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Hi, my name is Brett Howard. And today I'm going to do a foundational mat and reformer. My body today is Mike, and this is Mike. Second time and a healthy, normal, healthy individual. I heard there might be a couple of knee things, so I might throw in a couple of things for that as well. But uh, so I'm gonna have you start, uh, on the mat.
You're gonna sit facing towards that window over there. And then I'm gonna have you bring your soles of the feet flat onto the mat. Great. And you're going to have your feet in line with your knees, knees that are going to be in line with your hips, and then you're going to hold onto the back of your thighs. Good, nice broad elbows out to the side and then lift your spine nice and tall. Good. Alright, you're going to start with your tailbone. You're going to curl the tailbone down one vertebra at a time, opening up the lower back and that. Yep. Good.
Modified Roll Back
And you're going to keep going or to going to get as much of your lower back onto the mat as you can. Great. When the arms get to full extension are going to hold them. You are going to lead with the crown of the head that you're gonna round forward. You're going to bring your nose towards the knees. Good. And you're going to come all the way back to starting position? Yep. Yep. Good. All right. And again, so let's start with the tail.And you're going to curl down one vertebrae at a time. Opening up the lower back, bring the elbows a little bit more out to the side. Yes, there we go. Now you're going to go forward. Bring the nose towards the knees. Good. Keep rounding forward. Yup. You okay? Good. You're going to come all the way up. There we go.
Let's do one more and then start with the tail. Curl down. One Vertebrae at a time. Opening up the lower back. Good. Yes. Now bring the crown of the head towards the knees. You could use the arms a little bit. That's okay. Good. And come all the way up? Yes. Good. All right, so I'm going to have you lie down onto your back and what you're gonna do is you're going to bring the soles of the feet flat onto the mat, feet together, knees together. Great.
Abdominal Curl
You're gonna bring the arms right down by the sides and then you're going to roll the head, neck and shoulders up, and you're gonna reach forward as far forward as you can hold there. Now while you're reaching there, I'm going to have you bring your hands right down onto the mat here and then tried to touch my hands with your fingers. Good and roll back down. Good. And again, you're going to keep this flat. Slide the fingertips forward and roll forward. Forward, forward. Hold there for three good. Two one.And you're going to roll the spine back down. Let's go for two more. Rounding forward, slide the fingertips as far forward as you can. It's kind of thinking of going pasture heals, which you won't right now, but that's the goal and roll all the way down. It's a long, we're lovable for most people. One more time. Rounding forward. Good. Hold there. And now you're going to bring your body back down. Good.
So what you're gonna do is you're going to start pumping your arms up and down like this, and then while you're pumping or an a breathe in through the nose for five counts and breathe out through the nose for five counts. One more time. Take a deep breath in for five and a big breath out for five. All right, so we're going to combine a lot of that together. Now you're going to bring the arms down by the sides. You're going to bring both knees into the chest. Good. And then you're going to roll the head, neck and shoulders up again. Good.
Hundred
Now this time we're going to lift the arms in line with your waist. I'm going to bring your legs out towards me. There we go. To a nice full extension here. Now you're going to hold this point for three counts. I'm going to take my hand away, hold to hold three, and then then the knees and rest down. Okay, so you're going to hold that for 50 counts goes by quickly.So while you're holding that, we're going to add that pumping back in. We're going to add the breadth back in. Okay, so we're going to roll the head, neck and shoulders up. Lift the arms, reach the legs out towards me. Now sink the navels. Start pumping the arms up and down as you breathe in with the air. Breathe out. Two, three, four, five. Inhale, three, four, five. Exhale.
I'm gonna take my hand away. You're going to do 30 more. Inhale. Good. Exhale, three, four, five. Inhale, XL three, four, five. One more set. XL three, four, five, knees into the chest and relax. You. Okay. All right. I'm going to have you bring the feet down onto the mat. You're going to slide the feet forward and you're going to now scoot just a little bit forward here so you can bring your feet underneath this strap here. Good. Now I'm going to have you scoot just a little bit back, heels together, toes apart, and you're going to reach the arms straight up to the ceiling.
Roll Up
I'm going to have you hold this. Do you have that? All right. I'm gonna let go that you're going to lift the head up and you're going to look through this frame that you just created here. So if this was a picture frame, this is your portrait. Now from here you're going to continue to roll up one vertebrae at a time and you're going to let the head just drop forward and you're going to reach forward. And if I look at your profile, you're making letters see with your body, this is called c curve. Now start with the tailbone. I'm going to roll down one vertebrae at a time all the way down.And now arms are going to go slightly back pasture, shoulders, arms are going to go to the ceiling, roll the head through the arms and slowly roll up one vertebrae at a time. Good. This time when you're up, I'm going to give you a little bit of a pool but pool but your navel back in opposition. There we go. Nice. And then let's start with the tail round down. One Vertebrae at a time all the way down. And then arms are going to go slightly back past the shoulders. Arms are going to go to the ceiling.
