Quick Wunda Chair

Hi everybody, we are doing a wunda chair class today. We're gonna move kinda quickly, hopefully, and relatively strongly, so let's begin. I am using the balance body chair. As it is, I just have one of the four options, one heavy spring at the top as we warm up. So let's get started.

I like to just feel where I'm at, so I'm gonna lay down for one. I know that will go well. Join me, and essentially we're gonna do a pelvic curl with the feet on the bar. So I have the one spring on. Situate yourself and make your adjustments here in the beginning when you need to.

I think that it's a little challenging to know exactly where to start sometimes, especially if you haven't identified how you are on that day. So I'm just resting my feet, basically, and the arches of them on the bar. Body down, arms down, trying for length in my spine without effort. From there I just wanna roll my low back into the mat 'cause that just feels right and that's all. And I'm gonna release it, kinda edging the other direction, and noticing whether or not it's easy to stay in parallel.

My feet are just a little bit apart, say sits bones if you need a marker. Just rocking it back and forth. And let your body move, right? You don't have to hold or be all precise right now. And then later we'll give it our best shot, but even then.

Just kinda let things loosen up with some connection to your feet and the chair since that's what we're gonna play or dance or however you wanna look at it. Alright then, settle into what feels relatively neutral. I'm gonna inch myself closer 'cause I wanna put the heels on the bar instead. That's gonna be my anchor point. We may adjust it as we go.

We inhale. As you exhale, just feel the abdominals sink. It's okay to just take your time edging into this. Feel the bones drop in them. Now go ahead and keep going.

Roll up, keeping the toes toward the sky or slightly forward if your arches are still on, but find that long line where you feel the connection now, even though you're in the air, to the back of the body, the back of the arms, the back of the head and even your neck. Inhale. Melt your way back down. And I use melt in the term of allow, maybe is another way of saying it. Sink, fall, let it be, just get back down.

Let's do a few of those. Find some words for you that allow you to feel the back of your body. Roll up. Connect, connect, connect. That's sort of what doesn't happen on a typical action.

Inhale. And then here you're still connected to the back. It's a sense of deceleration, maybe, as you let the front of the body help you back down. Inhale at the bottom. I find my work, my practice, my work, workout is so much better when I start by becoming aware of the back of the body, so that's seemingly my focus all of a sudden.

And from the throat, now thinking about keeping the back engaged even as I use the front. I'm even thinking of slightly contracting once I hit the abs to place, set, put the bones back into the mat. Inhale and exhale up. Again it's not a heavy spring, so I theoretically could pull that bar. I'm intentionally not pulling that bar.

And that makes me feel my hamstrings more, ironically. And down. Collarbones wide, just feeling into the way my body is. Hopefully you are too. One more, exhale up.

When you get there, stay there, but take your time. Maybe encourage more from the back of your arms 'cause now, once you're there, nice straight line across the front of the body. Draw the feet down a little bit and keep the body where it is. Oh, hello. And let it back up with a little grace.

Pull the bar down, let it back up. Pull it down, okay. We're gonna know where they are, those hamstrings, the rest of the time. Let it be back up, stay up, and roll the body down. Now that you're there, you may need to, depending on your bar, move your feet a little bit.

I know where I'm going. I'm gonna draw the bar down, trying to keep the body still now on the floor. So from here, it's not gonna feel quite as light as it did a minute ago. We're gonna just draw down. Yep, there they are.

I didn't tuck, I didn't flare my ribs. And back up. Or I've tried not to anyway. Pull and up, and pull and up. Just tappin' into what I got.

Noticing tension where I do. Where do you feel it? Not the work, just the rest of your body. You can kinda chill out, to a degree. Do a few more.

Pull and release. Pull and release. Pull and release, so it's at the top, yeah? Next thing. We're just gonna leave the feet there for a second with the idea that we might pull.

Recruit what you need to. Do just about pull it, but don't. Take the arms out to the side, and then go ahead and just finish it. Go all the way to the back of your head with your hands. Lace the fingers together or hand over hand, either one, but let the elbows come off the floor and feel the weight of your head.

