Quick Reformer Flow

Okay. How many of you have zero time for yourself to workout? So we're going to use the jump board and this magical circle to maximize our experience in a short amount of time. I have got the jump board set up, it's not gonna go anywhere, it's gonna stay there the whole time, have the box ready, ah, there it is. The box is over here.

Awesome, I was just shocked that it wasn't where it usually is, and I have springs set up. Three red springs, and we're just gonna start lying down. So lie down. Let's go a little wide today with the feet and just rest the ring in between the knees. Let the head come down and let the arms come down, then we're just gonna rock the pelvis and we're gonna press into the circle, and tip the pelvis up, and then roll the pelvis down.

So it's not a full pelvic roll, it's just a little curl. A mini curl, just a shifting, a bringing, a way of bringing awareness inwards and energy inwards. Just that gathering in of the inner thighs to press into the circle, and then flattening and curling of the pelvis. And then the peeling down of the pelvis, and then the release of the circle. Let's do that three more times.

Press and curl, just getting some mobility in the spine. And then peel back down and release. And again, inhale, and press and curl, and inhale, and release. If you enjoy the circle between your legs, keep it there. What I'm gonna do as we head into our full bridge is to put the circle on the outsides of my thighs.

I'm not trying to stretch the circle. I'm just using it for placement. We're gonna inhale. Gonna exhale and peel the pelvis up, so now I'm getting full spinal mobilization, rolling all the way up on to the shoulder blades. Inhale.

And exhale, rolling down. I'm actually thinking about yes, holding the circle in my knees, but trying almost to bring my thighs away from it slightly. Does that make sense? You can't all the way, or the circle will move. You wanna keep the carriage still.

And inhale, and exhale. The feet press down into the jump board, the spine reaches out, we let one vertebra up at a time come up. Lift up high, inhale. Exhale, think of starting from the throat. And then laying the upper spine down, curving in middle of the spine.

Check in with your shoulders there. That's when they typically wanna lift up. Just let them be soft. Resting. And then we peel the body all the way down.

And we'll just do two more. Inhale, and exhale rolling up, up, up, long, strong arms. Inhale. And exhale to come down. Enjoy that.

I don't know if I've said this before, if you've heard me say this before, but if you ask me what my favorite Pilates exercise is, I think it's this. I really do. Yup, the pelvic curl. So nuanced. There's just a lot to look for here.

And there's a lot of really great exercises, as well. I never do anything without doing a pelvic curl. If I only had to do one thing, I would do the pelvic curl. And then we release all the way down. Gonna take the ring out from underneath the feet.

Stick it back in between the knees, bring the feet together, hands just on the handles, or what I like to do, if you have the shoulder flexibility, is to externally rotate the shoulders and hold on to the frame. We're gonna inhale, take the knees over in one direction. Press into the circle with the lower leg, and come center. Inhale, take the legs in the opposite direction. Press into the circle with the lower leg and pull center.

Inhale. Lower leg presses in, abdominals engaged. Hard to kind of let any body part not have something to do when you got a circle to take advantage of. Inhale, over, and exhale, back. And inhale, over.

And exhale, back. Lift your head and chest. Take the circle in your hands, bringing the knees together. Curl up nice and high, inhale, take the legs out over the jump board, circle goes way back. Exhale, pull in.

Inhale, legs go out, circle goes way back. Exhale, pull in. And reach. Can't go too low with the legs 'cause jump board's in the way, but you can go where you can. If you're tired, you could even slide your legs along the jump board and then lift them off as you come in.

This actually feels, I like that. Press down into the jump board, and pull in. We'll do three more. Reach, and pull. Reach, and pull.

Reach, and pull. Stay here. Just set the ring right at the base of the skull. Curl a little higher, elbows wide, head heavy. Send the right leg out, left leg out.

Right leg, maybe press it down, just lightly tapping the jump board with the back of that thigh. And we go five. The straight leg's like an arrow, it shoots away. It's energized. Last two.

One more. And then we go criss-cross, elbow to knee, elbow to knee. Straight leg grazes the jump board. Lift and rotate. All right, now, warming up quick.

