Reformer Strap Flow

Welcome everyone. We are about to do a reformer workout with straps. So I'm working today with Aaron and Aaron and we're going to be a working all around this reformer and we're going to be doing strap work in every position. It's a full body workout and everybody loves the straps. So you guys ready to go? Let's get started. We're going to begin seated in the back rowing position.

Roll Down w/Arm Extension

Let's begin with really soft arms, so bring it forward until there's no tension in those straps. Breathe in and then XL, roll down. Use Your glutes, use your abs, flex down. Now breathe in. Bring those hands right into your chest for that one. Then exhale, flex forward with your hands in your chest and then stack the spine up, releasing the arms forward so you get some openness at the end. Beautiful. Let's do that again. XL to roll down. Inhale.

Then exhale to fold forward over your legs. Think of keeping that c curve and head down, and then stack your spine up. And your goal is to main is to hit a neutral at the top. So a nice length and position. Let's do that one more time just to get your spine nice and mobile.

Flex down and get your abs and gauge and your inner thighs engaged for me. Now flex forward and stack your spine up. We're going to add to that. So we do flection. Now we're going to do a little extension. So you're going to roll down the same way. Don't let your hands touch, keep them separated a little bit. Breathe in. Then exhale, flex forward. As you come up to the top, reach your arms out to the side and you're going to extend your spine by pressing your arms back and give me a nice big breath in. And then exhale, come back to the center and flex and roll down.

So try to make it a nice fluid movement. Come forward, breathing in and lengthen up and press. Yeah, so it all kind of comes together there. And then full x back down. Xcel, beautiful job, Aron burry. Then exhale forward both of them in Hela, and then come back down through, drop the abs in, pull the glutes underneath. Beautiful. And then coming back over and all the way up and press back. Beautiful work, and come back down through. All right, so now what I would like you to do is put your right strap over your shoulder. So you're just holding onto the left one.

Roll Down w/Single Arm Rotation

You're going to take your free hand and place it on your hip and you're going to punch across your body with that arm and then come back to center and do that again. Exhale, punch in. How? Come back to center. One more time. Punch. Come back to center. Bring your other hand up to match it. Fold forward over your legs for me and then stack your spine back up. So that was a really beautiful [inaudible] way to do a punch. But I said punch. So we're going to punch this time. All right, you're ready.

So Bree, then you're going to exhale. Roll down through. Take your free hand, place it on your hip. You're going to try to punch back. So Punch behind you. Move that carriage out a little bit. Give me a punch, but control it. Punch. Come back to the center, bring your other hand stack forward, and then stack the spine back up. Here's what we're going to do. Take your legs on the outside of the shoulder. Rest for me. Yeah. Now what we can do there is give yourself a little help stabilizing the pelvis with a little adductor press there. Let's do the same exercise XL.

Roll down through. So gently pressing those legs against the shoulder rest to help you control it. Now hand on your hip and punch across. Now try to move it, move it backward. Come on, you can do it Aaron. Punch across. Now come back to center. Hands next to each other. Fold forward and then stack this. I got them. Stack the spine all the way up.

Beautiful. Let's put the legs back inside and let's switch to the other strap and we're going to begin the same way. So you're nice and even sitting tall. Breathing, hands separated. Exhale, roll down. Now feel any difference between one side and the other here. The unilateral work is really good for pointing out your strengths fold forward and your other things. Weaknesses, come on now. Let's do that again. XL Roll down through abs in tight inner thighs lot. Good. Now flex forward.

Really good breathing and lengthen back up. So let's do that again. Exhale as we go down. Inhale, stay there. Exhale to flex forward, and then inhale, come back up. Let's try our punch. Exhale, roll down. Hand to your hip. Now give me that good solid punch across and back and again, punch across and come back. One more time. Punch out there. Come back, hands x here, each other. Fold forward and come back up.

And now we're going to add power to it. So we're going to take the legs to the outside of those shoulder rest. You're going to give them a little squeeze with your legs. You're going to roll down through exhale, take your free hand to your hip and now punch back. Give it a little more oomph. This time come on, punch like you mean it it. One more time, punch across, come back to the center, hands next to each other, fold forward over your legs and then stack your spine all the way up. Beautiful.

Now we're going to move on to a side series. So for this one you're going to be facing in this direction and you're going to come up onto your knees when you come up onto your knees. Most of this can be done seated too if you're not comfortable on your knees, but you want to have your knees about hip to shoulder distance apart. Spring can stay the same. That one heavy spring, you're going to grab your back strap. That's it. So the one behind you and then spine to it.