So we have that energy in the legs. We're gonna exhale curl the head, neck, and shoulders up. Try to leave your pelvis down a little. It's alright if it curls some. Just kinda minimizing that motion for a moment.

Inhale, hold. Exhale, stretch yourself back out. And exhale. It's lengthen through the crown of the head. You feel really, truly, curl the chin toward the chest first but then everything comes with it.

The more you engage the hamstrings, the better, or not better, the easier it is to kinda stay connected to abs. I'll prove it to you. Get it where you can actually draw the bar partway down like we did a moment ago. Theoretically you haven't tucked your pelvis. Take your inhale, hold that bar still, and exhale.

So I just pulled it like an inch down. And now curl up. Isn't it easier, in a way, except for now you feel your abs, maybe? And exhale down, leave the bar where it is. Inhale, so now we're anchored at the lower end of the body.

Upper body is doin' the work, or the motion I should say. Oh yeah, I could chill out up here for a while, now that my hamstrings are helping. Inhale, exhale back down. To make it interesting if you want, inhale, reach to the back of the legs. If not, just stay there.

Exhale, keep that bar still but bring yourself toward it. Ooh, don't lose the bar Kristy. Inhale take the arms up, keep the body where it was. Re-lace the fingers and take yourself back down. And exhale.

You could do this with your arches on. I don't 'cause I end up cramping and I use my lower leg too much. I want my abs to work more. Inhale, reach to the legs. Exhale, pull forward, not necessarily higher.

Inhale the arms straight up by your ears or even further back. Re-lace the fingers. Stretch yourself down. Just two more. You could always let the bar up but keep that intention of the back of the legs helping you.

Exhale. Inhale, reach to the legs. Exhale, pull forward. Inhale, stretch the arms up. Put 'em behind your head and exhale down.

I promised you two more, right? So this is that. Last one, but we'll add on. (laughs) Exhale up. Inhale, reach to the legs. Exhale, fall into it.

Sink the belly there. That's what's so nice about the breath there. Inhale the arms up. If you know Rael or me or Mary, you know where we're going. We're gonna exhale, rotate towards the front, towards me.

Inhale, stay high as you come to the center and go the other way. Inhale, come through the center. As you come towards me this time, press on the opposite heel more. Just a little, nothin' to see. Inhale, come through center.

Support your head. And reverse it so that when you rotate to the window, or away from the window I should say, that you are pressing on the back foot. Do two more. Really both of them of them are still working. Both hamstrings.

Just intensifying or focusing your energy. Back to the center. Inhale, reach to the back of the legs. Exhale, pull yourself into it. Maybe you're already there.

That's cool. Drive those heels down even more. The bar down. Arms up, keep them straight, take it all the way back with the arms. You can let the bar up with your feet.

This time, a little closer to the arches of your feet. It's possible we're gonna need to lighten this. I'm not entirely sure at the moment. I'm gonna try not to. Inhale.

As we exhale and pull the bar down, we start to peel up again. And push that bar to the floor. Next time we'll do it more gracefully. Go ahead and take the arms down by your side as well, so they came up and over. That'll be sort of the mechanics, only with more flow this time.

Inhale. As we exhale and roll down, we're gonna start to reach the arms. Gradually, about halfway down your back, start to slowly lift that bar up, and the arms go back. Small release. Inhale, start to re-contract the arms, the legs.

Peel yourself off, roll off. When you get about mid-back you can start to press the feet down more. Oh, it could be a little lighter for us, but let's just leave it. Inhale and exhale. Roll down.

Halfway let the bar up and reach the arms overhead. Last one like that. Inhale. Exhale. I'm finding with it, as heavy as it is, I can't be quite as fluid, so I'm drawing the bar almost halfway.

I peel up to match it and then I start to get a sense of how I can bring the rest in and hopefully land softly. This time keep your arms down at the mat. Spread out the collar bones. We're gonna just roll like we have been, slowly letting the legs back up. Not fully to the top but pretty close.

Actually go all the way. Go ahead, all the way. And then roll yourself up one more time. Just leave the bar up at the top, very top. Just don't push that chair away from you.

