Ab and Shoulder Reformer

I'm trying to McEntire and welcome to reformer for abdominal and shoulder connections. We have two different setups today. We have one reformer that would be using regular straps on, and we have an Arcas on this reformer. So you can see two ways to do the same exercise series and some of the benefit and variations that come with using archivists. So let's get started. We've got one red spring on and we'll lay on your back. Can you grab onto the straps and onto the Arcas the arms overhead that we have, the arm positions so that it starts slightly behind the shoulder so you can just adjust your rope length to you.

A little shorter ropes for that leg is up to nice table top here. Make sure the hips are easy so they're not overworking in there to start with. Little breath to find from abdominal connection before we even move. And the first thing you do is on that exhale, you're going to pull the arms down and stop and just by the kneecaps, just find that zone for a second. So that's about as low as we're going to go. But you're also going to be reaching through the arms away from you. Good.

So let's take a breath in as it comes up. Let it travel slightly behind the shoulders and use the breath to lead arms. Press and you reach toward the knees and then beyond the length of your arms. Good. And again, inhale, coming up in the air and XCL pulling it down for like you narrow through the abdominals. You reached past the length of your arms. Good. And again, inhale, drawing it up. Let the breath start it. So the Xcel starts, the ribs and abdominals are firing. That then brings us shoulders on line.

Gets your funding relationship right away between the breath, your abdominals and your shoulders. Nice and smooth. Take your time for the first set here, just to get things warmed up. Find those connections. Wide Breath. As you go up, start the breath, move the ABS, move the arms so you can think of a a three step process there. The breath starts, the ABS listened to arms. Listen and you reach.

Okay, nice breath in and bring it up. Make sure it goes behind the shoulders. Hips are loose, breath, abs, arms, a little bit of a domino effect. They're quick together, but they happen sequentially. Breath abs, arms. Then you get more bang for your buck there. Good. Two more like that. Nice breath. And as you're coming up, just behind the shoulders, breath, abs, arms. Find the relationship between the two. Good. One more time. Breath abs, arms and hold this one.

They're gonna keep archis right there. Keep the straps there and even glide the shoulders up toward the blocks so that glide up to the ears like shoulder earrings there. Yep. And they're going to press beyond the kneecaps. Good. Glide it up and take a breath in. Let it slide away. Up. Exhale, reach. Good. Keep going. Any are flux. Span the ribs. Use the ABS, arms reach. She still had that sequential three step process.

It happens real close together, but that breath helps the abs, helps the arms. Nice breathing. Glide it up. Good. And then glide the shoulders up. Yes. Good. I didn't reach him through two more like that. Okay.

This last one, you're going to keep the reach. Find it your deepest, longest reach. Yet. Nice job. Bring the arms up just for hands, shoulder level. Find that connection. This time when you pull your arms down, one leg is going to straighten out. Ah, just find that position for a second. Now, if you had the artist, she'll reach over the knee. If you have the straps, you could stop at the knee. Or if you feel like you can go all the way down to the mat, either place is going to be okay and you'll see some variation and you can follow along what's appropriate for your body. Inhale, bring the arms up. Bring the knee in, let it go behind your shoulder. Good other leg. Pull it down.

Good. Inhale, bring it up. Exhale, pull it down and reach. Send Andrew through the arms that are longer than they look nice. Bring it up and exhale. Reach it down. Good. Inhale up behind the shoulders. Use the breath. Pull in, reach through. Try to keep the knees over the hips to give you more abdominal work there.

Beautiful. Two more like that. Hmm. Inhale, return. Use that breath. One more each side. Inhale up, breath, abs, arm and leg. Good last time on the left side here. You're gonna pull this and hold it there.

We're gonna change it up and add on here. Keep the arms there. Just change your legs. We're going to breathe and switch and exhale and exhale. Again, try not to take the knees passed. 90 little more abdominal bonus work here. If they stopped just there.

Five more. One and one and two to keep pushing. Three, three, four and five. Five knees in. Reach the arms one more time and bring it all down. Nice job, Brie there. Take a break for a sec. Let your feet rest. Just let your hips and abs. Just take a breather for one second. Yeah, let your legs roll side to side or whatever. Kind of works that out for you.

Good. Good. Let's back up to tabletop arm. Verging up. Do Nice tricep circles here. So it's like your hands are on a wheel, so we're going to start by pulling down in the arms. Then you bend the elbows that go around the wheel. Then they go up to the sky and you pull down.

