Building Your Snake & Twist

Hi, I'm Kathy Ross Nash here for Palazzos. Anytime I'm sitting on my PyLadies design chair, um, it might be a little different from some of the chairs you're used to. So whatever chair you have at home, understand that sometimes the dimensions and cushions are a little different. This one was what I was used to training on when I was at Dragos with the similar um, pedal with a very small pedal here, very similar to the dimension of the foot bar. It has grids so that when you, your feet could actually hold on to the chair and you can use your whole foot on the chair. Okay. And also, you know, we sweat and Platas or at least I do. And um, it really helps when you're sweaty so you don't slide off.

The other feature that I want to bring to your attention is that this is not very cushioned. The cushion is lovely for when you're doing teasers and when you're doing, um, seated on the chair, it supports you. This is a little more difficult in those exercises, but it does facilitate you in the standing exercises, which is what you know were developed specifically on this piece of apparatus. The other thing I want to bring to your attention is when I changed my springs, I changed my springs from behind so that I can keep my box square. I don't change it. Reaching around supporting cause that just undoes everything that I do in my Pele's work.

You'll notice that there's two springs on here. In my studio I have four springs. The reason is is that when I'm working on the apparatus, I want to be sure that I am honing the correct alignment. If I've chosen to use a piece of Joe's apparatus, there's a reason behind it. We're all trying to build a perfect map, so if I go to the apparatus and my alignment is not correct, I am now actually building in proper form, which I don't want to do, so I use my springs whatever way or amount I need so that the form is correct. If I begin with a lighter spring, then sometimes I'll increase the spring.

Once the form is beautiful to increase the strength, vice versa. Some for certain exercises, I might begin to on the top and move my way down. Or maybe some days you're a little tired or you're a little off and you really still want to get that blood going. Give yourself a little help. Okay, so we're gonna start first working from a foundational level through a core level into the advanced level. Do not try to do this all at once. Build yourself up using the method and the exercises, but at the end of the day, this is a great way to build your snake, twist and star.

So you're gonna Begin by sitting on your chair in a squat. Hands here, do a double leg pull to bring yourself into position and be pretty far back on the chair. We're going to begin with our footwork here. Heels together, toes apart, lengthening the toes over. Then bring your feet together, press the heels, press the knees, draw everything together. This is going to give me maximum stability. I'm going to press one to keep my back nice and straight, my powerhouse lifting in and up for if I want to open up my chest more, I might go here to engage my side body. If I really want to challenge my rib position, I'm a naughty river.

I bring my arms back into this position. Beautiful. From there I'm going to do a double leg. Paul turned my feet out in that parallel position. Lower my heels as much as I need to to draw my heels together without losing the balls of my feet on the chair. Again, I'm going to pull up one, two, three, four. Lengthen the toes over the bar. Seven, eight, nine, 10. Open my chest. Two, three, four, five. Challenge my ribs. Two, three, four, five. Less support I'm going to be hips with apart on the balls, the fee hands can be here. Pull the stomach up, an inset up straight and one I'm only going to do the range of motion, which I can control the stability of my box.

If I start moving around that I have gone way too big of a push and to the side. Two, three, four, five into the back, two, three, four, five. Now I'm going to really challenge my body and I'm going to have one leg up, extended and one down. Press one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Bring the foot down. Find all the toes on the pedal. Pull the stomach in and up. Extend the other leg. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10.

Bring it down. Step down. Remove yourself the same way I have two middle springs. You might want to adjust the springs at this point for going up front. That suits your body. You're going to turn face your pedal, lift up the arms open to the side. Bring them down to get that length. Reach them forward.

Lift them up and place them behind your head. Do a single leg pull to bring your foot up. Press down on the pedal. Do a single leg pulled to come up in your and your front split position. Once again, you draw up in the center of the body. You don't shift forward. Come down. One, two, three, four.

Lift up from the center, drawing your thighs towards each other. Three, four. Lift up slowly. Come down with control. Dismount the way you mounted. Pull the stomach in with control. Single leg, Paul, single leg pull and other side. Left leg lifts. Up box stays. Swear. Press the pedal down. Transfer the weight over.

Single leg pull to come up into your front split position. Lengthen all your toes on the pedal. Lift up slowly. Come down, lift too slowly. Come down, lift three slowly come down with control. Use Your toes on the pedal. Pull the stomach in. Single leg. Pull control and we're going to turn my chair this way. For the next exercise you might want to drop the spring down.

