Creative Reformer Variations

Hi, I'm Mariska from Fuze flautas in Washington D C and today I'm going to do a little bit of a reformer workout that has some classical plottings and some non-classical and some things that our inspiration from, um, things my trainer makes me do. And then some stuff from other teachers that work for me actually. So I'm taking some of their ideas and I'll try to shout out who I sold them from. Um, in case they watched this video, which they should because they work for me. Um, so I'm starting on a reformer. I have two red springs on and I generally always start like this because I just don't like having a lot of spring changes, um, in the beginning of a workout. So, um, my classical Pleiades teacher be really proud if I stand to the front of the reformer and cross my arms and sit down pretty. So grow tall through your spine, abs, stay pulled in.

You're going to have a seat basically almost falling off the carriage. And then we're going to spin around. And then, um, let's go ahead and just start in employees v and just get yourself situated. I'm actually gonna put my head Russ down because I know my hips are going to be lifted up at some point. And then just press out and then Ben to come in and push and in and press and reach and in and out and in. We'll do a couple more like this.

And then I'm also going to do a couple of things just cause my body feels like it needs it. So I'm gonna just gonna push out, let my heels separate and I'm just gonna lower my heels down and lift. So my leg is bothering me a little bit today and I just want to get my ankles to be moving a little bit more than they would. So if you're the kind of person who likes to supinate your feet and roll them out, just make sure that your weight is evenly between the big toe and Pinkie toe side of your feet and stay high up on your tip toes. Bend your knees to come all the way in. So you hit the I'm stopper. And you're gonna come to the outside edge of your feet and I'm actually on the outside when you call the blade of my feet and push my legs out and Ben's come in, press and in, so all the way straight with the legs and then all the way till you feel the bumper, but you don't crash the car crash curve right there just as an example of what not to do. So do a couple more like this.

Reach out and in reach out and in. Reach out and hold. You're going to lift your hips up so it's not as much of an articulation as you might get if you had your knees bent. It was just not that much room for your hips to move, which was going to lift up and then lower back down, lift up and lower back down, lift up and hold. So you want to find this straight line from your shoulders to your hips.

Bend your knees and you're going to lift higher as you come in. Push out, you drop your hips down a little bit, pull in and push out, pull in and push out. Pull in again, we're lifting up, letting your knees track right over the center of your feet, lifting up and reaching out. Lift up and hold. So right now my hips are a little bit lower than a straight line, so I'm going to lift them up a little bit. And then you're going to drop your hips down, lift right back up. So it's the tiniest squeeze kind of right where your glutes and hamstrings come together, which is actually way higher than a lot of people would think.

And I'm a little bit away from the stopper, but not too much. And then you can hold it and then pull in and push out. So you have the stopper to tell you exactly how far to come. And then you just push out just a little bit and then we'll go out to our out position and you're just gonna push your knees open more and release, push and release, press and release, press and release. Let's do four, two, three and four. Then we do a little combos, so we pull it in touch and out, knees open and in, in touch, out, knees open. And in, I find it useful to find something on the ceiling to look at.

So I'm looking at this, I don't know if it's a crack in the wood or if it's just a little piece of wood that's painted different, but it's fascinating to me right now you can't see it, but I'll take a picture for you and posted it on Instagram. Maybe earlier there was a seagull that flew to the right of my vision, which was a little bit more interesting. So we're going to come all the way into the stopper, slowly melt your spine down bone by bone coming all the way in. Tailbone comes down. We're going to bring your legs so that they're more in a parallel position.

We're gonna take one foot down to what I call the gray exfoliating pad, which is the standing part of the balanced body reformer. If you don't have a balanced body, um, just the edge of your reformer. So you're going to tilt your pelvis, press into, it's really more the down foot. So it's this leg for me. And then you lower back down bone by bone again, press and lift up. And your goal is that your hip bones are gonna stay at the same level.

Suppress and lift and lower down. And we'll do two more, I think, and lower back down. And then we're gonna make it a little bit spicy. So you're gonna push into the right leg, let your left leg lift off, extend both legs, bend both knees, reach and bend, reach and bend, reach and bend. So you form more and sue and three and for come all the way back in. You're going to lower your left foot down. So it's on the foot bar.

