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Hi everybody. It's Jo here with Mary. We're going to have a little bit of fun on the reformer today, all about working into the hips, finding that length in the spine, thinking about a really long back body and a really broad back body. So we're going to start with some footwork on the reformer here. I've got the football all the way up and it's three red springs. So I'm going to go ahead and have a lie down.
Pilates Stance
Make sure that you're in the center of the reformer and we're going to start with a PyLadies v position. Arms long by the side, but just really thinking about finding your connection to the carriage. So let's just take a few breaths here. Really thinking about finding that rep through the back of the body, and then as you exhale, feeling the way your body just drops down, the front of your body connects into the back of your body. And then beyond that, into the reformer, taking your focus to your hips. Now how does each leg find its way?Nestling deep into the hip socket, and then we're just going to push the carriage out. Maybe an inch, not very much and hold it there. And let's just elevate the heels and lower the heels and we're just going to go ahead and do that. Keeping the carriage nice and still as we do so just up and down and reminding the feet that they have a part to play in this and that we're not just going to bend and straighten the knees. So as we rise up one more time, just hold it up there. Get a sense of how much work there is in the feet and just check in with the back. Make sure you're not pushing your body, bending your spine into the mat. Again, we just want to melt and find that sense of puddle.
And then as we lower the heels all the way down, you'll notice the work through your feet decreases. So now we want to find the halfway point just where there's work through the feet. You might feel a little work through your hamstrings, but your body is rested into the ground. We'll inhale and as we exhale, lengthen out animal, go for 10 inhaling and exhaling as it suits you. But really trying to come all the way in on the carriage all the way into the end of the track. Finding a lovely gaze point directly in front of you so your eyes should move along the ceiling.
Not necessarily on one fixed point because we are on a moving carriage after all. Last one here and then drawing the carriage in. Pause. Let's place the heels on the bar, hip socket with the part and we'll go again for 10 breathing out as you press away. Inhaling all the way in and it's super easy just to think about bending and straightening the knees, but let's really make sure we're initiating this from a sense of connection, foot to foot bar, but then also that flection and extension through the hips. Last one here and then toes on the bar in parallel. Find the length through the toes so we're not gripping the toes, but rather wrapping and we'll go ahead and straighten and bend.
Heels
Opening the hips and closing the hips. How do you lengthen your body more by taking yourself into this lovely squat position? Final one here and taking your feet out wide. We're going to go into some internal rotation here, but let's take the hands onto the thighs for a moment onto the front and feel with your hands like you're creating a spiral in towards the midline. If you have a center seam of your tights, you can think about rolling the muscles into that and then sort of doing the same thing on the backside of the thigh, opening up through the sitting bones, really feeling that spiral of the thighs.
Toes
We're going to keep the legs pressing together as we press away. Focus more on the spiral, just pressing out until you still have that connection, but maintaining a softness at the front of the hip. And then as you roll in, imagine that spiral increasing, so pressing out and spiraling in, finding that really lovely grounded position into the hips. Let's just do three more of these press and opening those hips. Last one here, and then taking the legs into extra and orientation. Heels on the bar.
Wide Feet Internal Knee Rotation
It's time to be the best ever sumo wrestler you have ever been, so that's press up into a standing position and directing the movement from your pelvis. Come down into that deep sumo squat and let's go for nine more and in press away, seven, six, landing as softly as you can, but really leading with those hips. Four and three final two coming up now.
Wide Second
We're going to take the feet onto the bar in parallel and hose on. Press away. And let's just walk through. So really thinking about the strength in the bent leg. Imagine that you're going up a ladder, so each time your leg is bent, that's your top leg and you're going to stand on to that and then switch it up. So we're not indulging in the stretch where really finding the strength that comes from the single leg, even though the other foot is present on the bar.
Running
So one more to each side. And maybe on this last one, let's just hang out and find that elongation not only through the calf, but also through the underside of the foot. So for me it's really thinking about that tendon from the big toe joint all the way down into the heel and we'll change it up to the other foot and enjoy that sense of release and elongation and coming up so that both legs are matching, bending the knees. Let's come up to sitting so that we can take a spring off. So that leaves us with two red springs and let's go ahead and lower the bar just so it's ready for later in the session.