From there, we inhale, we exhale. Pick up the right leg. We stretch it to the sky and we reach it long towards the foot bar. Put the foot back on with a bent knee. Other side.

It's like a giant bicycle. Knee comes up, you stretch it, you reach it and you put it down. Again once more on each way, that's all. Reach it up, cycle it through. You can flex whatever feels good just to find that range through the hip, through the hamstring, through the stillness in the body.

Put the feet back on and roll yourself down. From there just hug the knees into the chest very briefly. Take your arms out to the T position, on the floor if you can, stretching long. Take the knees to the right. They can be 90, 90 exactly.

You could also bring them towards you a little bit. So it's not so much a leg exercise. Exhale bring them back to center. Other way. Inhale.

If that feels like a lot, you could put your feet on the bar, but this'll match some of the other exercises we do so let's give it a shot. Things I would watch for: that your knees are lined up, that you do lift right away from that opposite hip so that there isn't any sliding of the legs. Really it's almost as if they're one. And again. Some weight through the ribcage to bring it back.

And last one. And center. Hug the knees in again. You should feel centered. Sometimes I just have to adjust for that.

With your arms strong and without. I'm pulling my knees to me but pushing them away as well, the knees away. And then I find this sort of kinetic chain of energy that can be pretty stationary, pretty-- It's not stagnant, it's just held. Curl your head, neck, and shoulders up. From there extend your right leg.

For now I'll just kinda keep that other knee where it is. I'm sorry, extend your left leg. Just so I stay with you. And then switch. And switch.

And even here, I'm pressing the knee into the hand so I can sink to the belly. I can see it, I can prove it, and I know where I'm at. One more like that, we'll go a little quicker. Feel free to bring the knee closer as long as you can keep that energy. Pull, pull, exhale, inhale.

Check for tension where you don't need it. And now both knees in, hold it, press yourself into it a little bit. It's okay to lift the tailbone up. Go ahead, it's alright. Drop the tailbone down a little.

Make sure you're not so high your off your shoulders altogether and you're skipping your abs completely. Stretch the arms and legs away from each other. Exhale, circle round, hold. Again. Chair's just there.

It's a little bit of a marker though, isn't it? Reach, and pull. And reach and pull. Two more. Reach and pull.

One more. Reach and pull. Rock yourself up. If you grab the chair, good for you. It helps doesn't it?

Sit back a little bit. And I am gonna leave it exactly as it is, just as I planned. I'm straddling the chair a little. I'm thinking spine stretch, so you probably know that. If you don't it's gonna stretch your spine, but more than that it's gonna fill you up with air and you're gonna make a shape with your body to get the air out.

You'll have a subtle lean with the way that I'm doing this, just to touch the bar, but eventually we're gonna push the bar down. Let's just try it. Shoulders down. Before we go anywhere, try for a flat spine. It's okay to bed the knees, just don't turn the feet out.

And just press the bar down, one. Use the resistance in the upper arm to grow the spine. There is for me a subtle inward press on the chair itself with my inner thighs. That helps me too. Allowing everything I have in front of me, including me, to create a longer spine and more space.

Then from there, you might have to reach forward a little more, we're going to draw the hipbones back, press the bar down. It gets heavier, it gets heavier. Keep those toes up, and then inhale back up. And if you don't get far with it, 'cause it is kinda heavy in that position, it's okay. Just find that sense of my hipbones are almost drawing back.

I'm not trying to lean back. It's just enough to get that sense of I'm longing the spine to make this happen, and sit back up. Don't let it throw you, you're in charge. And again. And up one more time.

And up. Great. While we're here, what I want to take us into is just a little bit of a back extension. So we're gonna come down onto our abdominals, so just turnaround so your feet are now behind you where your head just was. And you're positioning yourself where you can reach the pedal, wider than your shoulders a little bit.

Having said that now, that's our positioning. You're gonna take your arms down by your side. Let's get a little more warmed up in our back before we head into that. By your side, I meant to say elbows by your side. Your hands are by your shoulders.

Your forehead may or may not be on the floor. But you are basically down. From there we drag the forearms back toward the hips. They're not gonna move much, but you might feel the sensation of the crown of the head going toward the springs of the chair. Look toward those springs.

