Day 13: Reformer Flow

Welcome to class number 13 of your 30 session challenge. Today I have my friend Jamie with me who is an [inaudible] instructor as well as a good friend. And we're going to be enjoying doing some reformer, putting our leg work that we've been working on, on the Cadillac, putting it into our reformer. So we're going to play a little bit with the order and it's going to be about intermediate, advanced. And I hope you have a good time. Let's get started. We're going to lie down with control. Our reformer is on four springs.

You can have it on three if you'd like. We're working with grots reformers, so they, um, do not have adjustable springs. So let's start in plotty stance toes apart. We're going to have your knees in line with your shoulders. Press your arms firmly into the mat, pull the navel firmly into your lower back and we're gonna pull against the resistance of the springs to go out. Here we go. Nice 10 times. Pull it out and scooping it and out.

We're going to keep a nice good flow and we're working on the back of the thighs and seat together with that powerhouse that's stretching her back all the way up to the crown of our head. Let's do two more all the way in, all the way out. Switch quickly to arches and down and now we're squeezing those inner thighs. See if you can feel the connection of your inner thighs, pelvic floor, lower belly, pulling all the way up to your upper back. Let's do two more. Squeezing the bottom also and up to heels and out pulling that pinky toe back.

If you pull the baby toe back, you're going to really start to feel the seat still squeezing those inner thighs, pulling it up through the spine. Three more. I'll get really long. Last one, and down to toes for tendon, stretch and out and stretch, stretch, stretch, and lift. Two, three, so really feel the squeeze of that inner thigh pelvic floor. You should have a nice scoop here. Stretch two, three up. This is prepping your hundred. Make sure you're breathing. Just normally.

Let's do two more back of the thighs and seat. Last one. Stretch the cast, but don't work Amir. Hold and bring it in. Slide a little bit away and prepare your reformer for the a hundred lowering the bar and head piece and grabbing your handles. Inhale, look at your belly. And then exhale, get into position and pumping. [inaudible] still trying to feel the inner thighs, the pelvic floor and lower belly pulling all the way into that. Lower back, sliding up to the back of the ribs and healing for five.

Excellent. Perfect. Get some nice vigorous pumping. We're going to go into core shorts by next, right? So get that bottom warmed up. Two more. Last one. And let's get ready for that short spine dropping two springs, looping your letter through your handle.

Keep your carriage in as you use your powerhouse to lift over. Okay. And rolling down. Okay, so we're gonna just do two kind of frogs before we start, cause I want you to make sure that your sacrum and your pelvis is nice and flat. Tailbone, your whole spine is long. Take a breath before beginning. Exhale. Let's squeeze the air out of our lungs.

Okay, go forward with that. Inhale and just bend in. Exhale, one more of those. Just trying to feel the spine long. Very nice and pulling in. Now let's do five short spots going forward enough in with the air bent. Empty the lungs. [inaudible] rolling down, pulling the heels down. Hold and fold up in with your bend. Ah, firmly. Press your arms. There we go.

Make sure you're lifting right before those legs go straight like you do. And airplane. We'll do two more. Trying to get that feeling. Here we go. Lifting [inaudible] length in your spine. And one more time up. Yeah, exhaling. [inaudible] let's go into coordination. Taking the handles carefully off the feet, elbows by your side, and exhale the air out of your lungs.

And let's start. We're going to play twosies here in with your exhale. Squeeze those inner thighs. One more. Let's see. Hold, and we're going to do some crosses here. We go out and eight, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Draw it in. One more.

Set. One, two, scoop, scoop seven and eight and here. All right, let's set up our long box. Hang up your handles as you sit up, trap a spring, grab your long box and your bar took your bar underneath. So it's ready for the short box. We get to enjoy some pole straps, so we're going to keep it on one spring. We're going to go right into pull straps. So getting up, put your hands on the top third, go out into a plank. Lower yourself down. Grab your straps. K. So we are working our legs, so I want you to really feel the pelvis pressing down into your box length in your pelvis, in your hips, and your legs away as you pull the navel in and up in the opposite direction, shoulders and joint. Here we go in with the air and exhale and two more pulling. Scrape your knuckles, pull back and really pressing the glutes into the box so that your belly can pull up and slide down for whole straps to or the t and straight out and reach those arms pulling up.