Frog w/Heel Beats
We're going to take our feet into the straps next. So yeah, making sure that you're in the center of the reformer and lacing your feet into the loop. Okay. And having the heels together in the toes. Apart for our PyLadies v position, what we're going to do is just be here and re take that moment to realize that the position that we're in here now is much deeper than what we would have been allowed even with the foot bar in that elevated position. And we're going to aim to come back to this. So again, working deep into the hips, but finding that sense of length through the back and spreading your body across the carriage as best as you can. We're going to press the legs out straight once and hold them out there. We're going for six quick heel beats here. One, two, three, four, five, six and then drawing the knees in all the way and finding a sense of energy here as you press out. And one, two, three, four, five, six and draw it in four more times. Press out. One, two, three, four, five, six. Flex the feet as you come in.And once you get out there, point for five, four, three, two, one and drawing in two more sets pressing out. See if you can notice a difference between your right hip and your left as you come back into that frog. Great. We're going to straighten the legs and think of each leg as being restricted in a magic circle size space. So we're going to go for flex feet, parallel circles just for four. Let's do five, four, three, two [inaudible] and one and reversing, just maintaining this sort of um, 45 ish degree angle at the hip. And last one, taking the legs into external rotation or turnout for our five circles here. Five, four, three, two and one and reverse.
Leg Circles - Parallel
I like to tap my heels together with each circle just so I'm really challenging that connection through my inner thighs as best as I can. Last one here and we're going to go for internal rotation now. So chose foot pointing in five, four, three, two, one and then reversing again, making sure this rotation is happening from the thigh rather than just from the feet and one. All right. Taking the legs into that parallel position and really just going along with what we did with our calf stretches or walking. We'll bend our left knee, keeping the right leg straight, tension on both ropes and then pushing away so that we find ourselves in that 45 degree angle again and bending the right knee as we continue for five more in each leg. In your own time. Thinking about that idea of the bending leg being the one that has a little bit more of our focus, so pressing into the strap and allowing that sense of release through the hip on our straight leg. Again, just taking your focus to the back of the body, the whole trunk melting into the mat, like a melting ice cream pooling. Very nice.
Leg Circles - External Rotation
Take your legs so that your thighs are vertical. So if that means that you need to have a little bend at your knees, that's totally fine. We'll place our hands so that that there's a little bit of awareness between the carriage and the frame and we're just going to open the legs out to your full range and then from here, without changing your body return, without making any movement through the carriage. And we'll inhale as we take the legs out and exhale to return. Let's do two more. And as we do this, think about the length and then going on through your pants because that might be a little bit easier for you to grasp.
Leg Circles - Internal Rotation
And then the sense of length through the tissues of your body can come along really nicely from there. Very good man. Maybe one more for good measure. All right. So from here we're going to make sure that our head rest is down and we're going to go into the short spine. So bending the knees and I'd like you to really think about finding that deep squat position again. So really angling your thighbone in as far as possible.
Walking
We're gonna come back to this shape in our short spine. So we'll press away and let's start to arch the legs up and over into our inversion from here. Bend the knees in a little deeper than you might ordinarily really angling into the hips. And as you roll down, maintain that angle in it, the hips, and pour yourself back onto the carriage flexing the feet. Once you sense your sacrum is down and then pressing out, let's go for another four. Rolling up and over. Use your arms to feel like you're pushing the carriage in. Bend the knees, get that height, but also get that. Reach into the hips. Melt the body down.
Open Close
Feel each row of ribs coming down with enough space for really open muscles. Those intercostal muscles pan over. Bend, roll into those hips. Melt.