You're going to bring your right foot down. So it's on the Greg's folium pad and in your layer spine, down, boom by bow press to lift up and then slowly lower back down. So I'm a little bit away from the stop or again because I'm trying to just keep, um, it's actually a little bit more challenging to keep it away and try not to move the carriage, which I totally know I'm moving the carriage, but in my mind I'm trying not to. And then lift up, hold it there. So now you're pushing into this leg so the other leg can come off so you can reach and bend and kick and bend.

So this is totally something that Julian Littleford would have us do all the time, are these single leg kick hamstring things. Um, I can't really remember a lot of sessions where we didn't do some sort of single leg bridging variation like this and they were always fun. Um, it's very much to focus a little bit more in than you can bring this foot down to focus a little bit more on the back side of your body and a little bit less on the front side of your body. Cause I think a lot of people get a little bit, um, quad dominant. And that was one thing he was trying to avoid. So reach back for the straps, have my legs and tabletop. So there's going to be a little space between my low back in the mat, but I'm trying not to flare my ribs cause I enjoy doing that. And then you're just going to push your arms down. So we're going to start by lifting your arms to a v and then push and lift to a v and push and a v and push reach to a v and push. We'll do a couple more like this.

Really trying to push a little bit more into the Pinkie side of your hand so that you get um, a little bit more into the lots. We're going to press down, float your arms up towards the ceiling, lift your head and chest up, shoot your legs out, bend your knees, reach under the foot bar, shoot your legs out, bend your knees, reach above, bend your knees, reach below, Bend your knees. We'll do one more round reach and bend and reach and bend. Head comes back down. Lower your arms back down by your side. So this is sort of like, um, how your legs would go if you did Peter Pan, except we're gonna do your arms. So you're going to let one arm bend in and one arm go out to the side and then push.

So it's actually like the kids today are saying, I think it's dabbing. You can scream off camera if you let me know that's wrong because I'm all, you know, hip on what the children are doing these days. I don't really know what it means, but you see kids doing it. So we're doing a couple of these kinds of Peter pan variations just working through the back of the arms. Let the arms float up, lift head and just up shoot your legs out. We're going to bend your knees in, reach one leg and switch and switch and switch for eight two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. Go ahead and bend your knees, lower everything all the way down. Feet. Find the foot bar and then push your legs all the way straight. We're still on two springs.

So I'm gonna Hook feet into the straps of my favorite way to get in. It's, I'm kind of lazy person's way to get into foot and straps, but um, nevertheless it's kinda how I like to do it. So you want to have, um, start with your heels together, toes apart, and lower your legs down to about 44 degrees. You're going to lift your legs up and out on an angle. So it's actually more of a v than it is a tee. And then you push back down, lift up. I still have my head rest down because my hips are going to be lifting off. Let your legs lift out and push, lift out and push and do a couple more like this.

Yeah. And then lower your legs down. Now start with your legs up to what I'm going to say is your 90 degrees, which is where your low back is in swishing into the mat and then you're going to go whatever that, um, symbol is on your computer. That's an upside down v. So you're reaching down and lifting up.

So it's sort of just a variation to do. If you don't want to do 10 million versions of leg circles, you can do what I call viz and upside down B's. Okay? So we'll do a couple more here. So pushing out and you want to really want to push with the outer hips.

So pushing out and lifting back up. I'm gonna lower my legs down. I'm going to take my legs up and over and then bend your knees in. So we're going to do a variation sort of of a high frog. So you push your legs forward and out, fold your legs back, keep tension as [inaudible]. Bend your knees, push your legs forward so you reach up and back and push out. Reach up and back. Bend, push out, reach up, bend and push.

Do a couple more like this. Bend and push. So my hamstrings are now saying hello to me. Um, yours might be as well. If you really feel this in your back though, you might want to lower down a little bit, or this just might not be your exercise. You're going to reach out. Keep pushing forward. So you're coming forward, coming forward, coming forward, still coming forward. And then you try to just slowly layer spine down, bone by bone at the bottom. I always just generally do leg circles kind of almost as my little break for myself while I prepare for something else. Okay.