You gotta move quick, you gotta work hard right away when you have a short amount of time, if that's the kind of thing you want for your body today. If it's not, you woulda shut the computer off as soon as you saw the jump board. Here we go, find the center, and rest. Take the jump board. Ugh, that's not a jump board, that's a magical circle.

Take the magic circle in your hands, press out. So we're just gonna hold it above us. And what I want you to think about is using the circle here just to help you, so we're just gonna lightly press on it, and when you press on it, the press is gonna come from the upper arms. I want you to take that energy from the upper arms through the circle, and all way into the trunk. Gonna lift the heels.

Bend the knees, not all the way 'cause we wanna lower the feet down all the way, and press out. Let's go the other way. Bend the knees, notice where you can go before your heels wanna lift, that's your limit. Roll up onto the toes, press out. Bend, estimate where that limit is, and heels come down.

And press, lift, bend, find the heels, and press. It's an articulation of the foot. Bend, heels down, and press. Heels together, toes apart, just getting the legs warmed up. Gonna bend, find where the heels can stay together.

Press point, bend, heels come down, and reach. Bend, heel connection, press point. This is kinda the foot mechanics that you're gonna wanna be organizing around. We'll do three more. Press point, bend, roll through the foot and press out, bend.

Oh yeah, you're holding the ring, and not just sloppy arms. And we press into the ring, and one more. Lower the heels, and down. So come all the way, and then notice, when you come from, for me anyway, when you come from the place where you can get your heels to stick to all the way in, the heels rise quite a lot. And we're actually not gonna come that far in.

Roll up, unless you wanna jump with three springs, in which case, go ahead and stay laying down. I'm 'onna change to a red and a blue spring. You can choose the spring to your liking. That's a good spring for me. And put my head rest up, I like to see what my feet are doing.

And then we're gonna hold that ring, and we're gonna see if we can keep it still. Here we go. Bend the knees, find your limit, hug the ring, push, land. Push, try to get that toe-ball-heel connection really solid. Press.

Each time you push out, each time you jump, you press into the ring. We'll do four, three, two, one. Heels together, toes apart, press. And squeeze, from the hips, from the waist. Two more.

One more. Alternate those foot positions. Parallel, and open. And open. And parallel.

Is your circle moving around? I'm trying to keep my circle very still. Rotating from the hip as you make the change. Breathing. Four, four, three, strong arms.

Two, two, one, one. Back to parallel. One leg comes off. And one. And two. And three.

Absorbing the impact of the spring. Breathing, stillness in the arms. Two. Change. Really find that full roll of the foot.

Easy landing on the jump board. Keeping that bent leg all the way still. Two more. Alternate. You stretch the legs, meet in the middle.

Legs meet in the middle. It's hard for me to think of what to say and do all of the things, so stick with me, we're doing a few more. Gotta coordinate all the arms, the legs. Last two. One, one.

Both feet land. Oh, yeah. Come all the way up, take the red spring away, come up onto your knees, and then bring the strap that's closest to the front, or the closest to the front of the reformer, and hook it so it goes across the front of the magic circle. So once you're here, just holding yourself in this center line can be a little tricky, but you can do it. We're gonna unwind, let the spring pull, inhale.

Then exhale, find the center line. Inhale, unwind. Exhale, find the center line. And three. And now hold.

So now we're gonna come from the center line, oh, not quite there, am I? From the center line over and center. So you pull the spring, and then you decelerate, center. One more time like that. Over, and now we're gonna do full range, so from one side all the way across and all the way back.

All the way across, and all the way back. One more. All the way across, and all the way back. Reach down. Set the strap down.

Let's just take that stretch. I'm just holding my circle 'cause it's in my hand and I don't wanna put it on the floor. Just put my hand on the, what is that? That's a shoulder block. I'm letting the ring just rest in my hand and pull.

Then while I'm there I'll hang my strap up and turn sides. Gracefully turning sides. Okay. We take the strap, and the ring goes right at this where the ribs connect together, and then you wrap around the ring, just like that. And then we go from there.

We de-rotate, keeping the pelvis squared, and then center. De-rotate and center. Turn out all the way, and center, and then from center, to the front, and back. To the front, working from the waist, please. One more.