Short Spine Massage
Up and over rolling into those hips, feeling that lift through the spine and then melting down using the anchoring through the pelvis to guide the body back into position, reaching out because it feels so good to reach out after being in that compressed position. And now we're just going to take the uh, loops out of our hands out of our feet, I should say, and place them onto your pegs so that you can take one more spring off. You're going to place one red spring on. And what I'm going to do is actually place the middle spring on. That's going to be useful for sense of flow in the exercises that come up ahead. So taking ourselves back onto the mat, finding the loops in our hands, ready for a little bit of chest lifting and preparation for the 100 so we'll float our legs up into a tabletop position. Take an inhale, and as you exhale, just roll it forward, keeping the legs as they are.
Chest Lift
Get yourself an opportunity to really breathe into the back of the body and then roll it back down. We'll do one more where the legs are nice and still breathing out to curl it forward. And then rolling back down for the next three will include the legs, lengthening out at a height of your choice and then bending the knees and rolling back in. And as you go through these last two, just continue to think about how your leg position affects your body position. Beautiful. Rolling back in, taking it into coordination.
Now let's keep the legs bent and as curl up with straight arms and bend the elbows ready to go. So we'll inhale as we shoot everything out. Straight the quick open, close. Draw the legs in deep. Draw the arms in and again, breath in. And think of your hips and think of your upper body placement. Press it out
Coordination
How far away from you can you get your toes to the other side of the room? Last two out, draw it in and in final one and out. Drawer it in, in. Let's take our feet down onto the bar. Allow your hands to rest back down onto the pegs.
Semi Circle
We're going into a little bit of semicircle now, so taking your hands onto the shoulder blocks, we're going to place the heels on the bar for this variation coming up into your bridge and shuffling down the carriage until your arms are pretty much straight. I actually find that for me, if I keep them just off straight, I can generate a little bit more power. I'm not going to hyper extend into my elbows. Let's challenge ourselves by pulling that carriage in as close as possible. So really finding that opposition now of the hips in full extension who keep the carriage in and roll down.Aim for the carriage to stay as still as you can and then press it out. Riding that spring, float the pelvis up, pull the carriage in using your hamstrings and then roll it down and for us and float and keep that sense of reach. Imagine you're at an on an escalator or travelator at the supermarket or at the shopping mall and you're going up further and further as the carriage rolls in hold. We'll reverse it. Now take it out, floating down like an autumn leaf. Bend the knees and rolling up and as far over the bar as you can to float and roll it in. Find that same position as you did in the coordination a second ago, down, down, down, elongate and folding at the hips and roll it all the way up.
And then let's come on in. All right, staying here on the carriage. Just take your feet out nice and wide. Hands on the mat and we'll just rotate a little left and right and just find some aes through the body before we give it the next challenge. Okay, so coming in and up off the carriage. Whenever you're ready, Miss Mary. Alright, this time we're going to place the loops above our knees. So turning to face the shoulder blocks and we're going to keep that red spring in place. The loops just to over the knees and we're going to take a lie down that when we get there our legs will be in tabletop. Hands will be behind their head. If you have long, just bumps your hair up into a bun and we're going to just draw those legs in Nice and deep as we've been practicing through all of the other exercises.
Chest Lift
Create a really sharp angle so you're lengthening your back, deepening into the hips, lengthening through the shins and the feet. But we're just going to hold this position as we go back, maybe into extension, perhaps just into neutral and then exhaling to come up into deep chest lift position. Inhale, lengthen out and then exhale, curl it forward. Let's go for four more. Breathing in.
Knees Move Out and In
And then exhale, drawing the legs in, but not changing the shape in the body at all. Just five more. And as the legs come in deep and the upper body alignment and pressing those legs hard together in two more.
Chest Lift w/Rotation
Center and rotate. I'm still smiling. Hopefully you are to marry one more to each side after this. So going to my left, going to my right and then coming to the center, taking the hands onto the Shins and rolling forward. Positioning yourself on the carriage that you can take your feet out of those loops. Thank goodness. So we're feeling warm here.
Bicep Curl w/ Hip Extension
We're going to take a kneeling position facing the risers. I like to have about a fist space between the shoulder blocks and the knees. And we're actually going to start with the bottom down onto the feet and the loops in our hands. And let's curl our biceps with our elbows lifted. Great. And from here, as we push down through our shins, our pelvis is going to drift up off our feet.So we find ourselves in high kneeling and our arms straighten. And then as the knees bend and the hips bend, so to our elbows. So that's the, that's the move. So he's straight and everything and then bend everything. And for me, I'm really thinking about creating that sense of space between the pelvis at the back and the ribs at the back so that I don't flare my rib cage forward.
