Day 7: Hands, Wrists, & Arms

Welcome back to Palladio's play day seven. Today the focus is the hands, the wrists, and the arms and the relationship to the rest of the body. I think oftentimes the hands are kind of forgotten about. Yes. While I'm speaking to you, I want you to circle your risks and see what happens in the rest of the body as you circle your wrists and your arms. So I think it's important that sometimes we pay attention to what the hands are doing and various different movements. And that's what we're going to do today. Try shaking.

Notice when you shake the rest of your body loosens up shaking the hands. Now try shaking the shoulders and notice how loose your arms are. So a little playing around, a little loosening up goes a long way. Let the whole body loosen the head, the jaw, and Blah. Yeah. So now spend a few moments here. Circling your two hands.

You can use your hands. You can circle the risks, however it makes sense to you. Now go the other way. The rest of the arm is moving, the elbow is moving and I actually feel sensation through my entire body. So be aware. Yeah. Now Bend one arm and then bend the other arm. Now Ben, one arm and then take with the other hand and see if you can kind of measure how bent your elbow is and perhaps even try bending a little more and just sorta see what that feels like and what it looks like. And then the other side. So for me there is a profound difference between my two sides.

I can't even get my arm into position, my hand into position to pull myself into the stretch there. So that shows me something. There's either tightness in the joint or the muscles around the joint. Today we're going to play with and work on that. So I've got my reformer set here for footwork and I do intend to use the box.

So please have yours available and you're going to have a seat with your feet in like a your legs in like a diamond shape and just sit nice and tall and return to this idea of hands, wrists, arms circle. Yeah, getting this little pop in my left wrist, I'm hoping it's gonna work out, but if it doesn't, it doesn't. Clasp your hands together. Notice which thumb is on top change. Does that feel weird? Hmm. Go back the other way. So stick with the way that it feels the most awkward.

And then take a figure eight. So I'm creating a figure eight or an infinity sign with my risks. And as I do that, I'm going to roll myself back and use my core, my knees come together and hopefully I have this spot where I can hit the shoulder rest and be slightly supported and then roll myself back up, open the knees and keep that same direction. Figure eight going, just kind of see how that feels rolling back. Do check in and make sure that you're breathing, but I don't really care when. Just make sure there is some breath. At some point be using my shoulder rest, using my hands, using my risks, using my arms and actually following my hands a little bit with my eyes.

One more time. Okay. So I'm [inaudible] going to keep this same class but try to reverse the figure eight. So instead of going over, I'm going to go under and under and my dear friends, whoa. That is actually quite hard for my brain to do and I know it may not look pretty and I'm okay with that. Yeah. So we'll go back two more times. Just feel that to Tuck the tas.

I'm holding my hand and I forgot us my way. There we go. Maybe you'll lose your way too. That's all right. I found it again and back. Just one more time and then let the legs open and open the arms as well. Spread the fingertips wide. Shake the head a little [inaudible] roll back, knees together. Touch all five fingers and open. Sitting nice and tall and roll back. Knees together. Touch all fingers. Spread and around. Back up and open.

And one more time. We roll back. Knees together. Touch all five fingers. Stay here with your abs, soften your arms, palms up, keep your fingers soft, open with your palms wide. It's like you're floating through space here. Feel softness in your wrists, softness in your fingers, softness in your jaw and softness in your movement. So I'm just doing the same movement. We're all comfortable with rolling back here and what's Nice for me, I have a tightness in my low back, so I've got that support of the shoulder rest.

So I have just something to kind of gauge where I'm at. Now. Stay here, turn your hands away. Clasping the fingers together and roll up. Lift your arms high, keep your knees together here. Arms down. Exhale, roll back. So we're getting some nice little risks. Stretch, stretch, stretches, stretches, and we're getting also some finger movement and whatnot while warming up the ads as well. Let's keep the arms like this. Open the knees and rotate. Ah, one more time. Now rotate again this time let go your hands with your of your hands and twist. Just a little more beautiful stretch.

See if you can look all the way back behind you. Ah, and then the other way, one hand on the bar, one hand on the shoulder rest and see if you can rotate a little more looking all the way behind you unwind. So go ahead and scoot forward on your a reformer here and roll yourself back so we can set up for our spine. Twist slightly different arm position today. So with your feet resting on the bar, place your hands first on the pegs. Okay. And see if you can feel symmetrical here in your um, arm arrangement. Yeah.