You're going to roll the head through the arms, roll up to your spine, one vertebrae at a time, and see curve. Good. Now start with the tail bone round backwards. Yes, you're rounding. Articulate one vertebrae at a time, bone by bone. That's great. And now arms go slightly back. Let's go for two more arms to the ceiling. Roll the head through the arms and roll up one vertebrae at a time.
Nice and c curve. Good. Tailbone under roll backwards. SaaSure in your spine on the way down and then arms are going to go back. Let's go for one more arms are going to go straight to the ceiling. Then roll the head through the arms and exhale c curve.
Hold there. Just relax here a little bit. There we go. And now I'll start with the tail round backwards. One Vertebrae at a time and excel all the way down. And now arms. We're going to go slightly back hold there. I'm going to give you a little bit of a stretch.
Keep a good grip there and then don't worry about the shoulder staying down. You can let them go a little bit. There we go. How is that? It's okay. Our right, so I'm going to have you let go of this. Great, and you're going to take your right knee and you're going to bend the right and take it out of the strap and you're going to bring the knee into the chest and give yourself a good pool. Great. Now while you're pulling that knee in, I want you to actively press your left thigh down as much as you can. Excellent. Now I'm going to have you bring your arms down by the sides and you're going to think of having nine points of pressure into the mat. Hands are going to be two shoulders or four head, stomach, six hips, eight. Ninth Point. It's going to be that left leg, so imagine they're like nine ship anchors anchoring yourself down.
Modified Leg Circle
Now I'm going to have you lift this up for a second and hug down on this. Great. Is that okay? Now you're going to make a letter d on the ceiling with your knee. You're going to go across and you're going to come up one, um, but the D and straight line. One more time. Cross and up reverse. You're going to go down, across, and come up one down two and across.One more time. Down and across. Good. Now from here, you're going to rotate your leg outward. That okay, and rotate the leg again. I just saved you $50 to the chiropractor. Rotate out and rotate it. One more time. Rotate out. You're going to keep this rotation, so if there's an eye on this knee, the eye will always look out towards the ocean there. Now you're going to go across that 50 extra dollars and I've crossed down and up. One more. Cross down, up, reverse. Go down across, up one, two, across and up.
Modified Leg Circle - External Rotation
One more. Down. Across in, up. Good. All right. Now you're gonna extend this leg straight up to the ceiling. Then from here, you're going to rotate your leg. There we go. Same idea that we had before where that knee cap is always facing outward. You're going to go across the body and up one cross and up to one on your own. Cross and up three.
Leg Circle
Now let's reverse down across up one, down two and across. One more time. Down three and across. Good. Rotate the leg parallel and the knee in and give yourself a good pool of the leg. How are you doing? Okay. All right. Let's switch legs. You're going to bring this leg underneath the strap. Then this and the end of the chest. Give yourself a good pool.
Modified Leg Circle
How's that on that knee? Perfect. Good. All right. While you're pulling that knee in, really press down through that. Five are good. Now, nine points of pressure into the mat, hand, shoulders, head, stomach, hips, and the right leg. This time now what you're going to do is I'm going to have you keep this here. Let's place this underneath and you're going to hug that and you're going to go across and up. One Cross and up, two and across and up. Three. Good. Let's reverse it.Straight down across to the right up one, two, and across, and one more and across. Now we're going to turn the leg outward in the hip. How's that on the knee? All right. Turn the leg back to parallel. Turn the leg out to go back to parallel. Turn out three. Now keep the turnout. You're going to go across, down, up one cross down, up to one more on your own.
Modified Leg Circle - External Rotation
Cross down, up. Let's reverse it. Go straight down. Cross to the writeup. Not Bad to cross and up. Hold there. Just a little more turnout here. There we go. One more time. Down and across. That was good. All right, I'll take this from you. Bring the left leg straight up to the ceiling. Now turn that leg out again. Same thing across the body. Up One, cross and up, two and across and up three. Let's reverse it.
Leg Circle
Go down and across to and across. Well, down and across. Rotate this leg parallel. Bend the knee and you can give yourself a good pool of that leg. All right, you're going to bring both knees into the chest. Now what you're going to do is going to just rest your feet here. So the next two exercises a lot of coordination.