I'm just going to keep it too in the middle right now for front pumping. Stand close to the chairs. You need to stand with your hip over your heel. Pull the stomach in and up. Bring the foot up, press down, grow tall. Up One. Press down, grow tall, and two, press down tall. Three, four, five single light pole down.

Every move we do is an exercise. Pull the stomach in and up. Don't shift, but lift. Press one, press. I stay firmly over my standing leg, hip over heel, press, press, single leg. Pull up. I'm going to do the same thing in a c curve. Single leg. Pull up deep in my c curve in as if I was going to be doing mountain climbing.

This is developing into your mountain climbing. Pull the stomach in. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Bring the leg up and down. Other leg comes up, places into the position. Find that nice low c curve, not here. Here. That's where you're going to find your power. Two, three, four, five, six, seven a. Lift the knee up and calm down.

We're gonna go right into our Achilles stretch. We're gradually working through our joints to develop the strength, which is what the Vonda chair does. Develops your strength. Now, because I'm already here, I'm going to actually challenge my midline. Take my hands in the center for this chair. Pull my stomach and I could always move it out to the side, but because this is more advanced over here, I'm going to bring it to the center and press and one press and to press and three press and for press and five, six, seven last one a. Pull the stomach in. Single leg pull. Bring it down, pull the stomach in. Hands. Come forward foot to the pedal.

Square off the box. Stretch that back leg. Square the shoulders. Press one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Pull the stomach in. Lengthen and come down. Now we're going to work on going upside. We're going to do the advanced mount today facing the side of the chair.

You're going to do a single leg pull and press the pedal down. Notice I'm not compromising the alignment of my knee. I keep my box square and I do aside bicycle lifting my knee or hip stretch to go up. Hands behind the head. You're going to draw up and come down. Five, four, three, two, one. Draw up, come down. Five, four, three, two, one. Draw up down five, four, three, two, one.

Now I'm going to show you a variation that I added on here to really help build the strength of the hip. I added a side bend into it. So from here as you go up, you side bend and lengthen down and side bed and length and down and side bend and lengthen down. Square off your hips. Bring this leg in like a sidekick. Bring it back, control the pedal up and go onto the other side. You get the rear view we're going to face this way. I get the beautiful view of the ocean. You get my tushy. Pull the stomach in.

Press the pedal down with control. Bring your foot up, pull the stomach up and in and draw up. Slowly come down and to slowly come down and three slowly come down side Ben. Oh, this feels so good and open and up and open. Try to keep the hip over the heel and the shoulder over the hip and not shift.

Pull the stomach in. Bring the leg back control and bring it up. You're going to go to the back of your apparatus and you're going to put it under one spring. We're going to do the murder person, so we're going to begin facing this way. Extend your legs. Let's cross the front leg. The spring leg. I was taught many variations. I was taught here.

I was taught here if the person lifts this hip, but this is probably my favorite way to do it. So we're going to cross this way. You're going to extend the arm up. Lengthen this hip stays on the mat. This hand reaches over. I want your hand to be this direction as if you are holding the foot bar on the reformer. Pull the stomach in. Keep the hip down and come up.

Lift over. Anchor the hip. Keep the shoulders in line with the hips, the hips in line with the shoulders. Pull the stomach in and come up. Lift up, lengthen over. We're going to bend the arm. Turn the head and because we're developing our snake and twist, we're going to place the hand on the pedal. Keep the hips down. Stretch one. This is a tremendous stretch on the left side and tremendous work on the right abdominal muscles.

Come back deep in your stretch. Go as deep as you can. Go lengthen out and come up to the other side. Once again, you're going to sit down, cross the left leg over the right extend up. You will find that pedal I hope and reach over.

Keep the shoulders over the hips. Long left side. Don't rest on the pedal. You control the spring. The spring does not control you. Lift up. I push with my chest open as the pedal goes down and I still push on the pedal to come back up. No free rides in PyLadies. Lift up, reach over, bend, turn, reach one reached to reach three reach four.

It's so deep. I even get a cramp on that left side. Stretch it, deepen it, lengthen it, come all the way up and good. Now. Now that we've worked our side bodies, we're going to challenge that strength that we've developed and we're going to do the leg press front, Paul this stomach in and you're going to do a leg circle to bring your leg up. Really Watch that the hip stays over the heel. Press the pedal down and up. Press two and up.

Press three and up. See Curve, pull it in and the c curve moves it and up c curve deepens it. Think of that little bird tipping its nose into the water and up. Reach it across other way. Don't move the box. Bring that leg up, drop down, heel goes right in line with the hip. Pull the stomach in. I prefer a parallel leg. It's done here.