And then see if you can place your hands just on the other side of the shoulder rest. And is it symmetrical? So for me it's not my right arm sits there quite comfortably, but my left arm, it's difficult for me to be there. So I'm gonna use my other and press my wrist flat so I can get a little bit of a grip there from my hand and then hold that position now significantly different in how I feel my left arm to my right. Check in with yours, sway your legs to one side and then pull back to center. So I'm going to keep my shoulder blades grounded. That's important. And try to keep this arm position, which just addresses a little bit, perhaps some tightness in the shoulder or the back of the arm.

Just one more time here, nice and easy. And then arrange your legs to tabletop position with the legs. Together we inhaled to twists and we exhale to pull back to center and we inhale to twist an exhale back. So just see if you can check in with your hands and your wrists and your arms. And how do they feel different here?

My left arm is getting tired because it's not used to being in this position. It's challenging for me. One more time. Come back through to center. Arrest your feet on the bar for me. Reach your hands up to the ceiling. Let the blood flow. Shake the hands out every now and again. Exhale to lift your head and chest.

Now here, push down on your feet to engage your hamstrings and see if you can lift up a little higher and lower down. Again, exhale to lift. Use your hamstrings to lift a little higher and lower down. This time we add on, we lift and we hold. Keeping the height of the curl. Take your arms behind you. See if you could actually touch the thumbs together. Stretching back. Circle around. Here we are in hell. Reach.

I'm not going to use my hands on my legs at all. If I can reach back. Circle around just two more. Reach back. Circle around breathing when it makes sense. Circle around and lower down. Adding rotation. Exhale to lift. Find your hands on the side of your leg. Lift yourself a little higher.

Rotate a little more. Sit with that position. Feel the ease. Now release your arms and reach, energize, release, energize, release, energize and soften. Inhale here. Exhale to lift your head and chest. Nice high abdominal curl. Take both hands to the outside of the other leg and lift up a little higher. Find that position. Use Your abs, softness in your neck and shoulders, and then reach with your arms.

Energize the hands, soften, energize, soften, energize. One more time. Energize and let it go. Settle in for your footwork here. So with your feet on the bar from the heels open chest, how we go, exhale and inhale in. So now check in with your arms and your shoulders here and see if you can feel that same opening be worked on in the last class, the opening through the chest, but also sends the back of your arm and since your hands and wrists. So go ahead and bend your elbow so your palms are facing you.

And then press your arms to straight and see if you can feel a connection to your wrists. Turn your hands down, connecting the risks, and then softening the whole hand if possible. Last one there. Gently come on in and then put your toes. Now where your heels are. Breathing and moving. Exhale out an inhale in keeping the risks down. Flex back on the hands. So I'm, I'm really, I'm just bending at my wrist and reaching my fingertips straight up toward the ceiling. Hopefully feeling just a little bit of sensation through my forearm.

I find oftentimes people feel their risks and exercises and more often than not it's due to something else. So it could be lack of flexibility in the wrist or the elbow or the shoulders or lack of strength in one of those areas as well. Last one and gently come on in Small v position this time, kind of curl your hands around on your Tush so you're bending your hands the other way and press out. So my hands are just right underneath my tush. I'm bending my wrist the other way. Now if you feel like your Tush is squeezing your hands, that's okay.

That's all right. Feel that little bit of compression through your fingers. That might feel kind of Nice. A couple more here. Both legs working equally. Last one. So put your heels wide on the bar. Now Bend your elbows again and go into external rotation at the shoulders. Spread your fingers out. You go fist, open fist and open Ben. So we're using our hands while we use our legs open and open.

[inaudible] breathing and moving. One more time and gently come all the way in. So put now your toes where your heels are in that open v position. And this gets a little tricky for me. I like challenging my brain a little. So pressing out and in with your legs, you're going to circle your wrists. Good.

So try to keep the circling at a faster pace and the movement of the legs at a more organized, slightly slower pace. And then reverse the direction of the risks. [inaudible] breathing and moving. [inaudible] one more time and come on in. [inaudible] your fingers together right over your belly here. Open your chest.

Feel your feet on the bar for calves. Press out. So feel this idea of opening your heart by ripping the fingers together. As you go into your calf raises, we press up and we go down. No, we press up and down. Opening the heart, opening the back body. So I'm pulling a little bit here, feeling my fingers. Good. Press up and hold. Change which hand is or which finger is on top?

That might feel funny. Prances same thing. Just feel your hands working in a slightly different way. Yeah. Breathing and moving. Just one more time here. And then hold the stretch, move your foot to a position that suits you. Here. I want my arms to just rest by my side. Maybe your palms facing up, roll your head side to side a couple of times if that feels like a good idea.