Kneeling Arms w/Rotation

Now we're going to add to that. So you're gonna start seated back on your heels. As you rotate, you're going to come back up tall. So rotate and lengthen the hip and then sit back down. And again, exhale, spiral up. That's it. Control that carriage on. Slamming into the stopper. I didn't hear that. And come on back up.

Rotate that back down through. One more time. Spiral up. Feel it coming all the way up to the top of your head and then all the way back down. Good. All right, from there, letting go with the outside hand. Hang onto that strap. Still put your hand on your hip and you can come up into the full kneeling position here and you're just going to punch that across.

Kneeling Arms w/Rotational Reach

Don't let it hit the stop on punch axle. Yes. And come all the way back around. Good. Same Strap. Hold it right here next to you like you're like you're talking on your phone. There you go. And then you're just gonna press it right over your head and come back into hold onto your phone. You don't want to drop it. There you go.

Kneeling Arms w/Reach & Lateral Flexion

Once you're there, you're going to grab that back strap, going to hold your arms in a circle and you're going to rotate back toward this pulley to begin with. And then exhale, turn and health to come back. Beautiful. And the arms are under this nice just rounded position with your hands, right in line with your sternum the whole time. And then we're going to focus on the hips, not moving. So you're going to keep the hips right here. Yeah. And turn away from them.

Beautiful. Really good. That's it. And again, rotate and don't pull the elbow back too far here, right there is good. Go any further. And then you start to kind of twist in the body. So one more time right there. Stop. Yeah, and come forward. All right, sitting back on your heels, you're going to come up with that rotation. So rotate and come up and inhale back down and XL rotate and spiral up. So you want to think of it starting from the bottom here, from the knee and then right up through the hip, through the rib, through the top of the head, and then come back down. Good.

And give me that good rotation. Just keep breathing and back down. And one more time. Come on up, rotate. Beautiful. And then all the way back down and really nice area. Now I want you to come up. We're going to do our punches. So hand on your hip and punch and rotate. Xcel across in how control it on the way back.

So you're bending and you're bending back for this first part. Good glutes are engaged, abs are engaged, breath is flowing. And come back down through two more times and press good. And one more time. Stir the pot after this one. Then come back. Here we go. Here we go. So you're going to press yes and then open it back. Woo.

And again for as across, then long lever makes this harder. Open back with control and again, XL press nice and rotate back. And two more times for us out there and rotate that. Try to keep the shoulders level. Yes, there you go. And back across. We have one more right Xcel across if you say so and then come back.

But then Anna, right by your ear, press it right up over your head. So shoulder press up and put that other arm as a brace right against your side for now. Yeah. And that will help you stabilize it. I'll help you balance. Reach it right up. Long wrist for me. Yeah. Right there. And Punch. Now we're going to add that flection. So as you press your gonna flex over and then you're going to come all the way back up. Let's do that again. Good.

And come back and again, pressing and reaching. Really Nice. Now use that opposite arm. You got it. One more press and reach. You got it. And then come all the way back. Really good. Now you're just going to put that strap down for a second and you're going to turn and face the front. So we're going to go into our front rowing position here. So here, um, yeah, you can face, sorry, the foot bar in that front.

We're going to keep the springs the same and you're going to grab a strap in each hand. For this one, you can still do it kneeling, but I like this one seated like this. And what I'd want you to do is just a reach forward just here reaching forward and coming back. So one of the great things about the reformer is that you can face all different directions and really do a lot of the same movement patterns and work your body from front to back here. So just exhale, reaching forward, staying tall and coming back in. And let's do that one more time. Press and come back. Now I want you to flip your hands over so that they're up above your shoulders here. Yup. And you're going to do an incline chest press.

Arms Reaching Forward

Arms w/Diagonal Reach

Arms w/Diagonal Reach & Forward Flexion

You want to keep the spine. Yes. Right there. Beautiful. And two more times to feel the obs here. Press come back up. She's like, I think so. And one more time, press right over and come all the way back up. Yes. Excellent. So that gives you some really good ab work. Put those straps down just for a second. And we're gonna move on now into some feed and strap works. So for this one, we're going to go to our, uh, two heavy springs.

Bend and Stretch

So legs, tabletop, and then you're going to XL. Just press right out there and inhale, come in. So hold on for a second, just give me a big breath. And as you exhale, relax your shoulders, relax your ribs, relax your neck. Beautiful. And again, fluoresce out on your exhale and come back in and you want those adductors working here. So try to keep the legs together. Yep. And come back in and give me two more of those pressing out and come back in in straps is probably my absolute favorite thing to do. So now you're going to keep your leg straight and we're going to lift and lower. So you lift them up.