Turned out or parallel, depends on the need of your student and their leg. Alignment and up. C curve. Pull in and up. C curve, pull in and up. C curve, pull it and up and just as with everything, it's an exercise to remove your leg. Now we're going to go to side pumping. K, I'm going to begin with my right leg from here. I'm a little closer. Pull the stomach in and up.

I'm keeping my hands here so that you can see the box. Stay Square. Use the hand position that you might need to suit you and I'm going to press one, press two, press three, press four, press five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. All of this side, body, motion and strength is needed for what? I'm going to do my snake and twist. Pull the stomach up and in. Bring the foot back up. Press one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine up, lifted up, and now we did it. Bent leg. We're going to do it straight leg, just like on your mat work. Pull the stomach up and then bring yourself a little further back so that you could be a little forward on the angle. Whoops.

Drunk again and up and around. Pull it in. Draw your legs together. Imagine that you're bringing that reformer carriage up and in, in, in, and open. Up and in, in, in, and up and in, in, in. Lift the leg up with control. Bring it downturn face the other way. Pull the stomach up in, in square the box, bring the leg over and forward.

Think about really drawing the pedal in and press on that spring as it goes up. Pull it in. Grow Tall, hip over heel, box square, zip the stomach up. There's a lot of energy going on here. Press grow, grow and lift up. The body shouldn't move, but it should make space in the spine as that spring lengthens down and engages and up and remove. I always think of that. Every engagement of the spring is the length that happens in my spine.

So we're going to do crossover pumping here. We're going to step here and I'm going to take my hands here like I do on the side. Pull up, step my foot over here to protect my knee and stand up straight. You can do this on two springs if you would like. Lift, press one, lift, press to lift, press three, grow tall, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine and 10. Lean into your chair like your side. Pull up to release that spring. Here's your side bend position. And once again, liking your merch person. The hip brings you back.

Turn face the other direction. Pull the stomach up and in. Find your side. Pull up position into your Neal at euro sideline side. Inner thigh kicks. Stand yourself up hip over heel lift, press grow, lift too.

These are all those inner thigh exercises. Three, four, five. Push down on the standing leg. Lengthen out of the head. Keep the box square, Paul the stomach up and in and drop that tailbone towards your heel. Lean in, release the spring. Step your foot over and have your hip drag you up into position. Excellent. Now we're going to do everything to the front and side to the back.

As you progress, you can do all of them together. Front, side, back your pumpings in your presses. Okay, we're breaking it apart into levels today. So you're going to stand here. You're going to do a single leg, kick a bicycle back. Lift your thigh up as if you're doing Clara stretches, square the hips. Grow Tall. Press one, press two, press three breaths four, press five, lift it, bring it in. Bring it up, press it down. Right leg goes up.

Touch the needs of the knee. Lift the thigh, find your foot on that pedal. Press one, press two. Try to really square your shoulders. These, this is the twist for your snake and twist. Press up, press up, press up, lift it for control. Bring it in. Bring it up, press it down.

There are so many developmental exercises that we need to strengthen and hone our body before we do super advanced work. You cannot leave it out. You have to build it as a method. We build it. Pull the stomach in a little further away. This time we're going to do our legs circle. Find the pedal behind us. Pull the stomach in and press and up to and up.

Fight for those shoulders forward up. Stretch the leg up. Last one up. Lift the leg. Bring it around and front. Pull the stomach in. Circle the leg back. Think about all your leg circles up. Length in press one. Press two, press lift the chest square, the rib cage long. Push through that heel.

Lengthen out of the top of the head. Pull the stomach up and in. Bring it around and down. Okay, we're going to go back to the chair. We're going to add some springs cause we're going to do the pull up. Casey, you're going to put the springs where you would like them. Stand in the front of the chair, lift up, bring your hands down to the chair. Single egg pool. Press it, press it. Now try to keep your shoulders over your wrist, not to shift forward, but pull up into yourself and then lower the tail down.

Pull up the waist up and then tail tail down. Lift up, up, up, tailbone down, down, down, and your knees. And you're going to go right into frog. Facing front. Don't sit on those heels. Make sure that you lift a little up. Bring it up. Come up, push one, push two, push. Push. Four, push five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Keep the heels to the seat.

Go down, go up, pan. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Lift the heels. Go down, go up breast and down. Paul the stomach in and release the pedal to turn face the other way. We're going to come to here and place the fee on to here and come down. Pull the stomach up and in and press. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, 10, nine, eight, six, five, four, three, two, one and in lift up. One, two, three, four, five, six, eight, nine, 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one down. Lift up, come in and let's put it on one in the middle. We're going to do our arm frog and our shoulder bridge.