Breathing in and breathing out. Change sites. So fill the position for your foot. That feels really interesting or exciting today. So it might be different on any given day. How is take a couple moments to fish around for the sweet spot and feel the lightness in your hands and your arms ease.

Yeah. And then press up, bend your knees, come all the way in and make your way up to a sitting position. Okay, so roll to your side now and come up to a sitting position and let's move into some abdominal work. One red spring for that. So take the other springs off and then lie back down. So settle in here for a moment, just like we did earlier with your feet on the bar and see if you can really find those hamstrings. So using those hamstrings without yet pressing out. Give yourself an abdominal curl.

Use Your hands if you need to on the backs of the legs to get more height. But feel that nice powerful hamstring connection. I realized I needed to move my feet down a little bit so I'm more from the balls of my feet. So go ahead and make that shift if you need to lower down and exhale to lift. Feel those hamsters I'm pulling down here. Yeah, and lower down.

And then one more time and here we are. We're going to stay lifted and we're going to press those legs out [inaudible] straight as we do. Lift up just a little higher, lower down and come in and for us out, lifting higher as you do and come in and press out lifting higher as you do. Stay there, lift one leg away and lift a little higher here and change and lift and change and lift and Shange and lift and change. Now lift and hold onto the top of your leg yourself. Ah, all the way perhaps. And all the way down. Change sides. Pull yourself up all the way.

Perhaps and all the way down, both feet on gently come in, roll to your side for some sideline hip work. One of my favorite things to do. Um, do pay a little bit of attention to your arm if possible. I like to hold the peg that's back and rest my head on my arm here. Use anything you need to to get your forward strap on your top leg just above the knee. Okay. And then stack your legs and settle in for a moment. Take this arm instead of holding onto the shoulder rest like we often do.

Take it up and behind you. And if you can get your fingers underneath your waist for a nice little stretch here. If that doesn't work, just the arm up and behind you. We're going to lift the leg up and lower the leg down, keeping the carriage still for the first few here, lifting the leg up and lowering it down. Okay. And then just one more time here and now a pendulum.

So the leg goes down in space and the leg goes forward and the leg downs. I'm purposefully keeping my knee bent here because I want to focus really just on that hip movement. Good. And just a couple more there. And my absolute favorite here is a nice little circle. So take that leg as far forward as you can up and around and behind you and use your hand underneath you to help stabilize and around and back forward again.

So lifting that leg up, big release through the hip or big, kind of a stirring up of the hip joint breathing. And one more in that direction. And then let's go ahead and reverse here. So we're going to take the leg back in space as far as you can comfortably lift up, feel the glutes working and come around and in front of you. Take it back, lift up and around and in front of you. And again, and just one more time please.

My favorite quick, Yummy glute work. Always feel it. I hope you do too. So here we're going to just gently find something we can hold onto to take that strap away. It's not the prettiest mountain dismount, but it's doable. And let's change sides. So as you bring yourself onto your other side, just notice how your arms feel different. I do like to hold the peg if at all possible.

Rest the head on the arm. So I'm getting that nice stretch and compression through the shoulder, which feels really nice. And then the strap is just above the knee. So had the legs kind of stacked. I'm going to just use my toes to scooch myself back. And here we are, this arm up and around. And if you're able to see if you can curl it all the way underneath so you're getting this sort of hand shoulder stretch as well, which is quite nice.

And then the carriage stays still. Woops. How's we lift in lower? So the ups there was, cause my carriage was not still, I'm not looking for perfection. I'm just looking to do the very best that I can. And I hope you do the same. One more time. Good. And then the leg goes down and behind like a pendulum and then forward.

And I'm purposefully trying to keep my knee kind of bent, which has a nice little hamstring. Um, exercise for me here. I forgot to say that on the other side, so maybe I even forgot to do it. But Hey, on this side, keep your leg bent. And if you do this class again, make sure you do the whole time. Last one here. And we go into our circles. So here the leg comes forward, up and around, and enjoy that nice ease of movement through your hip and forward, up and around. Just really enjoy that movement. Stirring up your hip joint and up and around and reverse.

So the leg goes back and behind you keeping the knee bent. And as you lift up, see if you can really feel that nice articulation through the joint. Reverse directions. Circles, single leg are always my favorite. I get such nice, juicy glute work. Last one. [inaudible] breathing and moving. And then carefully we dismount from there. So I usually use my foot down on that peace, sto the strap, carefully bring myself in, and then we can come on up to a sitting position. Ooh, so here's where we're going to use the box.