Then the elbows and you gonna make that as smooth as possible and make that wheel as big as possible. So when you bend the elbows, let him come a real far back toward your shoulder so you get a nice big up and over. Nice job. Good, nice and circular. Ah, up and through. Nice. Knees above the hips. Yeah, I think he's in my room for the arms to reach over there. I finished the one year on Benny elbows. Then you're going to reverse it by pushing down up. Bend the elbows. We're going to speed it up for five more like this. Here we go.

Here's a one up and two, three. There you go. Four, five arms coming up right into the AB curl. Inhale like this. Arms behind shoulders slightly. Exhale first. Then pull curl forward. Reach over the kneecaps. Good. All the way down. Breathing in, arms overhead. Good. Use the breath to help the head lift. Pull the arms from the abdominals.

He had that whole upper body connection that comes from the pelvis and then bring it down. I try to keep the legs still and you move your upper body to the pelvis, curl it through and reach [inaudible] and curl through in a range. Awesome. And down to more like that. Breathless the head. Drop the ribs down. One more time. Keep those legs still arms long beyond the length. Reaching through.

Rested down. Go ahead, take a break right there for a second. Yeah, you might start to feel everything really good. Yeah. Let's take this to obliques. So start the same set up. You're gonna bring your legs up, pull the arms down toward the kneecaps here. Find your Ab Curl, straighten your right leg out and you're gonna turn towards your left leg and take the archis up and out. In fact, you might want to go a little bit wider on the artist for this one. Good. And you're going to reach up and out. Good.

And then keep your cared still and change arms and legs. And I just switched it in this exchange by each other and just turn over to the other side. Reach Nice and her reach and just keep a space in between the hands, the same as you go. Nice job. Okay. If you want a little bit more abdominal upgrade venue, let the artists come away from the knees this way. You're welcome. Good day.

All right, two more. Here we go. Breathe. One and one and two and two. Good. Knees in and rest down. Just got real. Nice job. Okay. Breathe. Let your feet rest. Once you take your feet on the foot bar here for a second, God, just hook your straps on the hooks that are handy and you can just set your archis down. Good. Let your feet be about hip width apart.

Let's just take a shoulder bridge here. So on the exhale, just roll the pelvis up in the air. Let's just get a little bit of articulation weighted into the feet. Nice. Full breath in like that and you're gonna roll it down. It doesn't have to be real high. We're just trying to get some pressure in the legs and get the pelvis off the ground for a second. And again on the axial, a little bit of a crew. Gentle.

Good is sending those knees over the feet. Nice breath. Good. And then roll it down. Nice job, Huh? Two more since. Equal weight on the feet. Equal weight through the upper back. As you put pressure on that, they're good. And then equal ribs side to side as you're coming down.

Equal weight in the back of the pelvis. One more time here. Nice breath. Oh they put the shoulder blades. Full breath in there. And just ease it down one piece at a time. Keeping those legs parallel. Nice job. Reach back, grab your straps, grab your archivists. Okay, a double leg stretches next. Okay, so you gonna take your XL, curl yourself forward. Find the rounded shape, reaching arms long. Good.

You're going to bend the elbows and breathe in and then the arms and legs work together in the XL. This straighten out. You pick how low you want the legs to go. Clearly the lower the go the harder it is. So you can decide they can be up here. That could be low. Your choice, they're good. Let the breath drive the motions so that breath and the abs or how the shoulders create more force into more connection there. Nice job. [inaudible] last one here. Little uplevel. Hold it three times. Arms come overhead.

Exhale. Pull it down. Two more. Last one. Beautiful and down. Bend everything in and rest right there. Beautiful. Nice job. Good. You can hook your straps on your handles there. I can set the archis down. Let's come up with sitting good and have a seat with your legs through the shoulder blocks facing a straps facing the arc is there. Good.

So we're going to shorten the ropes in the archivists to give it a nice long reach for this one. So if you reach forward, I'll give you a little bit of a pull. Okay. See that feels like it's even good there. You want to have a little bit of distance behind you so that you're not going to fall into the carriage. So that's a good width right here behind. Good sitting up tall off your spine. Yup.

The amount of choke up on the ropes a little bit more. They only feel like you're really out in the spring. Good. So this is a nice low pull. So the arms are going to band and pull the archis low and the straps low to your body while you pull the pelvis. Just about a quarter of the distance back.