Press so carefully. Hold one spring with two hands. Change your spring where you want to put it first and then disengage to be on one spring. Notice there's a lot of arm leg connection happening. Pull the stomach up and in. Lift up.

Glue those heels together and bend your knees down with a straight back press and lift. Notice I'm not dead on my legs. Press my whole body works. Polities is that whole body workout and lift, press, press, press, hand come center right hand behind the head. Now I'm challenging that twist that I'm going to need when I only have one hand on that pedal and switch. One, two, three, four, and two hands. Press all the way up.

Working the articulation. I'm going to come down, lie down on the floor, pull the stomach up and en. Place my feet on the pedal. Pull it in and up. Pull it to and up. Pull it three and up. Roll Up. One, two, three. Roll down, bring it up, bring it down, bring it up, roll it down, bring it up, bring it down, bring it up, roll it down, bring it up, pedal down, pelvis up, rural down. That was a nice articulation. Warm up for what's going to come next.

Okay, so you're going to do a long back stretch. Push up. So the first push up that we're going to do is push up. Number one, developing that arm connection to a straight body. You're going to lengthen over here. I need a straight chair and this arm is going to the side. Nothing moves. Press the spring one, press two, stomach stays off the chair. Three, four and five. Pull the stomach in. Roll up, lift up, open, and press good.

I'm going to turn the chair this way for the next side so you can see it and as we go into the rest of the pushups, you're going to lift all the way up. Come down into position. Two legs. Leave at once out here, press one, press two, press three, press four. Press five hands here. Pull the stomach in. Lift up, open, open, open, press. Good.

Now what we're going to do is we're going to sit sideways onto the chair for a little twisted Swann. Nothing like a little twisted swan. So we do our merch person down in position. Paul the stomach in and you're going to take your legs, separate your legs and your arms on the pedal. You're going to come up. Don't let that bottom like turn out and in.

Pull the pedal up one and lengthen. Pull the pedal up two and lengthen. Make it more difficult. Draw the legs together. One, two, three. Keep the pedal down. Flip onto your pelvis, square it. Lengthen up, open. Open the chest up. Open the chest. Up into a plank.

Pull the stomach in, pull it in, pull it in, come down, turn to the other side. Legs Open, twist one and down to is two and down. Hmm. Think this is my easier side and down. Draw other legs together. Up, up. We all have one up. Flow all the way up and come off.

Now we're going to go into the second set of pushups. We're going to go into push up side two and three so we're going to begin here. Feel free to measure out that you are going to be in the middle. When you walk back, lift all the way up, arms down, roll down, leave the pedal up, walked directly back from where you are. One. Don't move those shoulders. Two, three, four. Press one. Keep the box square, press two, press three, press four, press five. Pull this stomach in. Walk with the pedal up heels together.

Press your hands down, roll up and open. You can also just have your hand meat as it comes up. I like to give myself that little stretch, a little dessert for my Lyft. All the way up. Arms down, hand goes down. Press walk back. One, two, three. I'll show you the other dismount on this side. One, two, three, four, five.

Leave the pedal up. Walk in. One, two, three, four. The hands meet as they will open. Next level of our push up. Push up three. You're going to have a hand on the pedal and a hand on the chair seat. Lift all the way up.

Line your midline up with this part of the chair. Press it down. Keep your pedal up. Walk. One, two, three, four. Bend the elbow that's on the chair. Seat up one. Then the elbow a to bend the elbow. Three last one, four. Walk in, one, two, three, four and roll all the way up and press. Come to the other side.

Lift up, arms down, scoop the stomach back. Walk back. One, two, three, four, bend and up. Lean forward Ben and two bin three. Last one, Bin Four. Walk back, one, two, three, four. Lift all the way up. Open and press for the fourth pushup.

We're going to begin here. Lift all the way up. Take our arms down, pull this dummy in and up. Bring it up, walk it all the way out and everything. One everything too. Everything. Three, walk back. One, two, three.

Lift this leg up to get ready for your working. One side, one, two, three. Walk it in and up. Up. Sometimes you push back when you shouldn't and come down, lifted up, walk out, press, make space through step. That's that. Push down with the c curve. Lift up, open and press. Beautiful.

Now we're going to go over to our side. Pull up. We're going to put it on two springs. You could use whatever springs you want depending on the strength of your springs. Some springs are lighter springs than others and you need a little more help. These tend to be a little light. Um, which is fine. It's good.