So a nice long line through your body, through from the waist down. One more time reaching long and backstroke. Both handles in one hand. Let's add a spring, grabbing the handles. Good hand foot, hand, foot, and a little forward that the tailbone and curling and division. Here we go in with the air. Exhale in with air. Yeah, and I'll let you go. Just a count ahead of me so I don't hate you.

[inaudible] good. But now I want to go all the way down to the bar. So we're going to go up. Use the back of the legs to push down so you curl up up. Get those legs down and folding. Let's do one more. [inaudible].

Very nice. All right. Teaser time. Drop a spring. Thank you for not kicking me. That was lovely. I appreciate that cat into position. We're going to do one regular arms, then circles head.

Squeeze those inner thighs. Draw that pelvic floor. And so think about those legs really holding from the back of the legs. One more pump and then we're going to lengthen the legs. Eyes on those toes, push down with the back of those legs, toes and head at the same time. Come up for circles. One more, eh, linkedin reverse circles. One more. Sorry Jamie.

And squeeze those inner thighs, pulling it up back in the legs. Nice job. Alright, we're going to do short box and I hang my handles on the back edge. Let's go ahead and set him up with our extensions while we're here for our legs circles and long spine massage that we'll do later on and we'll just leave them in the well so they're ready to grab when we need him. All right, let's switch her box for short box our bars already here. Your pad that you hopefully have. If you don't like to sit on the pad, that's fine, but I'm going to put a pad over my box about a hands with distance from the back edge. Add a spring, so we're on two springs, your safety straps, and we're ready for our short box series starting with the round back, lifting into a c curve.

So right here you don't want to overuse the top of your thighs. You want to feel the back of the thighs. Really tone firm and kind of squeezing into the box, pushing those heels away. All right, here we go. Drawing that pelvic floor, lower belly and exhale in with the air. Squeeze near up. Three morning. Go ahead and reach back. Stretch holding onto the rails.

Feel your seat nice and firm. Coming up two more. You can go ahead and go into a headstand if you want. Hands-Down. I wish I could touch the floor, but I'm going to, Ooh, look at that. Get in there. Woo. Yeah, exhaling up and one more where you want it to be. Squeeze out that seat. Feel the back firmly on your box.

Keep pressing the heels away. Oh, all right, we're ready for flat back. Grab your bar. Strong arms squeezing up just like you were doing footwork. Feel your lower belly. Pull into your lower back and slide up to your back of your ribs and grow that tall and exhale.

Now three mine. Yeah, and exhale, so quiet strap because you're pushing your heels away, lifting off the seat and the big stretch in that spine. Rest your side. Reach. I'm set lifting lean a little forward and to the right and up. You should feel both sit bones on the box so we're still very aware of our seat to the left.

So the right one's not coming off and we're holding it there with our powerhouse, not by changing our spine last month. Rest your arms. Enjoy a twist, squeezing up, twist to the right both cheeks, squeezing all the way to your fingertips and back up and to the left long and again. Just want you to feel the stability of your lower body that helps your belly reach more. One more set, reaching away from the those hips and last time [inaudible] and stretch forward. Put your bar away. Sit Up nice and tall, right leg out, and it's direction. Bed. Hold it up. Walk up, stretch over that leg even in your hips.

Squeeze your left cheek down into the box. Let's hold it once you're right up and I want you to feel how much this leg is anchoring into the box and push the right leg into your hands to engage the back of your thigh and seat. Reaching to the ceiling and now pull that lower belly in to the box to go down. So both legs are really active in with the air and exhale and come forward out of that lower back. Good Jamie, let's go for some single, some leg circles. Three each way. So both legs are really active. Go back, hold under, and cross the Red Cross.

Thread up, cross around reverse. Reach that right leg to the ceiling. One more and leave it reaching head squeezy or out. Come all the way up. Better the lower back and then flex the foot stretch.

And we're also going to do a little side tree. So grabbing the inside of your ankle, left hand to the handle, opening. And now square hips. Push that left hip away, pulling back your powerhouse. Square off those hips. [inaudible] and then squeeze out that air. Keep your right leg behind you.

Bend the knee behind you, cross it over and sit up nice and tall for your stretch. Switch legs. How are we doing, Jamie? Good left leg and stretch. Sit up tall. One more. Try to make sure your right hip is staying square and not rolling in.

