Lower Body Reformer

Hi everyone. Thanks for being here. I've had a couple of requests for a lower body focused workout in one specifically, one request specifically for a workout that doesn't involve the arms at all. So good for people who are injured or who does need an arm break. We're going to work on our lower body today. So I have my spring set up for foot work, three reds and in blue is my preference.

And let's just start standing. So standing on your feet. Yeah, organizing your body so that you're all aligned against gravity. The knees over the ankles, the pelvis over the knees, shoulders over the pelvis. Take the arms out to the side and as you do so, lift the chest, lift the chest. So for not doing any arm work per se, let's at least move our arms, reach out to the sides, get taller in your body, and inhale.

Exhale, bring the head down into the chest, lower the body towards the ground, all lifting through the center of the body all the time. And Inhale, as we exhale, we'll push into the floor with our feet. We'll roll our spine back off to stand tall again so we can create some arm work without any tension at all. Reaching the arms out and uplifting the chest. Press the arms out to the side, feel that that reach out pulls the stretch across the chest or makes you feel a stretch across the chest and as the arms come down, then we just let the head get heavy and restart rolling down. And if it feels better to you to do this with bent knees, you may or you could do it with straight lens, but let's just feel that we're really supported in through the center of the body. Take one more inhale. Exhale, roll out.

Feet are actively pushing down that there's lightness in the spine, ease and just when we're in Yari chatted, excellent. Reach out and bring the chin into the chest and peel down. Just using this as a checkin or a moment of bringing ourselves into the moment or bringing ourselves into the present, into the space, into our experience, our moving experience, our bodies. Let me just roll Baca. Maybe taking a moment to set an intention or to let go of whatever you don't need to have in your brain right now so that you could focus on here.

Moving practice. One more time. Arms, chest lifts, arms reach out. They come all the way down to our sides and then we're ready to move more. Okay, so let's come down onto the reformer and stretch the legs out over the foot bar. So again, I've got my spring set up for foot work. You want to get right up, cozy, right up into the front edge. Take the arms forward, round the spine, take an inhale. As you exhale, we're going to articulate the body down, down, pushing down on the bar with the back of the legs, and then letting the head come down. Inhale, lift the head and chest up. Press the lower back into the mat. Roll the warming up. This spine.

Inhale and exhale. Tail Tech, sender legs are reaching down, but also forwards as we just lower our bodies into the bed of the reformer. Bring the head and chest, ah, and curl back. Ah, and inhale and exhale. Rounding down, pressing the thighs together, deepening into the lower spine. Head comes down, arms reach up. You might find that this you just wiggle a little further and further away from where you first started. So if you just need to reset yourself, feel free. I'm gonna Scoot a little forward and then from there I'm going to lift my left thigh just off the bar. We're in a roll down, pausing when we come down just to the shoulder blades in here. Exhale, bend the knee and curl up to that sigh. And inhale, push the leg away and lower Xcel.

Bend the knee and curl in your reach back. Exhale, bend the knee and curl. Inhale, reach back. Exhale, bend the knee and curl. One more time. Reach back, exhale, curl. We're going to stay up this time. Maintain the roundness in the spy. Float the right leg off the bar. Roll down just to the tips of the shoulder blades and then XL curl in and Preso curl the ends that you're drawing the knee and from right underneath the chest, right underneath the sternum and back.

Last two, deepening in the center of the body and back. Last one, curl. Stay there. Place that leg down onto the foot bar. Inhale and Xcel roll down all the way. Bring the knees into the chest, hug the knees into the chest.

Take the arms just out to the side and lift the feet up towards tabletop. Gonna Inhale and bring the knees over in one direction. I'm going to the right. Exhale, come back through center. Inhale, take the legs away and come back through center. So working hard in the center of the body. Taking a breath in as you go. Cross x out to come back. So yeah, we're going to focus on our lower body, but we also need to warm up our trunk. Warm up our center body.

So we'll just do two more to each side. On the inhale, rotate on the exhale. Lift on the inhale, rotate the arms could hover, they can rest down. Exhale and inhale, rotate. Exhale. Last one, reach across, come back to center, lift the chin into the chest, hands come to the knees. You can use your arms to press down if you have some arms to use. I hope we all have arms.

And then we chair at our double leg stretch in here and back and in there and back. Just keeping this shoulder, shoulder joint, mobile open last four hours and then the heck out. And then back last two and back. Last time, hands on the right knee, left leg goes for you. Use your arms to push where you can just lightly hold that knee and hurry. Single leg stretch, heating up the center of the buy and what do four four very nice wide elbows to pulling the elbows energetically apart. Here's number one.