That's plenty right there. Then come back up to vertical and reach the arms out nice and tall and then you pull low. Do it again. Just fine. Low. We're going to Pete low for a set. Good up, nice and tall. Find the correlation between the pelvis, rocking in the arms pulling so they're related to each other. Good. Any of us can go a little bit out to the side slightly then get it. Might feel a little better for you.

Good. Good. Just think of the hands being low as you pull back. Yes. Nice job. It's plenty. Just a small little rock back. One more time just for that small. There you go. And come back up. Now we're gonna do a high pole so the arms are going to pull up towards your throat and collarbones and you're gonna extend the spine and take a small lean back. Make it small for now, cause we're going to add on and make it bigger in a minute. Back up to vertical.

Arms go long. And again, pull up towards your collarbones extend and slightly lean back. Good. That extension calls from even more abdominal works. You're using that at work. You've been practicing all class so far and just make it a small arrange of motion. We're going to make it bigger in a second. Just make it small. Narrow the waist, extend a little bit. Beautiful.

Do One more narrow, like a fountain going up and over. Slightly. Good. You're back to pulling low and make it bigger now. So you're gonna roll about three fourths of the way down. So pull that nice low pull.

Breathe in while you're there and then curl forward. Reach the arms long. Find Vertical. Get real tall. Try it again and pull the pelvis. Pull lo to your body. Good. Make sure it feels secure. You're not going to fall off the machine. Nice job. Curl forward. And it's the others. Plenty of room behind them to roll. Some.

Make sure you have room behind yourself as you come back that you're not positioned so that you fall off your position. So you're very secure the whole time. Curl it forward. Nice and tall. One more like this. Use it. Xcel. Rock the pelvis. Back Polo. Keep the neck and Joffrey here so you're not clenching. Nice job. It looks great. Come back up till now.

We're going to pull high to the extension. So you're gonna bend the elbows. Put up the collarbones, find that extension and they'll give yourself a good lean. About a quarter to half the distance back. Nice job. Come all the way back up to vertical. Nice. Arms go along. Good. Try that again. Bend the elbows, lift chest up, extended back and over.

Beautiful. Then come up and through center. Arms go forward. Good. Try it again. Bend, lift. Good. Nice job. Good. And bring it back up. Last one. Pull, extend and reach. Keep it narrow. ABS. Narrow hips. Good. Nice job. And rest right there. Good. Just go head first and take a round over your spine.

Just rest there for a second. Yeah, take three or four breath cycles. They're just feeling the ribs. Expand. Shoulders and neck. Relax. Good, nice and tall through your spine. Get, we're gonna do a spine twist. Now I'm going to change this reformer to a blue spring with the artists and without the artists will stay on that red spring. Good. Let's take this one off first here. So we just have one clip on.

So if you have the arcas going to hold on so that you're, would this left attachment that your left hand is palm facing down and the right hand is palm facing up. Good. Good. Exactly. So with the ropes you'll have one rope that will go loose as we do the twist. And with the archivists you're just gonna use one rope total. Okay. So it's an inhale like this. We're pulling on the left arm first.

So you're gonna pull the left and push the right. Good and come back to your center on the inhale. Good. And again, pull now with the Archaeus, when you come back through center, you can let this left arm reach out long and that, that continued to twist you this way. Exactly. And then you're going to pull through that range of motion and push that arm out that way. Good. Come back through center and with the straps it will come back through center center. Each time you get that elbow going out to the side and pushing through that beautiful.

And this one pushes forward. Nice job. And let the eyes help lead you. So you're looking where you want to twist so you have a little bit of intention. So if you're twisting the right looks, the right, if you're twisting left, look to the left and your brain will know where you want to go and we'll take you there. Beautiful. Good. Send that right side of your body forward. You got it. Nice job.

Beautiful percent right arm forward. You got it. Actually that breast still leads the abdominal connection to the abs are how your shoulders find their power. Beautiful. And that breath drives it all. One more. Nice job and find center. Good. So change your strap here. Got It. So with the right hook, you have the right palm facing down the left palm facing up.

Good. So reach that right down us. We'll start that twist to show on this side how you can start in that rotation. You got it. Okay. So on the exhale we're going to pull that right arm pulls back. Take your twist, push the left arm forward. Good.