So I brought a with me, I'm on this trip, ab is one of my teachers at my studio. And um, this next exercise, I don't know if it's exactly how he did it, um, but I saw him do it on, I don't know, Instagram or something and I was like, that looks fun. So this is actually this next exercise is his exercise. So credit where credit is due. I'm going to bend my knees and I'm going to take one hand into the straps. So I have a hand and a foot and then I'm going to lift up because I need to have equal tension in my hand and my foot and I'm going to send my right leg up.

So I have left hand left or right hand, left leg, and then I'm just going to bend and switch and bend and switch. So it's either my left leg is straight or my right arm is straight and I'm trying to keep the tension in the strap the same the entire time. And then you can also just do stuff with your uplay kind of play around with it. Um, but I like doing the one arm, one leg and then to come out of it, I'm going to push with my right arm till my hips start to lower down and then I'm going to switch. So I'm going to do right foot, trying to gracefully get in that and then left and then we'll lift back up until that kind of up hip position. And then I'm going to do the same thing on the side.

I realized it need to be a little further up because it's a little challenging on the balance, which I think is the point of it. We can ask a bleeder, so bend and reach, bend and reach. I feel much less gifted on this side. The other side felt much easier. Bend and reach. Let's do two more and last one and then you can push through that arm and then go ahead and just take your feet out. Go ahead and bring your feet to the foot bar and then hang the strops up and then just swing around. Make your way up to seated.

We're going to lose the spring. So we're coming down to um, one red spring and then I'm just going to go ahead and take a foot bar down so I don't like knock myself unconscious and then spin around. You want to have about a hands distance from your seat to the back just so you have a little bit of room. And then you could sit with, um, on this one I would say go for straighter legs and then sit up tall to start. This is a really beautiful view. You can't see it, but trust me, it's just gorgeous out there. You're going to sit up tall on an exhale round back. So you're trying to aim your low back to touch and then lift yourself back up.

And these straps are a little bit loose so you can lean forward a little bit. So you're stacking all the way up and again, exhale as you go back and then sit yourself up tall. And now I want to exhale as I go back when I come in and actually pull my knees in towards me and then reach away as you roll back, pull in and lifts and reach away and lower. Do a couple more like that. Pull in and lifts. Reach away as you lower and pull in and lifts and reach away.

Pause. You want to be not too far back but a little bit back. Or take your right leg up and down, left leg up and down. Just try to relax your shoulders. Find something interesting to stare at. I'm staring at a tree. Lift up and down. Lift up and down.

So you're just going for a little walk on. The next time you have a leg up, leave it up. You're going to bend your elbows, reach it out, lift that leg higher. Bend and reach higher bend and reach higher two more times. Bend and reach and lift. Bend and reach and lift other leg comes up. Reach, little lift, bend, reach, lift, bend, reach, lift, fit, two more. Bend, reach, lift and bend. Reach and lift.

So yourself all the way up tall. Reach your arms forward. Then we reach them out to a t and forward. Reach out to a t and four. Try to really sit up tall, like you're having your hair pulled up towards the ceiling or reach out and forward. Two more times. Reach and forward. Last time, reach and forward. Go ahead and hang up the straps.

We're going to switch this spring white to a blue. Um, you could always switch it to a yellow. I'm going for a blue. I think that's like a good weight for me. We're going to be doing some stuff without using the straps, but we are gonna be using the box. So, um, and then we are going to start using the straps again so you can pick up the box and put it on long way. So right up against the edge of the shoulder rests. Um, first exercise is one that I did in a class of another one of my teachers.

Um, her name's Liz and I just thought it was a really fun variation. So you actually come way more forward than you would normally be if you were going to do some sort of pull straps or different variation. So hands are going to be a little bit forward and you're trying not to like sink into the box. So you're going to pull your arms back, lead with your chest, look forward, and then go ahead and release back again. Pull and reach. And then if you are like me, you might need to be reminded not to really lift your head up. You're really trying to just keep your head in line with your spine.