And we're going to stretch forward and rocking back. And again, now the right leg is firmly pressing into the box. The left one, we've engaged the back of the thigh and it's reaching one regular [inaudible] in with the air. Squeeze it up. [inaudible] out of your lower back and down to circles. [inaudible] and arms back to the rails. And what?

Two three rivers. Squeeze that right cheek as well. And walking up and stretching out and flex the foot. [inaudible] side tree, left hand on the inside ankle. Open to the side. Keep your right hip squares. You roll back [inaudible] in with the air. Exhale forward. Still Rolling through that back. Bend the knee behind you. Cross it over, lifting up and forward.

[inaudible] all right, done with our short box. Let's bring it down. We're going to bring the pad down just here cause it's gonna be ready for our long stretch series. [inaudible] so as you come back, let's lift up our headpiece. Jamie's already got it and the pad. No, that's good. And you're going to be on two spring still. Okay. All right.

So here's our little, we're gonna change up the combination a little bit. Add some Arabesques. So be ready for that. We're going to put your hand foot when the other hands there. You're already almost in your plank position. And here we go. Let's do five. And so feel the legs.

Feel yourself squeezing those inner thighs. You're hugging the mid line. Feel your belly pull in and up from there. Two more bottom is squeezing down so that you can be in a plank. Now hold it in with your belly pulling in and in low or keeping your hip, squeezing down feet and push out with your bottom. And exhale, lift your belly to your sternum in with Ya. Two more.

Last one. Nice from bottoms and cam strings. Crawl onto your fingertips. Keep using those hamstrings. Lift and a nice backpack. Ah, up stretch. Rising up to the ball of your foot. We're going to do two and then three combos, so two regular. Here we go. Push out with the back of the thighs. Squeeze, squeeze out that air and fold up. One more like that. Yeah. And now we'll do the Combo. Go Out, squeeze down, enjoy using your power house to lift your sternum.

Stay in a back bend and then fold back up. Make sure your bottoms very firm supporting your backbend and folded. Let's do elephant flat feet. Mine are going to be a little in front of the shoulder pads. Jamie should be just right for her height and five of them pushing out. And so just like in Joseph, a lot of days you're picturing the back of your thighs, making sure they're not hanging. One more nice and firm.

Now we're going to go onto demi point with our left foot arabesque with our right working the left hip. Pull it in. Left hip in left hip in switching carriages in when you switch. Left leg man. One, two, three. Let's put the left foot on top right, like Arabesque one, two out on the third one. Hold it out. Bend the right leg, pulling the kerogen, keep it in. Extend up and switch right foot's on top. Left leg arabesque.

Pull in one stomach to right hip. Oh, hold it out Ben. The left. Pull in and hold it in. Extend up and bring that foot to the floor to step off. All right, let's turn around for a long back stretch. We're going to do right hand, right, left, left, left foot and get on with the right. Here we go. Hand, foot, hand, foot. All right, so no sinking in those shoulders cause your seats already up. Dip Down, bottom pushes out. Bottom lifts up. Two more.

Last one. [inaudible] we're going to reverse it after this. Try to lift your hips as you go out and lift. And one more lift. Step off, either side. Set up for your stomach massage. Add two springs if you will. Three.

If you started your footwork on four, you can put your pad either way. And let's go ahead and lie to sit down. [inaudible] in your round back. All right, eyes on your heels. Eyes on your ankle, bones. Let's pull out the heels. Don't move. Don't let your ankle bones knock. Squeeze those in size and then let's go to tempo.

Yeah. For um, pulling away from my ankles. I'm squeezing those inner thighs. I'm scooping my belly to more light hands. Last one. Let's hold and drop the spring pants. Lift and out. Keep using the back of your thighs. And as a consequence, you're going to feel the belly lift up your chest bound.

Let's do three more. Back the legs and seat holding your bottom in place. It's not sliding out of your pants. One more holding it in. Drop the spring in with the air. It's a breathing exercise. Exhale, [inaudible] in with their exhale it is breathing. But look at those legs. They're nice and even in firm and keep them that way for the twist.