Hands come behind the head. We're going to twist, right, bending the right knee, stretching the left and switch. So as you're rotating, you want to keep the gaze going just outside of the thigh and keep lifting through the body all the time. Meaning as you're coming through center, you're not going down, you're trying to lift higher. We're going to do four more. And Henry Moore, guy keeping the elbows wide married to and last time. And then both of these come in, stretch one leg down, stretch, see how they laid down. Reach forward. Can we get up from here?

I think we can come. Oh, the way app. Let's just take a quick stretch over the size and then swing the legs around to the side to set up the foot bar. So coming all the way down onto the map, heals of the fee on the foot bar. Breathing in arms are long and pressed down into the feet and curl rolling the hip, lifting the pelvis, pressing through the back of the legs. Inhale and exhale. Roll down. Maximizing the articulatory nature of the spine, Eh, and inhale and XL so you could itch your nose with me if you need to.

That's not a required action. And India feel there's the arms if they don't have to push down a lot, but I just want them to energize forward as though they're stretching long with the spy. And inhale and exhale. Heels are pressing down and also pulling backwards towards the back of the hips, warming up the back of the legs. Inhale and exhale as we peel down.

Dan. Dan. Dan. Yeah. And we'll just have to do that twice more. So in here, an excess. We lift up. Yeah. And inhale and exhale as we hello or down.

[inaudible] good. One more time in here. Holding at the top. This time we're going to take the left leg off the bar, bring it up and touch the bar. The knee is bent up and touch the bar. Keeping the hips high and touch the bar last too. And lifting the leg from the center of the body. Last one. Now we're going to lower the body and lift.

Lower the body and lift down. Lift working the back of that supporting like this is our last one. We're gonna place that leg down and roll down through the spine all the way. [inaudible] in healing again. Exhale. Rolling, Huh. Okay.

The opposite leg lifts and back down and Ah, and back down. Oops. And up and back. Down and two and back down at a one. Now the whole body goes down and lifts up, down and lifts up. Four arms are long and straight down and lifts up three down and lifts up to down lifts up one oh both feet on the foot bore. Lift a little higher and rolled down.

Spine is stretching long in both directions. And India at a rolling Baca. Got My Mike back on it. We're good to go. Take the left leg against, straighten it towards the ceiling. Take it down. Flex and pull back down. Flex and pull backs in her. We have a stree leg movement.

Last two hips. Stay high. One more and then we're going to do that same bridging action. Go down and lift up down and lift up. Keeping that lifted like straight as you can. Last two, one more. Bend that knee.

Bring it down onto the foot bar and roll down. Oh the way. All the way, by the way. And again, inhale and again. Heck saw the spine comes up. This is our last one. Hips up high, right? Like stretches up. We take it forward and back forward. Keeping the hips from moving back and forth, keeping the hips from Draka, dropping up and down, rocking back and forth.

Everything's Nice and still, that's our last one. Hold it up and we got down and come up down long are ease in the neck. Oop, straighten that. Straightly last one. Yep. Penry bring that leg down onto the bar. Lift the hips, draw the abdominals in and lower the body down all the way. Okay. You wanna stay on the heels of the feet.

Okay. Going into our footwork, we press the reformer away and resist back in. So can you bring some intention as you're just working in that carriage in and out with some rhythm to work, working through the center of the body? Maybe like the body's velcroed to the carrot and it initiates the movement before the leg does. We'll do three more. Yeah.

Two more. One more. Yeah. Coming onto the toes. Sing into the bar with his feet pressed out and pad, keeping the ankle joint neutral, meaning the heels are lifted as the legs are straight and then they stay still. So there's some change in the ankle joint keeping focused on working the center of the body.

We'll do four more out in back in three more and back and working from the backs of the length each time. One more. Okay. At the bottom, bring the heels together, toes apart in here. Wrap and press back. Resist in wrap and press back.

So lots of different muscles in the legs trying to tap into most of them. Back of the legs. Friends of the legs extend through the knees, rapping through the back of the hips. And five more keeping the scapula or the shoulder blades. Just soft and wide breathing. Sharing your breath to create your rhythm. Last one. And Ben, take the heels to the outside of the bar.

Feel that there are some inner thigh intention, like you're sliding the feet together on the bar and pull. Reach out and bend and keeping the external rotators active as well as the inner thigh muscles and bend [inaudible]. So let's go for okay. Fury two last time. Stay long in the body. As the knees bend today we're going to internally rotate the hips so we stand on the insides of the feet. Knees are touching together.

So respiring the thighs inwards as we press out, separating the knees and then bringing them right back together. Press that separate. Cut Right back. Separate. Come right back in. Breathing. [inaudible].

Okay, four more times out and three and back to [inaudible]. Come into the center of the bar on the toes. Press out all the way. Take the heels down and back up for five down and back up. Lifting through the back of the leg fury, fully articulating the feet to and one bend in and press out for four down to three. Lift three to three.