Good one more like this. And we'll say elevated, straighten the arms all the way, even if that means the hands come at, the straps are loose and we'll take the arms to a straight position for a little bit of a straight arm press. So we're just going to draw back and hold and feel that openness through the chest. But now thinking about the hips and our connection of our knees down into the mat and then bring it forward. So now we'll just go for five more with flow pressing through.
Tricep Press
I like to have an open hand cause I feel like it helps me create that link through the rest of my arm. But really thinking about initiating this from the shoulder itself rather than just from the hands. Good. We're going to keep the arms behind us, hold and from here generate some force through your shins as you curl the upper body to take you into a flexed position. So you actually need to increase the work through your arms so that you don't fall. And we bend the elbows and then straighten the elbows and press. So each time your arms straighten. The challenge is to lengthen the curve and deepen the curve in your body a little further. We'll do two more.
C Curve Tricep Press
Reverse Knee Stretch
Float the carriage back and again, press down through the shins. Draw the thighs forward under the hips and hold and then take it out. Lengthening through the spine. So as the carriage comes forward, let's actually think about the mid and upper thoracic into the neck and head and how far forward that can reach and lengthen away. And here we'll think of the opposite end of the spine. Lower Thoracic, low spine into the sacrum. Pointing backwards. One more time here.Let your body weight shift back. How much can you flex your spine in this position? And then let the carriage move back and forward. So it's like you're doing knee stretches. Continue to work on that flexed spine position.
We only have three left of these, making them count. And one more.
Front - Round Back
Walk your hands back and actually walk through your hands so they get a little bit of a massage after that. A handheld position on the timber. And we're going to turn around to face the other way. And now moving into the rowing front. So let's sit with our bottom close to the shoulder blocks, legs extended out in front of us. Nice and long. Hands one in each loop.And we're going to start with the hands pressing down into the mat. So use this down position to really find that lift through the lower back. Think about how the connection of your legs can press into the mat to give you even more lift. And we're going to go into the round back version. So pressing your hands deeply into the upholstery until they run out of steam. And then as you reach forward, keep finding that opposition reaching back.
We're going to keep the arms parallel to the ground and restack the spine up, up, up, up, up, up, up. So the arm slot, intake, the arms up around and onto the mat. And again, breathing. How much energy can you generate between your hands and the upholstery? Lift the spine up, feel the arm slot back in. Take the arms up and around, breathing up, press it through. Feel the pull backwards as your arms reached forward. Restack take them up and around to left.
Front - Tall Back
Lift and he comes your last one forward and tap and lift and in. So we're going to take out loops and place them onto the pegs. We're going into a some knee stretches now, so let's place a little bit more spring. I mean I'm put another red spring on and our toes are going to be cold forward so that our heels can rest against the shoulder blocks. Taking our hands onto the foot bar and finding a nice neutral spine.
Flat Back
Actually to start with because I want to grow back to that feeling of that angle that we're creating at the hip joint and that sense of length through the spine. So we'll go for six. Take that inhale and we'll take it out and exhale, draw it in and really feel like you're drawing the carriage out with your heels and bringing it forward through your abdominals.
Round Back
Pull the carriage in as deeply as you can, but don't let it hit the end with a thud. And now let's move through our pelvis first to find extension. So lengthening the spine, reaching through those sitting bones. How long can you find that space between your shot, between your vertebra and let's press it out. Inhale and exhale, and three
Arched
Now of course with this work, if you need it to be a little lighter, that's totally fine. We're gonna lie with the bottom of the breastbone on the front edge of the box
Scapular Glide
But if we just think logically, that's feel the way the wheels roll and the spring pulls the carriage in and our work is actually to get that inhalation and to spread the space between the shoulder, between the ribs nice and big, just like the spring is expanding and contracting one more like this. And then holding in what you perceive to be a neutral shoulder position. We'll turn the hands in a little and let's try and pull the bar to make it longer. And as we do that, we'll bend the elbows and draw the shoulder blades apart. And then as you push away working from those deep shoulder stabilizes and again, inhaling to open.