So go ahead and pick up your box. And this is perhaps not something you've done before. I'm gonna ask you to put your box right over your shoulder, rest or not shoulder rest right over your foot bar. That's a foot bar. Okay. I have done this on different pieces of equipment and it does seem to work on most of them. Just pay attention to, if you were to push here, things would wobble around. So you want to kind of visualize where your bar is and even out the weight.

We're going to do a stretch here. I'm still on that same red spring. Uh, so I'm in a lunge, so I've got my front knee bent and my back leg start straight and I'm going to lower my back knee down and as I do organize your forearms so that they're straightforward. So a lot of times people will find themselves in a little a internally rotated position. I want you to find this straight line through your forearm and weight down through your wrists. Feel the stretch through your hip while you're here, and then, uh, put all of the weight now on your left hand. So I'm standing on my front right leg and my left arm and just kind of feel weighting down more through that one arm and sense what it feels like. Now turn your palm over and try to flatten out your wrist.

So use your other hand to help really create that flat wrist sensation and then see if you can also flatten out your hand. For me on this side, my hand is a little soft. In order to get my wrists down, I can't quite put my hand flat and keep my wrists down. So work on keeping the risks down. Now moving this stretch just a little bit longer. This is just an opportunity to get a good hip stretch, but also focus on what's happening here in the arm. So what I'm doing is using my, my left arm to push the spring out and see if I can get closer to a straight arm just to see what the arm feels like with the shoulder feels like.

And as a result, um, hopefully have just a little bit of information to play with as we move forward and then gently come out of that. And let's do the second side. So this arm position during the stretch is an opportunity for you to check in and see how your wrist and forearm feels. The standing leg is kind of up so that the knee is near the box. And then start with both hands down for a moment and just feel that she feel comfortable here. Yeah. And then unweight the left arm. So I've got left leg, right arm, so opposite right and feel this for a moment and then turn your wrist flat, turn your hand down and see if your risk can be flat and also your hand.

So on this arm it's a little easier for me to be in this position. I don't need my other hand, so I'm going to use my right arm to push out and in. I'm really waiting down through my whole forearm. My other arm is just here for balance. Be careful here. My fingers look like they're gripping, but they're not.

If I were to grip the edge here and push, I might wobble a little. So just be careful of that. The box might wobble a little. Just one more time breathing and then rest that. So here, let's really play with that position for these next few exercises. I've been really enjoying this. Take a few moments and Tuck your toes up underneath underneath and put your feet up against the shoulder rest and then find that same position where you have both forearms down, lift your legs up and beyond your four arms and on your knees and kind of get used to this position, right. And then decide if you can put your wrists flat.

Ultimately I want that. Okay. And then notice the difference between your two arms. Forearms should be straightforward and the risks are suction cups to the mat here. Now we're going to explore. Again, I'm not pushing with my fingers, I'm pushing through my whole forearm. How far can I go? Yeah. Now if you want to keep up exactly this, I'm moving with my arms and my legs kind of just stay still in position, meaning I'm not bending and straightening my knees or my hips. Option two would be to straighten out your body, creating like a plank position.

Moving back as far as you can. Now this is where it gets tricky. My friends, I want you to bend in as far as you can. Try to bring your heart all the way down on the box. Feel both elbows, bending to their maximum, and then from here push through your wrists and press out. You cannot not use the triceps there among many other things. So come all the way in. Can you bend all the way in? Bend the elbows more. Do you feel more sensation on one than the other? One side than the other?

Maybe. Maybe not pushing through the whole forearm, not with the fingers. You pushed with the fingers. Things might wobble around a little. And one more time. I'll tell you, my arms are definitely speaking to me here. And we PIR ass gently come in, kind of sit untuck the toes and sort of sit in what feels like a little bit of a child's pose for a moment. Your forehead has a nice little spot to rest right on the box.

Then you come up onto your knees, shake your hands, shake your wrists, shake your shoulders and we're going to try something else. So come to a standing position with your heels right up against the shoulder best. So this is mimicking the elephant. It's exactly where we're headed, but we're going to try it from the elbows. Okay, so see, find yourself comfortable here and then place one elbow down and place the other elbow down. Now if you're tighter in the shoulders, you're going to want to put your thumbs together and make a triangle shape. If you want to challenge your shoulder flexibility, you're going to try to keep that same straight forward. 11 your two forearms, making the number 11 try your best to flatten out your back. It is very difficult to do and mine is not perfectly flat here. I know that I'm not moving from my legs. I'm moving with my shoulders, my heart through big stretch. And then I'm like bending my elbows.