Lift and Lower

So one leg will lift and the other one will bend. So breathe in, bend one leg, pick favor and that dress back out and then just switch. So it's like our Pato Shah or Stag, but it's in parallel and in hell to come in and Xcel depressor way. So you're showing nice, good kind of mental coordination here. Yes, very good. And the toes can just be gently pointed the whole time. That's great. And reach back out. How's that feel?

Bend and Lift

Short Spine Massage

Now let's not hang out in those too long with them. Have a little more fluidly, so turn the parallel and hitch breathe in and XL and roll out. But that was beautiful control. Then bend the knees, breathe in dot too low and then XL roll down through keeping those heels pressed together. Then pull the beat on the seat down and press out. It feels so good, doesn't it? One more. Inhale, hinge. Exhale, roll up. Inhale, bend the knees, and then exhale, roll down away from the feet. Really Nice Aaron, and then pull the feet in the seat down and then press out. We're going to do that in reverse, so bend your knees, breathe in.

Turn the legs out. Now XL, roll back. Find your stopper doctor character. Then send the legs up. Now roll down with your legs straight. If you can get all the way down, great. If not, you might need to soften your and press the straps back to the start position. Turn your legs out, bend your knees, Flex your feet, breathe in. Exhale, roll back that carriage. Send the legs up. Feel that stretch now.

Roll down through beautiful Aron and then press out of your camera, straight legs, or if you need to slightly bend them, you can do that one more time. Bend your knees, breathe in. Exhale, roll back. Now send the legs up. Then you're going to roll down through and press out. Beautifully done. Now we're going to cross those straps. So what I want you to do is take them off the feet they're on and put them on the other feet. That's it.

Bend and Stretch w/Strap Crossover

You've got that really good controlled is the beautiful XL for us out because what we've done is changed the stabilizers from the inner thighs to the outer thighs. Just relax your shoulders. There you go. And come back in. They always want to help, right? I can help. I can help XL for us out and come back and keeping those legs the same distance apart. Really Nice work guys, and just hold them straight care and let's do our lift and lower. Breathe in the legs. Go up and then exhale to come back down. That's it, and we're going to do that again. Breathe in. The legs go up.

Lift and Lower w/Strap Crossover

Single Leg Bend w/External Rotation

So get those straps to touch. That means your feet have to be at the same height. Breathe in and band. Yeah, you see how this one's dropped down a little bit? You can lift it up. There you go. And press back out. Good and inhale and bend one leg bend. So this heel should be right in the center here. There you go.

And then press back out. Let's do the other side then. So this light goes right down the center. Really Nice Aron and then press back out and let's do one more on each side shall we? You ever just getting it in bed and breathe in and then Xcel back out. Now as always, want to make sure that the hips aren't rolling all around that carriage. You want to make sure that they stay stable is a really hard exercise to do that with and come all the way out to the center. Beautiful.

Now Bend your legs back into parallel for me. Yeah, and tabletop. And we're going to do our bend and stretch, but we're going to add a little ab duction. So that means as you press out, you're going to press them apart just wider than your shoulders. And then you're going to come back into your tabletop position. You want the carriage to move, so pressed out and open, and then come back and beautiful. Don't externally rotate. Think of your heels pressing out first.

Bend and Stretch w/Medial Rotation

Fun Little Series, Huh? Now you're going to come up off the carriage. And we're going to go back into our one heavy spring for the next series because we are going to be sitting close to where you were in the very beginning. It's that back rowing position but a little bit different cause we're going to do what I call the reverse teaser series. So you're going to be sitting facing your shoulder rest and you're going to put your heels, bend your knees, scoop forward. So you're almost in the middle or even a little bit further forward than that.

Roll Down w/Arm Extension

Now roll forward from there and come all the way back up. Now we're in the right spot. Everybody might be a little bit lead different position on that. Let's do that again. Xcel roll down. Make sure you're still in that really good spot where the shoulder blades are just off the edge. We're good. And then come back up.

Now if you've got long hair, we want to Tuck it out of the way so it doesn't get caught in the springs. So we can either tuck that into your shirt or just keep it out of the way there. So you're going to be back off the, off the sit bones on an angle here. So think the position you're in for teaser now turn. And we're going to do a bicep curl with this. So roll down.

And not only are you bringing your hands to your shoulders, but you're bringing your elbows to the carriage. Yep. And then come forward and reach up. Yes. And now stay off the sit bones. There you go. And rural back and come forward and up. We're going to add a little bit to this. So you're gonna roll down and you're going to continue and you're just going to extend back. Yep.