Makes me work a little bit more. So we're going to stand on the side here. Just like my going up side. I'm going to press this down and come over from here. You're going to pull up one, pull up to pull up three, keep it all the way up and lift the leg on to three. Now as the pedal comes up, come down and up, down, up, down, up, all the way down.

Step back control and go to the other side. Press down here, leg lift and one lift. There's all different foot options for this. I like this one because it really gets me ready for my side body, for my star. Lift leg up down, one, down, two down, three and up, down, up, down, up, down.

Turn facing this direction and we're going to step off. Before we go into table, I like to get into table from this position beginning so that you understand that getting into the position will help you get into the right position to work the body and open the part of the body that you need to open. Hands back and do a double leg. Pull and bring your feet up. You can have your legs, hips with apart, parallel heels together, toes apart. I'm going to do hips with a part today. Roll the shoulders back.

Don't let my pedal move and come up into the table. Keep the pelvis quiet. Three, four, five, six, eight, nine, 10, 10, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. Who Rule all the way down? Turn around. Go right up the mountain and press down. Step up, hands down into position. One, two, three, four, six, seven, eight. Roll Up. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and hold. Three, four, five, six, seven. Roll down. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Bring it down to a single leg. Pull.

Do a single leg. Pull right to the other side. One, two, three, four, five, six. Then eight roll up. Two, three, four, five, six, seven and hold. Four, five, six, seven. Roll to three or five. Six, seven, eight. Come down, pull all the stomach in. Come right to side. Mountain climbing. Come up, bend. One, two, three, six, seven, eight, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Press down, turn, face the other way. Bring the foot up. Lift up straight back. One, three, four, five, eight, two, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Press up and down. Turn face fully this way. Pull your stomach up and in.

We're going to do tendon and down to and down. Three a little tricky, fun transition on the top of tendon. Bring the foot back and go right into your front mountain climbing. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven and open. Four, five, six, seven and up to three, five, six, seven, eight. Forward two, three, four, five, seven, eight.

Press it down. Press it down. Make that change. Pull in this way. You're incorporating all those exercises we did in the beginning. One, two, three, four, seven, eight. You always have to build your workout. No matter what you are doing. You build from the top to the bottom with meaning pressed down.

Lengthen, and now we're going to do the star. I'm going to turn the chair to face this direction. Okay, let's get ready for the star. After all that, everything that we've been doing is building for these next two exercises, so I'm going to actually do a variation that my most beloved teacher, Ramana gave me one day in the studio. I was doing this star and somewhere after doing all these variations, she said, star bicycle. I was like star, bicycle and being the student that we all were, whatever she asked for us, we did it. So here it goes. You're going to step into the position. Hand behind leg is up.

Lift up, control down, one lift up, tunes roll down to lift up. Keep your pedal up, bring it up, bend it in. FY goes back and stretch. Bring it up, bend it in. Pedal goes down. Kick it up, bend it in, pedal goose down, reverse up in. Pedal goes down, reach it up in. Pedal goes down, and as with every star in the sky, it has to end lifting high.

Otherwise lift down, keep it up. Forward, bent back forward. Bend down, forward. Bend Down, rivers, back in, forward, back, forward, back and forward. Lift, lift, lift and okay, down. Now we're going to go into a little schnick and twists.

Yeah, I'm going to remove one spring. Remember to use one hand, adjust your springs where you need. Now on this apparatus, I'm going to be working on this side of the diamond. My thigh goes along there. This a cushioning does not allow for any cheating. So the first one I'm going to do as my arm by my ear so that I get the length. First is the snake. The hip doesn't move.

Then the twist, one line between arm and leg come back and my powerhouse pulls me back. Then I'm going to follow my hand, deepen the twist. Okay. From there, follow my hand and come up. Reach my arm again.

Lengthen all the way out into the old fashioned touch. Reach back, back, back and touch. Reach back, back, back. Peddle up. Paddle back. Pedal up. Paddle back into my fish.

Up, up, up. Lengthen. Control, control, control and other side. Lengthen up. Very slippery pants today. Lift all the way up down what we do for fashion. Reach and then twists.

Scoop. [inaudible]. Oh, follow the arm. Follow the arm. Follow the R. Lengthen. Follow the arm. Follow the arm. Follow the our reach all the way out. All the way out. All the way out. Bring it in.

Hurry, chip back, boring it in. [inaudible] chip back, pedal up in, re chip back into my fish. One my fish too. My fish. Three. I'm in California. I gotta go fishing. Uh Huh. Finish. And that's the one day [inaudible].