So pull and lift and reach back and do two more like this. Pull and lift and reach back. And one more like this. Pull in reach. Yeah. And then coming back this time we are going to scoot back.

So you're more in your kind of regular position. On the end of the edge of the box, you're gonna grab the straps. I'm going to pry a choke up to the electrical tape and then find a little bit of length through your low back. We're going to start by pulling one arm back and one arm forward and then you switch. So it sort of catches in the middle and you're gonna pull. Now we're gonna add onto it. So the arm that's reaching forward, the opposite leg is going to bend.

So you pull and reach and your goal here is not to let your body really be tugged too much in one direction cause it's going to want to do that. So you really have to concentrate here. I'm staring at the floor, so find something interesting to stare at. Pull back and lift, pull back and one more each side. Pull and Paul and then we go ahead and hang the straps up for a moment just so we can go to the next exercise. While you're here, headrest is going to come up and you're going to take a turn to face the camera. If you don't have a camera, get a camera out because it's always useful to videotape yourself and see what you look like.

So I will go back through this video later and judge myself on every single exercise and how I could've done it better. Um, but what you're going to do is sit kind of on your hip and you're going to let your legs drape over the box and then you're gonna Cross one leg over the other leg. So the cross leg is going to get the strap. You can put it on your foot or you could put it on your ankle. I'm trying not to sync it to my shoulder, so I'm finding length through my waist and my legs are crossed and I'm leaned kind of into it. We're, you're going to do is you're going to uncross your legs, push, bend and reach across. Reach and push and bend and reach across. What is a goofy, goofy looking exercise. Um, but it does not take very long before you start feeling your outer hips.

Having a conversation with you. Reach out and bend across. We'll do a couple more reach and go across and reach and go across. Now we're going to reach, hold it out. Gonna do little lifts up. One, two, three, this is horrible. Four, five, six, seven, eight, eight more. One, two. It hurts like right here, four, five, six, seven and eight. And then you can go ahead and let it come across and then sit yourself up.

And then we'll take the strap off of this foot. And you can always take a quick stretch or you can just move on to the other side. So we're coming over, turning, facing the other way. Legs are kind of hanging off, your hand is down. And then you're gonna take the strap that is now the front strap and the near across your leg. And you're going to put it on what's now the crossed over leg. And again, you're trying to find length through your waist so you don't want to sink.

You're going to reach and push and bend and cross. So this is absolutely my weaker leg. So this side sucks more, but I have a better view go across and down and push across. And push and cross and push. We'll do two more. Looking forward to the sending cross and push hold. Um, I'm lifting this drop of blood cause caught on my knee.

So we'll do a little lifts up. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, eight more, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven and eight. And then we'll go ahead and come out of that and then you can just take this drop off and hang it up. Ran, do a quickie little short box thing, which is really not, um, in any way. Applaud he's exercise. Um, so one day I was teaching my group class, we have a bunch of chairs set up and I was teaching them how to do tendon stretch, but I didn't have a chair to do tendon stretch on. So what I did was I went to two reformers that were basically next to each other and I just put one hand on one foot bar and one hand on the other foot bar and I just pushed down and lifted my feet off. So this is sort of where this exercise started.

But then I realized, you know, if you had the reformer carriage, it could basically be like an iron cross, which obviously I can't do cause who can do an iron cross and I'm not a gymnast and I'm not weight in any way that strong, but I was strong enough to do this variation. So we're going to do is um, one red spring works for me. I know I've had some people, cause I posted on Instagram have tried it and they said they needed a little heavier so you can play around, but you're going to have one hand on the foot bar and one hand on the box you're going to push hand into foot bar, hands box, lift your knees up. So firstly a new little knee lifts, lift one and two and three and four and five. Okay, so take a break if you need a break. Um, what I'm gonna do is have a hand on the foot bar and a hand on the box. We're gonna lift up, begin to push out. So here's your kind of semi iron cross pull to come back in, push out and pull to come back in, push out, pull to come back in. So you've got another one pull to come back in and then lower it all the way down. Those are not easy. Um, but you know, sometimes it's fun to do stuff that's not exactly on the easy side.