Start to look up into the belly of the chair. Apply pressure on your arms when you want to, but keep those legs reaching. if they're not doing anything you're gonna feel this in your back right away. Go only part way up, and then same thing. Pull yourself forward through that chair, come down, and make it sequential.

You know what I mean there, I think. If not, it's like a string of pearls. Looking forward, that first pearl, the second pearl, the spine is the pearl necklace. And add pressure with the arms, take 'em out when you can. But whatever you do, you don't wanna lose the backside of that body.

We did that for a reason. The more engaged it is, the easier it is to feel where you want. It might shorten your range but that's alright. Who cares about that. Let's get what we need.

And down. Good. From there, take a break if you need it. I'm gonna carry on. Reaching those arms forward, if you have a stick or a split pedal you can go wider.

Try for the chair itself, when you can. You may have to back up. Same idea, only this time your arms are straight. We start to, without much pressure on the bar, we look forward. We start to rise up.

When you can't go anymore, you can start to add some pressure on the bar. Pull it down. It's not about the height of your back, it's about finding that balance between that resistance and the flexibility of your spine. Stretch those shoulders up, let 'em up. Re-drop the shoulders, or let 'em glide down really.

They don't have to do much. Look forward. Not much going on. There's some help, really, isn't there? And then you can add some resistance.

And down. That stretch is almost the best part, isn't it? Right here. Be gentle though. And certainly if you find that it's too heavy to do anything or it's too high because of the spring, lower the spring and don't go so high.

Stay up here. And just the arms, just a little. Try to keep the body still. Elbows straight. Just one more, two if you want, but I'm going down.

All the way, take that stretch. Let the hands leave the bar. When you feel like you've settled a little, help yourself into child's pose or a rest position. And we'll come on up. We're gonna sit on the chair, so for the sake of our work, I'm gonna move the mat.

We won't use it for a bit. Okay, so, been a bit ab-centric so far, so let's straighten out our back. Let's use our legs and our arms and just get on with it. We were at the one high spring. I'm adding the second spring.

Again, I'm on balanced body. Of the four, I use the two heavy ones. And this one I'm gonna challenge my legs a bit, at least for this first part. A warning. So I have it on one at the top and then the second heavy one is just one down from the top.

I should warn you that we are gonna do some, not mountain climbing, but we're gonna do some step-ups I call 'em. So you can adjust as we go. Sitting near the front edge, find your straight spine or feel for it even if you don't find it. And arms in front, one arm over the other. Push the bottom one into the top and the top into the bottom so you can use that as a leverage.

Press down, pull up. Press down. Couple more. Down. Go all the way down.

You can use your hands to make the transition to the balls of the feet. I'm in parallel. Heels are up, not to your full high point. To that point that you know you have to support your ankle so that the energy gets transferred right through the ankle to the rest of you. Arms behind your head.

You could do lots of things here. If you have a magic circle feel free. I'm down on two, and up, and three. Two more. Next one, push it down all the way.

Swivel, touch the heels together. Arms out, palms up. Try for directly off your body. And again press down and up. It's worth a look down that you don't overly widen the knees beyond the toes.

Let's go for five more from now. One, two, press three, four, you know what to do. Hold it down, hands down, heels wide on the bar. Adjust as you might need to, to know you're on your sit bones. And then from here, let's just take the hands to the back.

Be mindful of the ribs, you wanna keep 'em with you. And press down and up, down and up. You can lift the arms. All sorts of things here, right? You can be the boss of that.

Really focusing on that center column as the legs do the work. I'm gonna keep you going, I know I'm getting near ten. Focus a little more on the right leg. Focus on the left leg. Can you, what Judith Aston might call feather it?

That's not quite what I'm doing, but can you sort of almost circle it? Right, left. Right, left. Hold it somewhere. Let it up.

Left, right. Just an emphasis. We used to do that in spin class. Ooh, you can tell my weak side. You can hear it, can't you?

Just playing with it, playing with what is. No harm in that. Hold it down when it feels okay. Now that we've done that, the brain's doing somethin' up there that might feel like it's gonna be more balanced. As we level back out, I'm on the balls of the feet.