So even if you have the strap here and you don't have something to push forward, you're still gonna let that strap go on that line. So it's still traveling on that line to help help you counter twist that. Good. And if you have the archivist, it's like you're taking the end of the archis to the end of the machine and you're pulling that right elbow out to the ocean. Yeah. Nice job. Have a sense of having equal weight under sit bones so that you're not leaning off one side of the other.

Beautiful. I'm gonna have you adjust just a little bit wider here. You can hold on anywhere. There's wood, but I think that's going to give you a greater sense of length there. Yeah. Cool. Hmm. Two more like this. Then Xcel drives it good and Xcel drives it.

Beautiful. Back through center and relax right there. Good. So I want to take this back and hook you back onto both. Okay. You can grab on there. Okay. I'm actually going to change the springs back to a red here so it feels like it's heavy. And then for you, when you grab onto the ropes, really choke up there so that you start with a carriage out quite a bit. Good.

Okay. We're going to take a spine stretch forward here. So let's flex the feet for this one and you got to reach the arms out long in front of you and go up and over your legs. Take a nice even around over the legs. Good. Now stay there for a second and make sure the arms are really long and reaching out, but while they're there that we're not getting up into the shoulders lifting up. So you still have that shoulder connection on the ribs like this.

And then what we're going to do is keep the arms long and move the spine up the vertical so you have your abdominals and spine moving the carriage. The arms are going to stay out of it for now. Good. Then you go head first and let the springs take you over the abdominals. Work even harder in this shape here. So there's nothing that's collapsed or compressed.

You're working on keeping a nice lift in space in the joints, and then bring it back up. Arm stay long. You find vertical with the spine muscles with your abdominals. Good. It's in those arms. Away from you. Yes. Good. And again, forward. Exactly. Send your breath wide into your back here. The abdominals in breath. Lead it. Spine comes up, arms stay in front of you. Good.

Now we're going to stay vertical here for a second and little shoulder gliding. So on that exhale, we're going to pull the shoulder blades back toward each other. So like there's sliding glass doors and then moving back in toward each other. Then they're going to send the artists forward. So your shoulders gliding is what moves the carriage. Exactly right.

Way Forward. And then you're going to slide it back after that. Good. And while it's sliding back and forth, you're trying not to elevate them up and down at all. It's real easy to let the upper traps kind of take over. They're happy to do everybody's job in the upper body, but we're going to try to keep them a little bit quiet. Beautiful. And just work on this plane here.

It might make it feel like it's smaller than it should be because the traps can give you a big range there. Good. And then when you go forward, go even bigger this way. So this stays here, but the arms reach way out and then pull it back. That spine stays right where it's at and just the shoulders of where the glide. Nice job. Two more like that last one. Good. And then back to your spine. Stretch forward over the legs, reaching the arms forward. This time when you roll up, when you find vertical, you're going to pull the shoulders back like you were just practicing and add an arm pole. So here comes the spine, retract the shoulders, then pull the archis towards you. Pull the arms towards your good than straight arms, pro the shoulders, and then send the spine up and over. Nice job.

Breathe wire there. He's the breath to make the abs fire up to bring the spine up to vertical. Once it's vertical, you can pull the shoulders back toward each other. Bend the elbows, pull the archis towards you. Pull the strap towards you. Nice job. Straight arms up and over.

The abs work even harder. As you go forward, you find that strong support and the things collapsed and nothing's compressed. Wide breadth there. Nice job. Roll it up. Spawn works hard. Shoulders retract on purpose. Elbows bend. Good. Upper traps are easy. Nice job. Let's go. When they listen right up and over.

Okay, this is how many roll up. We're not going to retract. You're just going to find verticals. So here we go. Up to vertical, arms out real long in front of you. Good. Just pulling the arms, keeping the spine very steady. Exhale and pull that towards you. Now if you have the archis in your hands, I want you to feel like you're pulling the artists apart as if you're taking the curve out of the wood. So you're not just pulling it towards you, but you're also pulling it apart and you get a little bonus shoulder work there. And with the straps you won't have that tension to pull apart, but you are going to feel like the collarbones are resting down. Yes. Good. And pull back and forth. Keep moving forward and back.

Straighten the arms each time. All the way forward and pull back again. Three more like this out. Pull the Arcos apart. Nice. Hold it right there. Stay there. Go ahead. Take a nice breath like this. And when you exhale, the upper traps are going to go really lazy. Ah, good. One more breath in. And then spine, stretch forward over the legs.