You're not pushing out with the quads. You're squeezing from the back of the legs. [inaudible] one more set. Last one. Handwritten. Okay. Tendon stretches. Next. So stepping off, we're gonna lower our pad to the edge.

You're still on two springs? Yes. Good. Oh good. All right, so we're going to get, we're going to do five regular and then three rites stepping off on the back and then three left leg up. So one legged, but just to the side. So you're gonna stay up hand. You know what, Jamie, let's go ahead and sit to start. So we're going to work our way into this one. So what I mean by that is we don't, once you know being at the level that you're probably at, we don't usually start like this. We just start like this when we learn it. But we're going to introduce it today like this.

We're going to push our heels down and push the legs straight and then dive your head, keep them straight, dive your head to your knees and then keep your arms straight. And I want you to get as close to your legs as you can with your legs straight and lower yourself down to those springs. Tends to go forward with the bottom and lower yourself down. And now feel your belly draw that reformer and out and squeeze those in her ties. Drawed up three more. Pull it up and two heels are pressing down.

And one more. Hold right hand in between. Right leg out, ant out. Pull up left. Pull up with your left hip. Pull up with your left hip. Step off to the side, to the back. Sorry, cross your left leg over. Cross your right leg into place. It should be between your shoulder and your sternum. The left leg is going to lift and reach out this window.

Maybe I can touch that window. Here we go out. Pull up out, write him one more and step down behind you. Cross the right leg. All right, we're ready for semicircle. Lower the bar and you get rid of your pad and lie. Oh, let's grab our straps so that we're ready for our leg. Circles had pieces up at the moment. Good. Two springs lower with control. You can start with your seat a little in the well if you want, and then slide your way down. Let's really get a really good stretch on the front of your thighs, on your quadriceps right here.

So try to make sure the carriage is in and we're going to roll down. Squeeze the here out of your lungs. Don't let your heels touch the reformer back to the FYS and see. Squeeze it up, up, up, all the way to more up. See your sliding home. One more time. Okay.

Really articulating that spine. All right. Reverse back of the thighs and see. Hold the legs a little bent, articulate spine. Come in and lit. Two more back at the licensee. Raleigh, go ahead and lift last one. Really feel the back of the size and sliding in and up. Reach your arms simultaneously up to the bar and stretch. You can grab your ankles if you prefer. Lower the heels away from the seat.

To add a stretch hands. Go back to the shoulder pads, slide your way back, and then let the carriage come in. Let your back set a little bit. Grab your straps and let's place them on your feet. For leg circles. Arms are pressing firmly into the mat. How are we doing? Great.

Good hand stretch forward and Ben, so you're gonna keep that sacred, just like you did for short spine massage. It's on the mat. You're, you've worked hard to work your belly to get your back flat, not by tilting your pelvis. We're gonna do one more after this, but by using your stomach and increasing the flexibility of your spine. Nice job. Stay here. I want you to slide a little bit away from the shoulder pads, just a hair and then blower the headpiece as well. Cause we're going to do long spine.

It's a little hard to move when your feet are in the straps, but you need a little room to roll up onto him. All right, here we go. Long Spine. We're gonna pull our navel in and up and lift all the way over. Open and push with the back of your legs into those straps. Yeah, we'll circle together and up.

Open and reach. Arms are pressing firmly. Legs are lengthening to all new lengths. One more reaching, reaching. Nice. Reverse hips up, inner thighs, belly lengthening that spine. Two more and last one up and reach those feet in front of those seat. Front of the seat. Now God bring your legs towards you for a stretch. [inaudible] you deserve that one. And an inner thigh stretch. Be Gentle.

Don't pull anything. [inaudible] good. All right. And then see if you can keep your legs straight. See if you can roll over a little bit and drop him in the well. Nice work. All right, let's step off. Our knees stretches, lifting the bar up. Keep it on two springs.

So we're gonna do round arched knees off, and then three on each side of the Michael Jackson. All right, so we're going to do, let's do eight and eight. Oh headpiece up. Good job. I was like, something's wrong over there. Okay. Rounding Kay. So we're going to hold our body stills who our legs can do all the work.

Here we go. And one, how far out can you push out those legs, those hips without moving your upper body too. And switch back to the thighs. Lifting the sternum for long. Push it to one more switch and eight. Try to keep your hips where they are, but lengthen your thighs.