Arms, pick one. I like the one behind my head, 'cause I've been on the computer a lot. Down, up. Keep it even. Feel even.

Take your time. I slowed down a little on purpose. Just get around 10, 15, somethin' like that. Feel into it. Soften the toes.

How about five more together? One and up, and two, up. Three and up, four. Go all the way down. Boom.

Stand up. If it's down, you're okay, right? You know where it is. Swivel around. This will be easy for some of you.

In other words if it was already heavy for the legs, it's gonna help you on this one. If you wanna challenge yourself, I'm still talking, hurry. Come back. If you wanna challenge yourself with this weight, go the arches of your feet, tuck your pelvis. Head down for the pike.

Exhale, up. Try not to just toss yourself. Get up there to the very top of your spring tension. Slowly peel yourself down, almost all the way. Check your collarbones, keep 'em wide.

Up. And down. And up. Remember how we started class, how we pushed on that bar? You can do that here.

You don't need the edge of the heel. You can use your feet to simply think about contracting or pushing that bar away from the springs as an idea. One more time, up, up, up, up, up. Way up, way up, way up. And down.

Secure yourself. I'm gonna step up with right foot, so I backed up my left foot to the ball of the foot. We know we'll have to adjust. Take that foot pretty forward. Meaning not back here, right?

You want it to be real secure. Try to keep it parallel if you can. Try for straight out of the hip. Here we go. Driving energy through that forward foot, however, you wanna think of that hamstring on this back leg.

If it's just the forward leg, it's just not fun. Up, up, up. Stop. I know you wanna keep going. We will.

But check something. Are you popping that hip out to the side? Get it back in line so that you, when, go ahead. You can step all the way up. You can even grab the chair for help.

You don't have to, but you can, right? Take care of yourself. Same thing going down. This is the hard part on these kinda chairs with all that space. You're gonna find it, you're gonna wobble.

You're gonna trust yourself. You're gonna hinge only when you need to. Then, you're gonna find the back of that leg and put some weight on it Yeah, it doesn't have to be pretty. Ask Dana. She says find the ugly, it's okay.

Overlook the ugly. Okay, up, now you know. Take your time, you know you're there. You're at the end of your range. Carry on, up.

You can have your arms out, you can have 'em behind your head. Behind your head's a little harder, it's up to you. And we find the chair. Pay attention to what's happening. Take your time.

You could have the handles here. We don't. We almost get to the bottom. We know we have some help here. So it's almost like a scissoring of the inner thighs.

It's not just that forward quad. And up. You're tall. You wanna try a couple with your hands back? Hmm, I'm not so sure know that I'm up here.

You decide. Okay, I found it, right, I'm not so tall. Now that I'm there, I can use that back leg. Now I got some support. I'm trying to go down pretty straight.

I go up as straight as I can until I have to, in my case, slightly hinge. Most of us do, I think. I don't know, I'll work on it. And last one to go down and up, and I suppose back down again. Now forget the legs for a second before you go.

Recommit to the front of your body too. It doesn't mean round, it just means oh right, it's gonna help me too. Now it all works together. Ahh, we're there. We're going down to switch legs.

Take your time. Don't get over it yet. Graceful, or at least strong. Whatever you wanna focus on. You're down, hands down.

Switch. Make it work. Meaning make it feel secure. Nothing feels good when you're insecure. And if it happens, you don't wanna push through that, you wanna find out what it is and deal with it.

I heard myself, up we go. Ooh, back of that leg, back of that leg. I realize why I chose the leg I did to start with. This is a different leg. Remember how we held the chair to find our bearings?

We let our arms do what they need to. We found that chair. We don't have to look down, 'cause that's a whole different issue. Do if you need to, of course, but just know it's gonna be hard to re-orient. And maybe don't come all the way off.

Back of that leg, I promise you it helps. Up, up, up. Step into it. Work that gluteneous, especially right here, the hardest part, when you don't know where you're gonna land, right? The hips cocking out to the side, you bring it back.

Maybe not by dropping it, but by raising the other one. Somewhere in here, I think we did three more. Somewhere in here we started to play with what do we want to challenge ourself with arms. I think on this side I'll go to the side. So badly wanna tell you why this side's hurt.