And then come forward and roll up pretty good. Except we've got to extend your spine, not just your arms. So rolled down and now extend that back off the edge. But you don't have to bring your arms by your ears. They can reach up slightly up toward the ceiling. Yes.

And then bend your elbows and reach forward and come up. That should feel really good actually. And again rolled down. I'm hoping it does anyway. And then reach back and extend. Yeah. And let that extension happen. Control the head position. Come forward and up. Now all we do is lift your legs into tabletop. There we go.

Roll Down w/Arm and Leg Extension

And then bend your elbows, come back through your table Top, come up and balanced. You can do it that way or if you really want to go for it, you straighten your legs out, it's up to you. Roll down. You got to drive those elbows down in order to make this work and then extend your spine. Otherwise you plop and don't roll and then bend your elbows and see if you can keep your legs there as you come up and regional is so gorgeous. One more time. Roll down, breathe in now. Exhale to extend and then breathe in and then roll up and find your balance point. That is so awesome. Really good job you guys. Okay, now come on off there for a second and we're going to go onto our long box here.

So I'm going to bring this out and just place it right up here against the shoulder rest like so. And I would say that one heavy spring, that one full spring is going to be enough for this. You may need to go down to a light spring for the second part. I'll help you guys with that. Um, you're going to lay on that like a surfboard over the head rest end. Yeah. And then arms pulling straps. We know that, right?

Pulling Straps

Now you're a little lifted here. We can come down a little bit and then down. Good. As you're doing this, you're gonna feel like you want to lift up. So just keep that nice neutral position and come forward. We good. Pull that back and hold it back there for a second for me. Show me this perfect position here.

Kind of a streamlined from head to toes and we're going to do little pulses up toward the ceiling for five and four with the back of the shoulder here. Three not so much thinking about the hands, but the back of the shoulders. One more and then come all way forward and down. Beautiful. Okay, so this is where we're going to adjust our spring and I'm going to go to a light spring, so I'm just putting a blue one on these guys because we're going to be doing a lot kind of a reciprocal work. So you're going to come into that same long line heart arms toward the floor and just hold your arms down at the floor straight toward the floor.

Single Arm Pulling Straps w/Oppositional Arm Extension

Make sure your inhale until they come together and then exhale to pull. How are we doing? Aron? You okay over here and pull? Yeah, so and on surfing you wouldn't be here. You'd be lifted. So come up into your extended position and stay up as you switch and exhale in fall. Oh my God. These guys are pros. Really good. Strong legs. You feeling it pulled back. Come through the center and use your exhale here. Yes. And you can see the leg sometimes swing around.

That means we're not holding the pelvis completely steady. There you go. It's a lot of focus. Long back of the neck. One more time. Pull. Come back to the center and guys just relax down over the box. You can put those straps on the holder for a second. Cross your hands just for a second over the headrest and let your upper body flex forward just to give your neck and your upper back.

A little bit of break there. Yes. All right, so now you get to slide off and I'm gonna have you spin around and face the other way. So you're gonna grab your straps like this. You're going to pull a box out and grab it, and then you're going to lay on your surfboard. Let's do it that way. There you go. So pull it out facing over the spring end now. And then thighs first, not knees. Perfect. Good. And this is a pretty light spring, but we're going to do alternating.

Prone Alternating Bicep Curl

Now after your, even Ben both elbows for me and take your hands up by your ears, like you're answering two phones at the same time, and then just punch them right over your head and come back to that position. Yeah, and exhale. Press. Now the straps can either be above your arms if you're pressing a little lower. Yeah, or they can be below if, yeah, there you go. That's it. Either way it's fine. As long as it's not like rubbing into your arm.

Prone Arm Reach

And what I want you to do now is you're going to go into one heavy spring again, and we're going to flip you over on the box one more time. You're going to be laying on your back with your head over the head rest end and grab your stuffs. I'll grab them for you when you're on there and then hold them in your hands. Oh, we're spinning around. I'll grab the straps for you and you're just going to turn around the other way.

Single Leg Stretch

And your carriage is out a little bit. Yes. So it's just a little bit of resistance, but it's enough to feel those abdominals. Now we're going to do eight more and what I want them to do is slow this down considerably and turn it into crisscross. So what you're going to notice, they're going to come up and over and then they're going to come up and over and as you come up and over the one side that you're turning to, that strap goes slack and the other side pulls even a heart or you feel that and turn. Give me a, what are you on? Like to, no, you're almost done. Right? And last one, come to center really good. Okay, now reach your hands for your Shin. Okay, that's it. He upper body lifted double leg stretch. You're going to reach your arms back, reach your legs out and Xcel, circle around to the start position.