We're gonna take the box and put it back where we found it. So back edge of the reformer. This is also our chance to catch our breath and take a break. Um, before we kind of come into our home stretch. So, um, or we come to a blue spring, so one blue, which we are going to have to change, but I just, I want to do kind of everything facing this direction before you switch directions. So head rest down and then go ahead and fold your legs so that they're kind of near the edge of the reformer. Can down on the headrest, grab the strap that's right in front of you and lift your arm up so that your elbow is above your head, which is going to keep the strap from cutting off your nose. Go ahead and begin to push your arms straight and bend, push out and bend. We'll do three more, two and three. Same exercise.

You add a hip lift as you push and come back in hip lift up and back in, lift up and in. Lift up and in on the last one will hold lift. Take your leg over the foot bar, just going to hold it. Try to find the length, talking to myself, probably not to you, and then go ahead and lower everything all the way back down. We're going to stay on this side, which is going to give this arm a little bit of a break and we're going to do a mermaid variation. That's sort of in the Classic Mermaid.

So I'm going to be on one red and then on this version you kind of shoot me up to the shoulder rest. So your legs are both stacked pretty tightly on top of each other. I'm gonna Start with I'm left-hand this way. So left hand down, right arm reaches up, you're going to side reach over, come up, both arms come up. You're going to reach your right arm over. So first we're going to side reach over. This is not correct. The correct way is you actually push your hip out.

But I actually like to divide it up into the two parts. Cause think it feels kind of good. So you keep that left arm reaching, right arm reaches and then you side reach over, come back up. Both arms reach you. Go over arch hips, push hips lift still in the arch. Lift, lift, lift both arms up and you side reach over and get one more of this. You go up, hand down, arch over, push out, arch back. Both arms reach left, hand is down. So now you have your right arm reaching.

You're going to take it underneath your left arm, reach back behind you and pull. So you're coming into a nice stretch. Try to maintain some length through your spine. Okay. And then go ahead and release. We'll do the other side. But remember we started on a blue, so you'll remember if you start doing it and it's done on a blue.

So we're going to turn around to face the other direction. So getting yourself situated, hand is down, legs are kind of to the front edge of the Mat. So you have some room and then your top hand is in the strap and you're not sinking into your bottom shoulder. You're going to push and bend two, three, four and five. And then you add the hip lift, lift and down two and down three and down four lasts. When we stay five reach your top like Ooh, Pelicans. Reach your top leg up, look at the Pelicans, maybe you'll see them. Okay.

And then go ahead and lower everything all the way down. Strap gets hung up. We're going to switch it back to a red for our mermaids. So this time your legs are swung around and stacked in this directions. Totally normal for one side to be your easier side in this variation.

And I don't remember which my easier side is. So hopefully it's this side you're going to side reach over. So really finding length through the side of your waist. Lift your arms up, hand comes down. We're going to arc. Drop your hip, lift your hip, lift back up, arms reach, go over and arms reach. Arm goes over, you arch over, dip your hip, lift your hip, come back, arm reaches and you reach over that one more.

Lift. Really grow tall through your spine. We're going over dip your hip, lift your hip, come all the way up. You've got the lift up, hand comes down. Now you're reaching under you and around and give yourself a little pull so that you are really getting that Nice, almost like wringing out of your spine, which I think feels really, really good. One right is going to work for the next first part of the next exercise. We're going to add a blue when we do knees off, so we're going to do kind of a variation of an overhead press into a nice stretch. So I'm starting on one red spring.

I have terrible Dorsey flection in my ankles, which is actually a very common thing with people with neurological stuff. So my feet won't actually touch, but I'm going to push myself out. So I might even be a little bit in extension, which should feel good for your shoulders and start by bending your elbows and push bend and push. So you're just reaching your arms over your head. And remember when your arms reach over your head, your stability comes from your shoulders.