Lengthen your knees down to the Mat. They're not going to touch it. Give me two more. Hold it in. Straighten your right leg back. Ben, the right leg as you straighten the left, straighten it and kick your head. And now the tempo in a kick bent a kick and switch. Right leg in the lifted left leg strain.

Straighten, kick and out. A tempo. And one more. Alright, stepping off. Let's do our running and pelvic tilt. [inaudible] press your arms firmly squeeze out. You only have two springs, so use your imagination. Connect your mind to the muscles in your legs and really tone them and work them because you have control over your body when you're three more sets.

[inaudible] last one. Starting your cool down and come in. Pelvic lift. You're going to turn out your knees and feet squeeze. You're out of your lungs. As you lift your seat and out. And God, I want you to really think about using the back of the thighs and seat obviously, but let's create a lot of distance between the bottom of your ribs and the top of your pelvis. So really see how much, how far can you get your bottom to reach that way? Two more [inaudible] and last one and melt down.

Slide your feet, hug it in and we're going to get up for all our splits series. Make sure you have two pads, grab your two pads, but one against the shoulder pad closest to you and the other one underneath both parts of your foot. Bar and we're going to do it on one spring and you can do it on two or one, whichever one, and you're going to stand up closest to the springs in between your two paths and we're going to put out your foot closest to the reformer, the the reformer bar. Okay? That's going to be your stability foot. Hold it strong and I want you to be just really aware right now we have our plots box. Our powerhouses pulled in and out and be aware of your feet. You don't want to roll in the knees or the arches.

You want equal weight on both parts of your feet. All of this is super important as we we will. We're gonna Suzy Q, Our foot out, so we're going to heel toe. You don't lose all of your form while you're doing it. Try to hold the carriage in. That might be as far as you can stretch. Maybe not. I'm going to, you put your harms up here, Jamie, and I'm going to hold mine on my pelvis and we're going to push out and hold and now we're going to lift the arch. Lift the inner thigh. Lift your powerhouse.

Two more out. Good. I didn't tell you this Jamie. Bet. And squeezing up. I broke my tailbone two months ago. Yeah, so this is so good though. So I'm going to hold here and then let's roll forward off the imaginary wall. Pick up our roses for doing such a beautiful job scooping in. Get your pelvis right under you a little cumbrae.

Come forward now always lifting. So this is great stability for me, for my pelvis and I'm going to roll forward picking it up. Hold those inner thighs tight to keep your carriage in a little Cambray. And now we're going to Suzy Q, The foot that's out back in whichever one it was. And now bring your other foot. Turn towards the springs always. And then switch sides. All right, so sorry I didn't start again. Really stable.

That's some nice dolphins. I hope you guys saw those. Wow. They are just seaworld out there. Okay, so have your Nice Pilati box and you're going to, he'll tell the row your foot that's on the mat out to that shoulder pad. All right, squaring off the hips, lifting the arch and inner thigh. Let's push out and then pull up in the inner thighs and your powerhouse and I'm going to now extend my arms like Jamie probably is scooping in and we'll do one more out. We're going to hold it out and take your left hand to your right, to your right foot, or Jamie, I'm not sure which hand and foot, but you got it. We're rolling up through your spine. Always think up, not just in hold it in crossover.

Pull it up, crossover, hold that carriage in with those inner thighs and heel-toe the foot back under you and bring that outside foot on. Safely. Step off as you adjust your foot bar for front splits. Add a spring, create a Little v back here for me. Awesome. All right, and we're going to step up hand, foot, hand, foot. We're going to put your right foot between your sternum and your shoulder on the bar and either sees the Susie Q or lift the left foot back into position.

All right. The back leg is strong. Pushing the heel down, lifting the arch a little bit. We're going to use that back leg to push out and pull it and back leg. Your hip should be even one more. And now let's go into the control. Lift your hips so that they're at the same level as your knee in the front. Use your powerhouse to lift the arms up, hands behind your head, and now front leg pushes out and comes back. Leg is straight the entire time.

One more square powerhouse. Go ahead. Now let's do the thighs split. We're going to reach your arms. Hands lower the knee as you turn your foot. Nice and we're going to use the back of your thigh and seat to push down and out. And that front leg can stretch and stretch your hip flex or on your left thigh here. Two more right leg can stretch. And then squeezing Magine.