Lift two to three. Lift one, two, three bent and press that. You see where I'm going? Here we go. Three and two ribs are sof, Wa and Ben. Bend an hour to two down and lift one under an up to bend in. Come back and are each one for repetition and then we alternate up and down a half and then down. Okay.

Breathing. Inhaling. Inhale, exhale and exhale. Get that full range out of each foot. We'll do two. Hopefully you feel your calves by now. I sure do. Last time.

Take a stretch on one side. A Nice thing to do with this stretch is to continue to keep reaching the heel under belt. Let the knee, Ben's at the stretch travels a little higher up, stretching a little bit above, it's a different muscle in the calf really. And then take it down and then switch [inaudible] keep reaching the heel down, although it will lift slightly as you Ben. It's just an energetic oppositional movement, her reach or energy. And then we're going to lift and bend the knees and come back in. Okay, so let's come up. We'll go down just to one spring.

One red is going to be the spring that I'm choosing for myself. And let's take that bar down. Can you do a little sideline hip work today? So lie down onto the side of your body can just reach through with the arms. So there's a lot of different strategies for the arm here.

It's comfortable for me just to lay down on my arm, either bent or straight. Could I'll just get a pillow and put the pillow underneath your head and the scoot the pelvis back. Push off with the bottom leg and bring the top like into the strap. You want to organize your body so that this knee is just behind that strap and that the back is flat or in a neutral position. We're going to lift that top leg up.

It's going to go forward along the frame and bend. And as I bend, I'm reaching just under and just behind the rope. So we feel that we're working through the hip. As we press out and in breathing. My other, I miss just resting, not really using it for anything. So we'll do four and bend theory and bend. Okay, you want to feel work in the back of the leg. Here's our number one. So now with his straight lang, we're going to take that leg back.

That strap might come up into your body or touch you on the arm. Don't worry about it. Take it forward. Find the back of the leg to pull back. So you're reaching like out and away from you. Pull back out in a way from here.

These can be a little challenging for me, so thanks for sticking with me. If they're hard for you to know that. Um, I feel, yeah, we have four to go. Here's number one. [inaudible] the away helps at that back end. He was number two out him back number three [inaudible] and number four. So we're gonna make a circle now we're going to go back, keep the pelvis, lift the leg up and bring it around the front. Pull back. Oh, I know. You'll feel it up in, around to the front and pull back out around in.

I've last two times today that out around and up. So I just think five of these is plenty. If you like, do a few more, feel free. We're going to reverse that circle. Now go up and around the back and forward. Up and around the back. Push away and for three more. Yes, it's normal to feel your bottom hip.

Two and two more up in Oh eight and one more up in a way. And Go ahead and just bend. We're gonna turn back onto our back here. You can either take your foot out of the strap and then put it back in, or just make your way onto your back with your foot still in the strap, we'll do three stretches. The first is to just pulled back on that leg, feeling a stretch up the back of the leg. The second is to take that straight leg and to pull it across the body of the bottom. They can go on the floor, it can go just sat on the foot bar.

Whatever makes you feel the happiest because life is meant to be happy and have choices, right? And I think so. And then we're going to bend that leg in the strap and bring the other knee up to meet it. And I like to just pull with this with the pillow, the springs skyping into that, that hip stretch. All right, let's the foot out of the strap. We'll put the strap away and we'll stretch the legs out onto the foot bar. Lift the head and chest in, rural all the way up, and then we'll switch sides.

Okay? Okay, so lying down on your side. Remember you want to be towards the back end of the reformer. That's just so the strap doesn't get in your way. You're going to put your foot in, bring the legs up to about a 90 degree angle from hip to need to feed.

Head can be down on the arm, straight arm or bend term. I prefer a bent arm personally. Going to take that like straight out and bend it all the while and keeping that nice neutral spine. Nice, neutral back and I'm pressing from the back of my leg. Hand can go on the pelvis. No on the carriage. We'll do three more.

N. E. N. Work that in as well as that last one out and back. Press up all the way. Take the leg back and forward. Pull from the back of the leg. Reach out in a way and follower, hello train.

Keep standing really firmly in that strap like it's a hard surface. It pushing into it as you go forward, pushing into it. As you go back, I think there's five more pulling back and forward pulling back three, pulling back two more times. Last time. Go all the way to the back, lift the leg up, come all the way around and Fart. Oh, the weight it back up. Ah, the way around in forward. Oh, the weight at the back. Externally rotating in the hip last two times. Pull back, reach around and up. One more time.

Pull back, reach around and up, and then we reversed. Yes, I know way back, not so far back. That is going to knock you off balance, but really trying to find your full range of most motion. Remember the idea that the outreach helps to really fire up the back of the leg. We have two more and forward. One more, and then bend in. Yes. Okay, so we've completed that. Let's turn onto our backs.