Criss Cross

Double Leg Stretch

Single Leg Pull

That should feel really good. They stopped smiling there for a second. Not a good sign. All right, I'm going to grab these straps. You can just let your just go over their errands so you can get off the box without moving the carriage on you as you get off of the box. And from there we're going to flip you over again. This time you're going to be kneeling. We're going to go with that one.

Kneeling Leg Lift

But instead of pressing straight back, you want to press out to the side slightly and come back in. Yeah, not too far. And then press. Now you're going to notice that we have a little bit of shifting here in the pelvis. That's okay. We want to get as square as we can, but not everybody's going to be completely square here and that leg is going to be under you. Kind of in the middle of the box. And let's do two more XL. Press back, try to keep the hips even. Inhale, bend that knee and one more. Press it back and I'll hold it back there.

What I want you to do here with the leg back is push into that strap and as you push into the strap, you'll notice that you can actually correct this nice line here and get it really long. Now keep this openness here and lower your leg down, just outside the box and then pull it back up. Yeah, this is a lot of oblique work, inhaled downfolding at the hip, not sinking into the waistline and pullback and again, lowering down. Now if you find that you're losing that position, I want you to press that leg back, hold it there for me, and push into that strapped so you feel the length on this side. And then keeping that lower this leg down, breathe in, and then exhale, harass it back. Give me one more, push it back. Then just bend your knees, put your foot back on the carriage on that side for me with a strap underneath it. Then reach for the strap to take it off. That'll be more controlled. That's it. And bring it all the way back. And we're going to do the other side here. That's it.

Kneeling Leg Lower and Lift

And as you push into the strap, can you feel the length happen through that side? Then hang on that length as you bend your knee and flex your hip knee will come slightly out to the side. It's not going to come straight in. It's going to go out to the side. Yeah. And then press back. Good. And two more. Head in line with your spine. Abs pulled in out of the breeze and press back one more time.

Hold this one out there now without long leg, push into that heel. Lower the leg down without letting the hip. Yeah, collapse. And then pull it back. Use your abs and exhale back. Inhale to lower and exhale to pull back. Really good. Let's do that a couple more times here. Lower down. Nice.

Now don't sink into this waistline here. So as you lower the leg, keep reaching this hip back for me. Yep. And back last time. And the next time you bring that leg down, you can grab it and carefully slide it off. How we doing guys? Good. All right. Then you're just going to have a seat facing that same direction. So sit on the box and straddle your legs.

Putting your feet either on the headrest or on the sides. I like the head, the sides. Cause then you can scoot back more. Lovette and you're going to grab a strap in each hand. Can you grab those errands? Yeah. Gimme Palms up here and we're just going to do some simple bicep curls. So curling up and coming back. How was that resistance? Okay.

Seated Bicep Curl

So you're going to keep your elbows lifted. There you go and pull. Yup. And keep the shoulders open in front. You got it. And let's do that a couple more times. Don't let your ribs flare now you want to keep the abs engaged so they control that rib cage and pull. Yeah, you got it. Okay. Now flip your hands over and then bring your elbows back behind.

Roll Down

Seated Tricep Extension

And Xcel just roll back, keeping your feet down. Yep. And it should feel good. And then roll forward. Use the springs to help you in. Stack the spine back up. Let's do that again. XL rolling down, pulling the hands in. Great job you guys. Now are all forward and stack the spine right back up tall. One more time. Exhale, rolling back. Tolling and curling under.

Come forward and all the way back up. So we're going to have you turn around so you can put those straps in, down or in one hand just so you're not moving the box out as you turn around and then grab a strap in each hand. We got it. Yeah, there we go. And from here, let's do a chest press. So for this one, the easiest way to get the strap from not hitting you is to hook your thumb over it. So this way. Yeah, that's it right there. And then grab the it. Yeah, and then grab it. Hold on to it. Yeah, and punch forward. Exhale, press forward. Then you see the rope ends up underneath your arm.

Seated Arm Reach

Hug A Tree

Seated Diagonal Arm Extension

Should feel good and back in and you're going to do it one more time. Reaching forward and a beautiful stretch open. Then come back and come all the way back in and relax and that is it. Thank you so much for joining me for our strap workout today. I hope you enjoyed it and I look forward to seeing you again next time.

Thank you, Aaron and Aaron. Nice work.