Rounded forward. Good. Stay there and rest there for a second and kind of hang out there for a minute. Send your breath wide into your back. Good. And then you're gonna roll up to a vertical or we're going to cross your legs in front of you and turn to face the left agonal of the machine so that one knee is just lightly touching or near that shoulder block.

That'll give you a nice landmark. So if you're facing toward the left, your right knee and touches the block slightly or is it really close? Okay, we're going to hold on to the arch as the same way you were and the straps the same way you were. So while your lower body is turned, the upper body is squared off toward the end number former there. Okay. Let's take your spine stretch forward here. Nice and slow. Lots of abdominal support. Take yourself up and over. Good. Did you feel like you'd get a nice open reach through there? Wide breath like this. Roll yourself up.

Keeping the shoulders square and equal weight and the sit bones. It's going to be tempting to shift onto the back sit bone. Yep. Try to keep it on. Both of you can try it again going forward. Listen to your body for their range. Only go where your body feels like you can live and feel strong.

Breathe into it. Have you upper traps, arms long. Nice job. Two more this side, up and over. Just feel like those shoulders can sort of spiral out. Yeah. And then you roll it up. Breadth leads. The abs leads the spine. Good. And again like that. Up and over.

And we're going to add on when they come up to a vertical here. So when you're ready, we're going to peel it up to vertical five arms pulling here from the breath, pull one and then out straight. Do five on your own time there. Make sure the breath is leading the abdominals and that's where the shoulders get their power. That's where they get the connection. They find the relationship between what your abdominals are doing and what the shoulders are capable of is a direct connection. Rest after your five.

Nice job. We change sides. So you're going to turn to the right side. So then when you're facing the right side, I got it. You're going to have the left knee close to the shoulder block. Hopefully this one. So this knee touching this block. Okay, you're right. Good deal.

Good. And just hold on just outside of the middle there. You got it. Good. Another option here, if this grip isn't as ideal for you, you could also grip on the outside or on the edge so you can play with your hand placement on artists as much as you'd like. Here we go. Rounding forward, up and over that front knee. When you're in this forward position. Also make note, if you feel yourself hitting a stopper back here, then you want to choke up further or make your ropes shorter so that you're still getting a little spring bulling and see there that you're not just getting stopped. Take your breath like that and let's roll it up. The breath leads the ABS. So the spine has lots of support in the pelvis. Good, nice breath like that and going forward. Up and over. Good, good, nice, wide breath like that.

Let's make sure the shoulders stay kind of squared off in the level and then upper trap kind of goes to sleep. Nice job. Full breath like that. Bring it back up when you're ready. Okay. Up and over. Give yourself just a little turn. Yeah, just to the shoulders are still squared to the end of the machine. Even though the lower body is turned, the upper body is square to the end of the machine.

Okay. Nice breath there. He's the breath to lead the abdominals to bring the spine. Nice job. Good work. Arms reaching. The long upper traps are easy. Good. One more time like this. Up and over wide breath hands. Stretch the ribs. Use the breath. ABS. Lead it. Spine follow suit. Good. Five poles of the arms here.

If you had the artists think of pulling the curves out of the archivist to get that bonus work through your shoulders. Actually the breath leads. The ABS drives the shoulders. You find how the relationship is connected between the ABS and the shoulders. [inaudible] finish your set of five there. Nice job.

Good rest here. We're going to go back to legs. Threaded through the shorter blocks here just to balance it out. Straight legs. Good. And if you have artists, we're going to go into the really wide setting. Palms facing up here with a strap so you can just choke up real far on the ropes there. Good.

Take one more spine. Stretch forward. Up and over the legs. You should feel like you have more range now after doing the twist your diversion. Yeah, and just let that artists are going to even let their shoulders elevate a little bit here just to let that fully get that whole back line opened up there. Good. Here's your breath like this. Then your actual leads. The abdominals brings a spine. The shoulders get organized along the way. [inaudible] nice job for breath in like that and up and over again.

Lift it through. Okay. Allow the traps to lift up this time so they know we're up is here so that they even know better. We're down is when you come up and it feels organic in the shoulders. Hmm. Good. Two more going forward.

Up and over. Full breath in there. Make sure the breath drives the abdominals and that's how the spine gets energy. Collarbones are resting. Spine is tall. One more breath like that and relax. Good. You're all done. Nice job. Thank you. Good work. Very good.