They seen that free leg down onto the frame or onto the ground. Gonna we're just going to take that strap and give it up. Paul. He can a couple of breasts there. We're going to bring the leg across the body.

You can a couple of breasts there. [inaudible] and then we're going to bend that knee and bring it into that figure. Four stretch and nice hug. [inaudible] and then we're just going to slip that foot out of the strap. Come all the way in. You can hang the strap up.

Gonna just rest the feet onto the foot bar. Bring the arm center. I says we're going to drop both knees over to the left and take the left foot and place it on the right knee. Then pull that right leg down in a way. So we're gonna build up the muscle though. We also want to stretch him and then come back to center. Let's take the foot down and put it out to the outside of the foot bar and then two, oh, let's take both knees over first. Find the stretch there and then take the foot to the knee in.

Don't just pull the foot knee down. Think of pulling the knee down and also away down and also away to maximize that stretch in that upper portion of the hip. Maybe a little stretch in the back. Take the legs out, straight down onto the foot bar. Lift the arms up over the shoulders, lift your head and chest and roll all the way up. And we'll just keep the feet on the foot bar and we'll take a little forward fold stretching the back of the lanes.

We're taking a moment or two to breathe. Okay, so let's roll. Okay, we're going to put the springs on. Let's do all the springs and then I neglected to grab a box. I'm going to do that now. I got my box. Did you get yours?

Okay. Okay, so we're gonna do some lateral movement of the spine. So side overs in a tuck. The one foot underneath of the strap. I'm going to come just one to the outside of the hip, bringing one hand behind had find a straight line in your body.

Take the other arm back behind your head, go all the way over, and then just into a straight line up. Oh the way over. And just into a straight line up. We'll just do three more. Nice and simple. Just want to make sure to move the trunk in all directions. Even though select focus exercise, you might feel this in your hip. Actually, I think there's two more, but I could have made us just missed one.

We'll just do one more to go. One more to grow on and up. I'm going to go all the way over. You can either put your elbow down on the headrest, just reach down and put your hand on the floor. Whatever feels better to you taking that top arm in reaching it overhead. Such a nice stretch.

This one he can bend forward reaching towards the floor, letting the back round forward. He come in, rest the hands on the frame of the reformer and turn the body as we go down and then we'll help ourselves. Then nice and easy. Do the other side, like going across, sitting just on the outside of that hip. Okay. Hands behind the head and go all the way over and up. I think we did five, but it's possible that we did six sort of, you know, do what you know [inaudible] I'll just do two more. Okay, and one more year.

Then again, options to either put the elbow down or the hand down onto the floor and take that arm and reach overhead. Okay, breathing, maybe allowing the body to rotate through. Just slyly rest the hands on the outsides of the frame. Then we'll come in all the way and ah, leave the spring set up as they are. Turn the box to face long ways.

Shouldn't the box to face long ways. And then we're just going to do a little back extension here, but we're not gonna use any straps. It's going to come onto the box. Would I want for us to do is I want for us to place one hand under the other and press your arms against the box so lightly or with more conviction for more firmly. Now lift the chest up, lift the eyes, uh, lift the legs up and we're going to kick, kick, kick, switch, kick, kick, switch. Keep lifting the spine all the time. Kick, kick, switch. Kicking one leg, reaching one leg, two more to each side. One more to each side.

Both legs go straight. Where now we're going to kick both legs. One, two, three and lift the back of the leg. Stretch out and kick. One, two, three. Lift the back as the leg stretch out and kick one, two, three. Lift the back just one more. Kick to three and lifts the back. And then allow the legs to drop towards the floor. Allow the back to have a moment just to rest. [inaudible] and then we're going to come up on the box onto our knees and just take the arms forward and sit back for a little strench [inaudible] and then we're going to sit down.

So I'm just going to sit in profile so that you can see, you can really sit forward or backwards using the box like a chair. When it's to bend the elbows, I'll show you a bunch of different directions. Benny, Elvis, just to about a 90 degree angles, a little bit in front of the shoulders. We're gonna rotate the arms so that the elbows go forward. The hands go back. We're gonna take the arms up and back.

So I'm endeavoring to move mostly through my thoracic spine. Arms reach down and then bend again. I'll show you a set from the back. So again, we go rotate Elvis forward hands back, arms reach up, extending through that thoracic spine. Very similar to what we did in the very beginning of class. Take the arms around and bend and from the front, looks like this. Roti, reach up and back.

Take the arms wide around to the side. But this time as you exhale, we're going to reach forward and around the back. Okay. And then push up and with the arms, lift the chest through the arms at round the back and lists the Ba, opening the chest and round and round all the way down and green the forehead down towards the knees, allowing that room's just to Hayne. [inaudible] Oh, other way. Then have a nice day.