Shoulder Press
I really love this work just to feel that sense of strength through the shoulders in this overhead position that a lot of us don't find ourselves in and out everyday life. So two more here and out and last one and harassing out. Now pivot their wrists so that your hands are straight on again. And we're just going to bend the elbows directly in so they're not going to point out to the sides of the room. From here we will push back out again. And then as the carriage pulls the, um, the spring pulls the carriage in. Let's let it also pull us in to a nice one.
Tricep Press w/ Swan
Find that lift and when you can bring the carriage all the way in or as close to bend your elbows and then go ahead and push out again. Use the inhale to float up and then bend the elbows and push away and find that lift. And it's a bit like doing the semicircle but in a prone position. One more lifted in and up. And then bend the elbows and hold here cause we're gonna reverse.Let's straight in the elbows as we swan up with the kerogen, push away, and then bend the elbows, find the lift through the spine and the work through the shoulders and push it out to more and, and lengthen and roll. One more time in. Although I could do this one all day, lift and out, and then bend those elbows in. We're gonna stick with the box, but this time in a short box position. So let's bring ourselves into our position here. Okay, so we're gonna move our carriage so that it's going to be the right length for our body. I invite you to do the same. You might need to use a stopper on your proforma and then secure it with a few more additional springs.
Side Lift w/ Stretch
So let's sit on top of our short box ready for the side lift. So taking your straps so that you'll be able to hook your foot around it. Our top Shin will be parallel to the short edge of the box and we really want to feel that work coming from the outside part of the hip. So I actually tend to work into an internal rotation purely to bring me into a neutral position of my hip are going to be nice and just flick our hairdress up if you need to. Depends on the length of your arm, taking your other hand behind your head and as we bend this underneath the elbow, it's going to take us into a beautiful side bend and this is going to give you an opportunity to think about how your top leg is working to support you. So we'll just do one more of those, noticing the elongation through the side of your body and then coming on up.Now from here, if you can float your hand behind your head and we'll do another fall like this. Inhaling as you go over and exhaling to come on back up. Good. And I like to think about the elongation of the top side here and then of the bottom side, two more up and final one and up. Now from here, let's go over. Allow our hand to come down for the stretch.
Take the top arm long and then you can even position yourself onto your elbow. If you would like to have a little bit of a deeper stretch to say your hands, not blocking the full range that you have available to you. Take this top hand, place it on the box so that you can under your foot from the loop, place your knee onto the carriage and then you can position yourself for a nice twist stretch. Really finding that sense of groundedness through the hip, through the knee as well into the upholstery and using the to give you that lovely rotation and lift for me, I'm just going to lean forward a little bit out of my traditional comfort zone of hanging into the front of my rib cage and that's actually going to give me more lift and length before I do the other side. So let's go ahead and do that now, spinning around, taking the loop. Our first two are going to be supported on the headrest, so let's take our top hand behind the head and we're going to inhale as we go over and then exhale to come on. Up and again.
If you're like me and I'm actually pushing down into the box to give me that little bit more lift. Beautiful. Let's come on out of that stretch. That's all we're doing with the box right now, so we're going to place it back into its home and we're going to finish with some standing. Ooh, we're actually going to bring the carriage back in for some long stretches. So drawing your carriage into its regular position. I'm going to go with two red springs.
Long Stretch
We'll find out position for long stretch now. So placing your foot up onto the carriage, both hands onto the foot bar. We're gonna use the shoulder blocks and find a nice inverted v position. So I'm going to think about pushing the bar as far forward as I can and reaching my sitting bones back and I'm really reaching forward through those arms. So now as I push out to find my plank, everything's there to support me and we're going to pull our carriage in and I'm going to think about for the next five reps, all of the work I've done earlier to find that sense of length and breadth through the back of my body, supported by the front of my body.How can my shoulder muscles support the upper part of my trunk? One more time, press it out. And then we're going to bend the knees, folding at the hips, ready for some Jack Rabbit pressing through. And I really like to imagine little white bunny running through a field, pushing out through their legs. Three, two, one, hold it out there. Find that Inverted v position.