Actually shrugging a little bit up by your ears. So do a couple more here. Okay. And then come back. And so you can drop your knees down, add a blue sprang, you could add another red spring. Um, you could add no springs. There's many, many options. Can Push yourself back out into that position. This time you're going to hover your knees and if you need to adjust your feet can adjust your feet. Push your legs out, pull in, reach out and in and out. And, and really trying to find that length through your arms, through your legs. Let's do five more one and reached two and n ABS.

Sam and four N, N and five, and in lower your knees down, come all the way in, lose the blue and this time pushed back. Really drop your chest between your arms so you're in a nice stretch through your arms and shoulders. If you want, you can actually bring your hands down to the frame, but I think hands higher actually gives you a little bit of a nicer stretch than you would have otherwise. Okay. Last couple of things. We're going to do a little control front variation and um, I'm going to try not to die doing a single arm version of it. So, um, one red spring is like my spring. Wait for this. You might be a little bit heavier. So the way I like to get into any kind of control front is to start just standing on the carriage hands or on the shoulder rest.

Foot comes down, push herself into a lunge. Come up. Both feet are on, we're gonna do five pushes forward. One, two, three, four, and five. I'm going to go my, my stronger arm first, begin to rotate open. Make sure your hand is stable. Lift your arm up. We're doing five presses. One, two, three, four, [inaudible] and five come back, rotate open the other way. Reach your arm. You've got five, two, three, four, yeah and five nearly. And then come back in. Go ahead and bring a foot down. Come all the way in. Take a little break, shake out your wrist.

It's a little rusty, I think on the shoulder rest just because they're so squishy. Um, so you can always do it with your hands down on the platform. If you prefer to do that, I'm gonna go ahead and come standing to pretty close to the foot bar. One foot on the floor. Your other foot is actually gonna step across to the outside shoulder, wrist. So I need this to be a little heavier.

So I'm gonna go to a red blue and then push your outside leg in and pull it back. So your knee is going to be lifted, your standing leg, knee is bent, and you want to be feeling this kind of outer part of your hip as you're going. So it's out and in. Out. N. N, let's do five, two, three, four, five. You can come all the way in if you want to lighten it up a little bit. I like it a little bit later. You're going to now come to the same side, shoulder rest, bring your foot down and then you're just going to push back into a little bit of a lunge. Your knee can be down or it can be up, so whichever one you prefer, but we're going to add a little rotation so your twist and reach and then come forward, twist and reach and come forward. Do three more, two and three and then you can come all the way in.

We always tell the people not to step over the reformer. So on camera, I'm not going to step over the reformer if I was at my own studio. Totally step over the reformer to come into this, so I'm going to make it a little bit lighter or a little heavier. Sorry to do the same exercise. That outer hip exercise I did on the other side. So you have a standing bent, especially cause this reformer is a little low. Other foot is on the outside shoulder rest push out and in and try not to crash into the stopper. Four, five, six, I think we did about ten seven, eight, nine and 10 you can go ahead and come back in, lose one spring if you want. Your other foot will come on.

You're going to go ahead and push that leg straight. You can push the other leg straight, Ben to come in and then reach open an n reached two and in reached three and in reach for [inaudible] and last one big reach, stretch and then come all the way in to the stopper. We did a lot of outer hips and do a little outer hip stretch. So I like to do pigeon on the back of the reformer, but I actually like to do, cause I have pretty open hips, is to do a close stance into the reformer so that you can actually push your leg past where it would be straight so your knee can be lower. Especially on this because this foot bars not super high, that I can really push my knee down and try to get that stretch a little bit more into my outer hip than I might be able to get, um, facing this way.

So I'm just pushing down, release, push, and I'm actively pressing. So it's a little bit of a PNF stretch because I'm using my outer hips to stretch my outer hips and one more push and come back in. Go ahead and lower that foot, switch to the other side. Again, I'm standing really close so that I can get my leg on the foot bar and I'm just going to push down first and just holding. Okay. And then lift, push and lift.

Push down and lift a couple more times. Okay. Push and hold. Okay. And then come all the way back in, turning back to the camera.

So I'm exhausted, so I'm just gonna say that's it. So thank you for working out with me if you're working at home. Um, if you have any questions, post them in the comment section. I look forward to hearing from you.