And then three full range. All the way over, all the way across. Ooh, man. Second side, never the same. That's okay.

Last time. It's just real. 'Kay. And then when do we go to hang the strap up, take it off the ring and hold the ring in your hand, reach down, put your hand down on the shoulder block, and take the arm and reach overhead, get a nice big stretch. Yes.

And then hang the strap up while you're there. Put a red spring on and remove the blue, or a full spring. Gonna bring the ring in between your thighs. It's a little tricky to get it there, but you'll do it. And then we're gonna bring the knees up against the shoulder blocks.

Just having the ring in the thighs, we're already having to use our adductors. You're welcome, full body workout. Here we go. Arms straight, spine long, ribs down, pull the arms back. And (exhales) Feel that you're growing long through your spine.

Up, and up, and reaching arms down. Oh, and don't forget to squeeze the ring. And we'll do three, and two, and one. Sit down. Put the straps away.

Remove the ring. I'm 'onna switch to a blue spring. Put the ring back in. Grab your straps. Okay.

And then we take the arms up, and open. And up. Your inner thighs will thank us both tomorrow. And up. And open.

So we scoop up the air like energy, and then we let it go out to the sides. And one more time. And then we scoop up the air like energy. And then we ease the arms down in front of us. Keep the carriage moving right away as your arms come out to the side.

If your carriage doesn't move as your arms move out to the side, chances are, I just saw a dolphin. Chances are, they're too far behind you. So bring the carriage move right away. Thank you for coming to play with us, dolphins. And we'll do two more.

And back. And one more. Keep the arms here. First fingers and thumbs together. Pull the scapula down, stretch the arms up.

Pull the scapula down, stretch the arms up. You're still squeezing your circle, right? You have to, to hold it there, so I think you must be. Good. And we go up, and bend.

And up, and bend, just two more times. Elbows wide. Scapula wide. Straight up with the hands and then take the arms out. Now hang the straps back up, take the ring out from between your legs, carefully, and set the red spring up again.

So now we're back on a red spring and a blue spring. Okay, so we're gonna jump again. Mm-hmm. Fun. Lie down.

Feet are gonna be in turn out, in first position, or small V position, or however you know that position. Those are my words for it. Gonna bend, or the words that I've been taught. Then do some crossing of the thighs. So we're gonna jump, right leg crosses left.

Left leg crosses right. Try again, as you're landing, to get that full, full range through the feet. So we let the heels come all the way down. Oh, and then what happens to the idea of keeping that ring nice and still. And we'll do four, four.

Three, three. Two. One, one. And yes, let the heels come up and rest. That's mostly just a rest for me.

If you don't need one, thank you for offering that to me. Now we're gonna do opening, so we're gonna open and land. Nice and concise. Keep the ring still. Like you're pushing something through space.

Out and then back. Out and then back. Out and then back. Gonna go four, three, two, one. Now a special special movement for you skiers out there.

It's ski season, yes it is. It's ski season, so we're gonna do some slaloms. So we jump and then we twist. And twist. And twist, oh yeah, keep the ring.

Your legs nice and ready for your skiin'. 'kay, we're going to five, five. Four, four. Three, three. Two.

And one, one. Stretch. Land. Rest your arms. Come up.

Let's let the ring just rest on the carriage for now. Gonna go back to a red spring, one full spring. And then we're just gonna take the knee up against the shoulder block. We're gonna drop the hip down. Stretching those muscles we've just worked so hard, lifting the chest up, breathing.

Take the left arm or the same arm as the leg on the carriage, lift it up and stretch to the right, or to away. And then come back through center. Then come in. And then we can just walk around. I'm taking the knee up against the shoulder block.

Just taking the carriage out, lowering the body low, nice and low, lifting the chest up and back, breathing. Same side arm as carriage reaches up and we go over. Stretch. And then come back and come back in. And we keep that same spring, and keep the ring where it is.

You're gonna come up, onto the reformer. Come down into a long, flat spine, lifting the tailbone up and back, lift the toes, heels go back on the inhale and in on the exhale. And back on the inhale, and in on the exhale. And back on the inhale, and in on the exhale. And we'll just do two more, so stretching the back of the legs, we just stretched the front of the legs.