Jackrabbit
And then stepping forward, taking one foot down onto the floor. And we're going to finish off with some standing work. So I'm going to move my foot right foot far and I'm just going to use one red spray. This is the perfect time to use some nonslip mat. If you feel like your feet are a little bit Slippy, I'm okay today, but sometimes I need it. And then we're going to place the feet up into position for the standing splits.
Side Splits
Okay, so standing onto the nonmoving surface first of course, and we'll find a parallel alignment with the legs. All right, so from here, just keeping it really simple, let's press out and reach out with the arms and then draw everything back in until the carriage comes to an end. And again too.
Now we're going to bend forward like a hinge. So let's take it forward. Keeping the arms out to the side, aiming to keep the carriage still and then drawing back up again and we'll do five more. Press it out.
We're just going to press out with our carriage leg and then back in
Speed Skater
We'll do some skating for five. Yeah. So let's go in towards the risers and then bring it back again. I'm actually going to push off with the leg that remains straight in order to bend and then come back in, gait, lunging into the carriage and then returning it over. Perfect. Good in, in. Very nice. And you can use your arms just to free it up and just to allow some more rotation. We haven't done too much rotation in this class, so this is just a nice little end. One more. These ones go fast, but now we'll do the other side. Okay.
Skating
So stepping carefully off the reformer coming around and we'll do the other side. So starting off with just the simple ones. So standing onto the platform and then onto the carriage and we're going to sweep the arms out as the carriage moves out.
Side Splits
Last one you can keep the arms where they are as you bring the carriage in just to where you can sustain it for our hip hinge ing. Now so going forward into a flat back and then returning up again. I'm going to push my carriage out a little further for a bit more challenge and hopefully I can keep it nice and still. And we'll do another three after this one. Like a little drinking bird lengthening through the spine and up, trying not to drop your head.
Hip Hinge
That moving everything in one piece and he comes the last one and all the way up, bending both knees, hands into the small of the back. We're going to move the leg that's on the carriage first and then return it in. Rarely finding that stability in the hip, that staying nice and still, that's it. We've got three left and two and one and then we reverse it. So the lake on the carriage stays still, and it's the platform leg that's moving.
Speed Skater
This can be a little bit of a mind bender for some people. Okay. And this will be the last one that we're doing now, and we'll return to upright ready for the skater. So we're going to bend the leg that's on the carriage and push off the straight leg that's on the platform. Switch it to return back in, lunge into the risers, lunge into the foot bar, and then just have some fun. Let those arms move. Let them encourage some rotation through the trunk. This is where I like to have a little theme song in my head. Hello.
Skating
Leave that up to you to decide what your song is and we'll just do one more lunge, push and stand. Stepping carefully off the reformer. Thank you my friend for a fun class. Thank you all for joining us and I look forward to seeing you soon. Thank you.Mention
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Joanne Bezzina (Teacher) |
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Steffie D |
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Melissa W |
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Kelly B |
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Pilates by Figen |
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Alix S |
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Len P |
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Liz R |
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DANIELLE M |
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EvaMoves |
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Silke L |
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Shannon W |
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Belinda B |
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Sam Greenacre |
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Amy B |
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Julia R |
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Diane C |
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Barbara L |
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Colette P |
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Sandra M |
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Julie M |
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Abbey P |
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Sharon L |
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Natalia H |
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Limber Pilates |
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Sarah B |
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Paula F |
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Maria Poggioli |
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Rena W |
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Cindy K |
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Marie-Laure M |
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Monika |
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Kim W |
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Roula K |
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Pam H |
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Patti S |
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Anne H |
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Shais L |
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Julie M |
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Carli Taylor |
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Denee D |
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Tamara G |
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Assya L |
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Rachel |
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Z A |
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