I'm not going to. But we all have our things and who knows why. Let's just see what we can do. Ahh, that feels good. We're gonna do one more down, up, down, like before.

Adjust where you can. Allow for the corrections. I think I'm teaching myself a lesson on this exercise today. If I just listen to me every now and again. Up, oh that's a lotta work for that leg.

And down. And we're down. Okay. Not so bad. So now, we're still here, same springs.

Turn to face me. We're doing our side lift. And actually the thing we have to do is switch our feet. So, I'm putting the leg closest to the chair seat in front. Yes.

And then the other foot is just backed up. If your foot bar doesn't accommodate the full distance of both feet, you can turn 'em out. No big deal. I'm gonna encourage you to put more weight on that front leg, so if anything, you want that front leg more back. So this one just eventually comes off.

We're not doing that today. (laughs) Alright, so, in my case I'm facing you. If you're looking and just watching, I've got my right arm over the edge, other arm here, just as I mirror you. And really, the way we're doing it, the way Rael taught me and the way I really like to practice it is not to be turned towards it, but rather as square to it as I can. And not over here, but even as over my wrist as possible. And more so as I go up.

Alright, remember the hamstring thing? Never more important in everything we've done so far. We're gonna allow those arms to just be our support, just like a buttress almost or a steel rod. Head down and you're round and you push it down. Stay close to that chair.

It's almost like levitating with this much weight if you really let yourself be strong in the legs and the arms and just exhale, let your back be flexible. Let yourself be flexible. Up, up, up, up, up, get that hip up, up, up. How about one more time? Don't lift the outside leg or the back leg, just think about how you might.

Don't do it, not yet. Let's practice that. And come on down. Yes. I will not forget the other side, I will not forget the other side.

I will not forget the other side. Sit down. Spiral. Fingers face your heels, if you can. If you can't, you can turn 'em sideways.

From there, we're gonna turn the feet into the frogger position. Press down. Wow the lighting is so pretty out there right now. Even in the parking lot. Press down.

Then, when you lift your hips up, you don't sink into the shoulders at all, you just came off. From there, bend your elbows but keep the shoulders away from your ears. You don't have to go super low. Oh, now your legs are working, right? Imagine, don't do it, don't try really, but imagine you were gonna pick your palms up off the chair.

Then push 'em back in, lift your heels up actually. And now you can move your elbows up, and down. The diamond or the frog leg position doesn't change. Yeah, I know it's putting the other side at a disadvantage but we don't need our arms for that side pike, so just come on. Let's do five more.

One, stretch out the front of the shoulders. Two, don't go too wide on those knees. Three. Press up. Four.

Here's five. You can push the feet down. Sit down. Once you've got it pinned and if you're just sitting here, if you just swivel the front leg, the legs are gonna be right where they want. The leg closes to the chair is in front.

I kinda like to lean into the chair 'cause the minute I get started I try to pull away from it. And we're not gonna do that. We're gonna stay as close as we can. Arms are turned out. We've allowed the shoulders to be rounded.

Okay, I talk about straight collarbones a lot, but in this case, they're still pretty straight, but let that space between the shoulder blades fill up. Here we go. Inhale, start the exhale. I'm not using my fingers. I'm using the breath to get up.

And inhaling, down. My arms, when you first start this, you really feel like you have to use your arms. Ultimately if they stay straight, they become just support systems for the rest of the energy that travels through the middle of your body. Three. And down.

If you think about the back of your legs like we did in the beginning, it'll help. It makes it more fun, even, I promise, at least for me. I'm gonna do two more. One might be enough to even us out, but I wanna go one more with the sense of leaving that foot bar down. I'm not, but I'm thinkin' about it.

Right. So, the foot bar is down. We're gonna swivel once again to sit down. Hands in the same position. Legs in the same position.

Different action though. We push up out of the chair, we come off it. Allow yourself to bend a bit. And then, pick up the bar. Push it down.

Pick up the bar. If you can, it's more of an image probably than reality, think of pushing yourself out away from the chair so that you're really stretching through the front, and not just leaning back here to easily move your legs. Try to get out there, and then legs down, legs up. Legs down, legs up. Legs down, legs up.