One more time. Back, and in. Take the right leg off the jump board, up, around behind you and down, so just opening up the waist, the hip, the spine, the inner thighs. Come back around. Step in.

Other leg comes up and around, goes behind you and down. Whoa, and keep the carriage still in there. Little squirrely there. And then reach up and come back around. And then just step off.

I'll just rest the ring on the floor for a minute. I'm gonna hook up the springs, put enough spring on there to create some support, we're gonna take the foot strap up. Yes, you know it. Yes, you do. Side-overs coming up.

All right now, and we're gonna do them with the ring and here's how it's gonna go. So we're gonna go up onto the box, foot underneath the strap, come out, find your position, take the ring just in front of the chest. We're gonna go inhale, and exhale, press one. Inhale, exhale, press two. Inhale, exhale press, three.

And special surprise, arms overhead. Inhale, exhale lift, one. Inhale, exhale, lift two. Can we do one more? Right at the edge.

Exhale, lift three. Hand comes down. What do we do with the ring? We'll put it down on the floor. (ring clatters) Oh yeah, that was loud, sorry about that.

Reach over, arm comes overhead. Gonna stay here for a minute. Sending the leg towards the jump board and the arm in the opposite direction. And maybe you wanna let your pelvis roll backwards slightly. Might feel nice.

And maybe you wanna rotate towards the reformer, stretch forward. Or maybe we could take both hands over towards the right, or over towards the same side, the bottom side of the body. Yep, and then back. You'll need your circle for the other side, so get it. Turn around.

So we started with the circle up in front of the chest. We go down and up, one. Straight line. Inhale, press, squeeze two. Inhale, press, squeeze three.

Not a special surprise anymore, but definitely special. Arm overhead. Inhale, oh, it's heavy, and up. Inhale, and up. Last one.

Inhale, and up. And there you can just reach down, set the ring down, reach over. Find your stretch. Taking the opportunity to perhaps have a few breaths here. Open the hip up, rolling the hip away from the front arm.

Then coming back. And going down, taking that rotation, maybe pulling forward. Then bringing the arm across the body, holding on to the other end. All right. And then you can help yourself up.

And foot can come away. Box can go away. If you're a Pilates teacher, you like to make sure everything's lined up nicely, and that's what was happening just then. We're gonna go back to one spring. You could do heavier, if you want.

One's a good amount for me. Maybe a green, if you have that option. Then take the roller off the, that's not a roller, it's a magical circle. Take the magical circle off the floor. Wherever you put it, put your feet up against the shoulder blocks.

And what I want us to do, is I want us to bend over so that the arms are gonna be straight, and just might take a little organizing. The ring's pretty up close to the knees, and then we're trying to find a nice flat back. So I'm not resting on the roller, I'm almost trying to lift off it. I'm just using it for spacing. And take the elbows out to the sides, pull the abdominals in, and stretch.

Take the elbows out to the sides, pull the abdominals in, and stretch. So the ring's helping me support that nice flat spine position. Reach and stretch. Lifting through the thoracic spine slightly, and then take the left hand down just in front of the circle, bend, stretch the right arm. Keep the circle upright.

Bend, and stretch. Inhale, and exhale, put the left arm back. Don't shift around in the circle. Right hand down. That's the hardest part, that transition.

And press, not leaning. Hopefully I'm not leaning. It's hard to see. And both arms down are gonna bend. We're gonna lift the thoracic spine like you're gonna try to press the circle out from underneath you.

And then press back out. Bend. Lift the thoracic spine, moving the circle forward. Neutral. Straighten one more time.

Bend, arch, neutral, and then all the way in. Take the circle off. Put the hands onto the jump board. Press the hips forwards Inhale, down stretch. Lift so you get a full arc in the spine.

And press the carriage away. And lift, I'm trying to stretch my jump board. I'm trying to pull it apart. And, down. And, up.

And just two more. Abdominals are working to support you. Hamstrings work to support you. And up. And one more.

And all the way in. Lighten up on the hands, reach the arms up, continue to press the pelvis forward and arc back. Arms come around, body comes up. And whatever you're doing that's making you so busy, you can go back to it. Hope you had fun, I did.