My hands are pushing your pelvis forward one more and scooping in and up. To lift your turn. Let's stay here and lift the arms up and do a nice back here and Nice Jamie, we're going to put your right foot on the mat. Stand up on it, left foot under. Let's put the left foot on the bar and then your left foot, either hops or Suzy here. Whatever you can do with control, even out your hips, back leg is strong and firm pushes out one and [inaudible] pushing you out. The object is to feel the back leg, not necessarily up front. One splitting. Hold it. Lift your hips up.

So even with the left knee arms reaching forward and up through your powerhouse, hands behind your head, left leg pushes out and Benz and out and beds. Last one. And now let's reach your arms up and down and do a little five split on your right leg so you can even use your hands to pull the carriage in, squeezing that right hip forward to stretch that hip flexor and thigh and push out with it. Ah, and in all the work is from your hepps and to stretching the front leg if you want and in, and one more stretch pulling, squeezing that right hip forward, using your belly to lift and stretch down. Great. Stepping off. And that is going to complete our reformer. And we're going to do some rolling exercises to finish and complete our workout today. To end our nights reformer. Let's roll out our spines.

So we're going to stand a little bit from the front edge to get our five rolling exercises in. Make sure you're drawing your powerhouse in and up all your energies up. Put one arm on top of the other, cross one foot in front of the other and keep lifting your belly as you lower yourself down to the mat. And then lift your bottom back. Just a tap. Make sure it's nice and centered. And we're going to start off with rolling like a ball. So we're going to curl.

Exhale all your air. So your heads between and let's do six. Rolling. Inhaling back. Excellent. And then with the year four more. Try to feel you. Lift your seat cause we're going to do crab and you want to have your powerhouse. Lift your seat. One more. Great. Hold your balance. Go into open leg rocker. We're going to push the back of your legs into your hands.

We're going to roll back. Squeeze out that air. Come as forward onto the sit bones. Lift your sternum more and again, squeezing that air out for more. Same idea here. Don't let your weight go dead. Lift your seat up. [inaudible] and two more.

So real important, almost squeezing imaginary circle. Lifting it. Hold here. Cross the right leg over the left. Reach your hands for your feet. Bring them behind you. Class on behind your lower back and lower them with control and open the arms. Circling and back.

Stretch hands your side. Lifting tall. Find the back of your thighs and see. Don't hinge back. I need you to lift the legs up from your powerhouse. Then go open, closed, sharp ruling. Hands behind your back and lift and forward. We're going to do three more. So two sets. Sit Up, tall, strong, legs up. Open class, rolling through, hands behind and long legs reaching as you go down.

Big Circle. Big Scoop. So one more set. Now sit up tall and scooping through. Hands behind and reaching. One more. Don't forget to lift your hips. Here we go. Hips up. Open. Close hands and stretch.

Stretch, stretch, stretch. All right, we're going to activate the back of our thighs by doing crab. So you're going to cross your legs, grab your toes, give yourself maybe a little more room if you need it. How's it looking, Jamie? Get so we're going to push her on knees down. Lift our seat with our powerhouse and our hamstrings and then softly push the forehead into the mat and stretch the neck. Oh, it's okay. Jamie. I'm watching you to give directions. Same thing. Okay, here we go.

So knees back, the thighs and seat. Lifting in the powerhouse. Gently roll. Try to have your knees right over your immune, your hips, right over meetings. Here we go. Rolling back. Strong inner thoughts. Switching left. It's hard to talk while doing this, but make sure you're feeding your crab back there. Rolling up. Okay. And again. Okay.

Are we even Jamie or one more? We're even one more. Lift. Squeeze, soft press. Nice work. Sit on your bottom. Seal hands underneath the ankles. Scooping. And same thing. Strong inner thighs. When you clap, lift your hips up.

Don't let them collapse over your shoulders when you're back there. One, two, three, one, two, three, one, two, three in with the air. One, two, three. Squeeze out there. Two, three. I hope you feel your inner thighs tight. They're the ones doing the clapping and forward. Let's do two more and then we'll stand up. Last one. Massage your spine. Cross your legs will all the way up from legs, arms at good, and press down as you lifted your powerhouse and you are all done with class number 13. Nice job, Jamie. Good work.