Five more. One, two, I can get down lower, can you? Three, and pull the feet higher, and that's probably five. Sit back on the bar. You can let the bar up carefully.

Come around to the back, undo a spring. We're gonna go into the more like the full swan, maybe even the full swan, we'll see. Let's take off the lighter of the springs, or if you had 'em both heavy, take off one. You may find you have to adjust that and have a little bit of more or less. So, I'm gonna get a pad, you might want a pad for your hip bones, a towel.

You might not need it at all, but I'm gonna get one. It's just comfortable. I don't mind workin' out and being comfortable, so that I can actually focus on what we're working. The pad is really because I'm gonna place the edge of the chair right around the edge of the ASIS, right, the hip bones. And I almost hook them there, and there's a certain amount of relaxation the abs have to have and a certain amount of support they have to have, so this one's a little tricky.

We have tons of other options where you're not hanging off the edge here. Here it goes. Play with it. So, in my mind, my hips are just behind this edge. I pin the bar down and then I go, oh, okay that's not gonna work, I have to come a little bit more forward.

Almost feels a little funny and scary. Then, as I straighten my legs and lift, I bend my elbows, arch my upper back, my whole spine really, of course. And look forward til I find a bit of a balanced position. That's where that pad can help. From there, for now, I just wanna push the bar down and up.

The legs matter in this a lot. Everything matters. The back of the leg just like we started. Think of lifting your chest, not for the sake of height, for the sake of counterbalancing what your legs are doing. Then let your arms go almost, well totally straight, but maybe not to the floor.

Keep the legs straight, rise up, up, up. And right back down, legs go up. Bend and straighten 'em. One, two, if you start to fall off the front you gotta fix it. That's all there is too it.

I've gotta fix it. Rise up, legs, legs, legs! And down, dip just before you touch. And press, press, use your head. And I mean that totally. Straight arms, all the way up.

Keep the arms straight this time, just go down to straight body. Come up again. And down. We can do one more. And down.

When you know you've done it. One hand back to the chair, let your feet come off the back. Give yourself a little stretch if you need. Or, even if you don't it feels good. Why not?

Let yourself come up. I'm gonna move the pad. You can use it if you need it. And we'll just do a quick stretch. Let's take one knee up.

And you can adjust this. The more, I don't know, what is that, square the shin is, the deeper the stretch maybe? So you can adjust this. Make it feel good. I'm trying for this outer hip.

That might be enough (laughs), turns out. But I'm gonna try for more, so I'm gonna back up the leg behind me that I'm standing on. It's okay to be on the ball of the foot. And I'm thinkin' about that foot bar. I'm not sure I'm gonna get it today, but this feels good.

You can hinge into it more. Ooh. I can see it. Can we find it? It's okay, your back can round.

It's gonna round. Oh, that's interesting to me. And it doesn't really benefit me to go over it more on the back of the foot so I'm just gonna hang out here and see what I can get. If you can push that bar down and relax into it, I'm invitin' you to do that and encourage you to. I'm gonna hang out up top so I can find some freedom for not trying so hard.

Nothin' to do here except for feel supported, other than that area you're tryin' to let go. I feel like I just wanna hang out here, but I'm gonna move us on, knowing that you can come back to it as soon as the video ends. Let's just switch sides, same thing. Might be different. It will be different, I guarantee you that.

But, let's see what it is. Feels like it was the same position and that was doin' nothin' so I'm gonna go for more of that parallel position with the shin and the front edge of the chair. Aah, yeah. Finding the bar, and rather than focusing on, "Oh, I must go forward," maybe you just go oh, here I am and I can reach out into this hip. I can pull back into what I already have.

And find some stretch. Once you feel like you're finding it, relax into it. (train whistle blows) Breathing into it, not just for the sake of saying that, but for knowing that every time you exhale your body does let go a little bit more just by virtue of all the mechanics that go with it, if you let it, of course. Okay, like I said you can come back to that if you wanna end with me, help yourself off, and do help yourself. And then, let's just call it a day on that.

Thanks.