That's what I'm thinking about doing, opening my elbows. But keeping them down big stretch and bending the elbows to pull in. Good. Try that one more time and pull in. Now lift your heels up so you're in like a pyramid position. Okay, so here we go. We're going to hinge down to a plank from the elbows, feel that power, that strength, and we're going to hinge back up and hinge down to a plank. I'm trying to press through those two risks equally and hinge up and two more like that. [inaudible] and one more time. Stay here. Hold it for a moment.

Move forward all the way in and press all the way back and pulling all the weight in, bending the elbows and pressing back. Just one more. Then we get a little rest here, my friends, little rest here per rs pack. Bend your knees in and come to rest here. Shake out your arms a little bit and lets you're comfortable sitting on your feet. I recommend just sitting like this for this next piece. You could also sit cross legged or with your legs out in front of you.

Reach back and retrieve your straps and just take your straight arms out in front of you. So just like on shoulder day, the focus here is more on opening. It's not about bringing the hands behind you, but here can you spread your collarbones and your shoulder blades and fill your fingers soft. Look out over one arm and see if you can straighten and reach everything a little more wider than look out over the other arm and straighten and reach everything wider and then pull back. See that just a couple of times. And here I want you to really feel that you're going for the sensation of stretch and being able to hold it in. Maybe go just a little further, but still spreading through the collarbones and through the shoulder blades. I'm using the exhale just intuitively for the stretch rather than for the press forward. Here's our change. We're going to hold this open position.

We rotate your palms to face up, look up, find a little bit of back extension and open a little bit deeper. Pull it in and forward again. Two more like that. We're going to open palms up, spread your collarbones in your shoulder, played, look up and pull it in. One more please. Big opening and pull it in. Bend your elbows.

Okay and put your straps away. All right, so let's finish up with some lateral flection work, which is really nice. So the top leg is forward and the bottom leg is back up against the shoulder rest. And so once again, check in with your forearm and your wrists and try to get that same arrangement we've been working on. So here per breath, the carriage out and pull up opening the heart. So that's an option one and quite frankly anyone can just stay with that movement if that feels like a better idea. Yeah, we are going to move on today though. Okay. Just one more like that for the option two. Here we go. So come to the stopper and put your other hand on your wrists and press down through the wrist and see if you can keep the carriage still and hover your hips up, knees together, and then press your legs out and pull your knees in and press and pull in and press and pull in and press out and stay. Take your arm up now.

Lower your hips as your arm comes down, lift your hips as your arm comes up and lower your hips. Hard is open as the arm comes down, big stretch and lift. And one more time. Lower and lift Ben the knees. And let's change sides. So simply swiveled to the second side. The top leg is in front, the bottom leg is back. Both feet are connected to the shoulder rest. The palm is the forearm is facing forward. Here engage your abdominals and here we go.

We're going to reach away and pull in, lifting up, trying to find this sensation of stretch here and reach away and pull in and reach away and pull in. Place your hand, your other hand on your wrist. Press down through the wrist and then pop your hips up and stretch your legs to straight and pull them in and stretch and pull them in. And don't forget to use those inner thighs. Keep the legs straight and we hold. Take your arm up and the hips come down. The spine stretches. I'm endeavoring to keep the carriage somewhat still here and the lift [inaudible] down.

Lift up. And one more time down. Yeah. And lift up. Bend the knees, bring your bottom to rest, step off your reformer and put your box on long wise bars already in that same position, the middle position. And let's finish up with some back extension. So move yourself a little more forward on the box than you might normally. So my chin is kind of beyond the box and see if you can find this place where you're really bending your elbows a lot, but you still can press up against the bar. My middle fingers are touching. So here I'm going to press all the way out, getting a nice wrist stretch.

And then when I bend in, I want to try to line my forearm up my wrist back on that bar. And again, pressing all the way out, stretching and bend. So I'm sort of pulling open here in my mind, stretching my collar bones and my shoulder blades, pushing through the whole length of the hand and bending. I'm just one more like that. Hold the arms straight, turn the palms or fingers to wrap over the bar, and we lift to a beautiful back extension, lower debt. So feel the articulation here. Opening the heart, lifting the gays elbow. Stay straight. Legs are energized. Just one more. Their place and breathing and moving. Lower town. Bend your elbows, bringing the carriage all the way into rest and come to a quick standing position. And let's just finish right where we started here.

Shake a little. Shake your wrists, shake your feet, shake your head, shake your shoulders. Big Breath up. An exhale down. Feel what you feel. Knees can be bent. Head relaxed. We're rolling back up. Don't forget about your hands. Thanks for playing.