Single Leg Stretch w/ No Arms
So let's just break it up a little bit. So first let's work on the arms. This hand will go here. This hand will go here, just like so. Now change left hand and left ankle. Change, right hand on ankle change. Left hip, very good. Change, right hand on ankle. Change lefthand and ankles. So that's going to be the arm choreography. The trick is always have the same hand as ankle.Now one hand on top of the other hand, behind the base of the head, you're going to roll the head, neck and shoulders up. Look at the abdominals. Now you're going to imagine I'm a target. You're gonna reach towards me. Hit the target change, hit the target, change, hit the target, hit the target, hit the target, hit the target, hit the target. Hold there. Now you're going to keep this. Bring your right hand on right ankle, left onto the knee. Change left hand and left ankle. Good change right hand. An ankle change.
Single Leg Stretch
Left hand and ankle change, right? Change, left, change, poor change, poor change. Inhale, keep inhaling change. Okay. Xcel Xcel both knees into the chest and relax. All right. Not Bad. You're pretty coordinated actually, so let's make sure that I do not a liar though. So the next one, let's keep the good times going. You're going to bring the hands right here. Now simultaneously, both arms going to go towards the ears. Then you're going to take the arms, circle them around, you're going to grab a hold of your ankles, give herself a little pull there and again, knees. Okay, still gait.
Double Leg Stretch Prep
Circle the arms, grab a hold, give herself a little pull. One more time. Inhale, circle XL in and poor. Now hand on hand, and then bring that behind the base of the head. Roll the head, neck and shoulders up. Same target. Reach towards me and then bend the knees and come back in and again, reach and hit that target and go back in and hit the target and go back in. Now let's combine it. Bring both hands on top of both ankles. Now keep that head, neck and shoulders up simultaneously. Arms go back as the legs. Reach for it. Now hold there, one sec.
Double Leg Stretch
Reach those arms back. Now here, reach those heels to me. Reached those arms for the back. Know, circle the arms side. Bend the knees and give yourself a good pool. And again, arms, back, legs, reach and circle. Bend the knees in pool and again, inhale out and Xcel. Circle around in and pull. One more time. Inhale, reach, Xcel, circle around and then pool. Rest your head. Okay, not bad. You make arrests down there. You're going to bring both legs out onto the mat.
Spine Stretch Forward
Now you're going to bring both arms straight up to the ceiling. You're going to squeeze those inner thighs together and then you're going to take a five count roll up, roll up through your spine for five, four, three, two and one. Good. And you can roll up through your spine for a sec. Yup, you're good. All right. And just relax. Good. Mike, I'm going to have you scoot forward just a little bit. Then I'm going to have you sit onto this box right here.Good and you're going to stretch the legs out in front of you and then open the legs, the width of the Mat. Good. All right, so you're going to have a nice tall back. Imagine you're up against a flat wall. You're going to reach the arms straight out in front of you. Good. Now open the arms just a little bit more. Good. Now what you're going to do is you're going to start with the crown of the head. You're going to let the chin drop and you're going to roll down one vertebrae at a time. As you roll down, you're going to roll forward away from the wall.
Good. Now hold there. Relax right in here. Now roll back up against the wall. One Vertebrae at a time to a nice, tall, straight back and again lead with the crown of the head. Rounding forward. Hands are going to go forward. Stomach, back, heels forward, ball of the foot, background of the head down. Nice, and then roll up to your spine. Tailbone, lower back, middle back, upper back in that QED. Good. Now you're going to round over once again. At a certain point. I'm going to pause you right here. Good. Now keep this here, but push your lower back as hard into me as you can. Good.
Now keep your lower back pushing into my leg. See if your upper body can go further forward. Exactly. Nice. And then roll up one vertebrae at a time. Up to nice, tall, straight back. All right, let your arms drop down. I'll give you a little bit of a release here.
This is your dessert for working so hard. All right. Fat Free Dessert. All right, and what we're going to do is we're going to go over to the reformer. Okay, so we're going to work on the reformer. I'm just going to show you a good way to get on and get off. Um, it seems very, very militaristic, but that's okay. So you're going to start with your arms crossed and then you're going to do three things.
Sitting on the Reformer
You're going to imagine you're going to lift up from your pump line, from the crown of the head. You're going to zipper up through your abdominals. You're going to lift from underneath your seat and then you're not going to do it yet. The devil does heavy ones. If you're going to fold at the hips, then the knees fold. Then the ankles fold, so you can lie. Sit down here. Now to stand up, you're going to lift up through the crown of the head and zipper up. You're going to push down through the heels, pushed down through the bottom. Okay, so let's have you do that, right?So you're going to and for you. Let's bring your knees together. That will help protect your knees. Yep. Maybe a little bit closer. Good. Now Cross your arms. Then from there, lift up to the crown of the head. Pull up to the core. Lift up from the seat. Start at the hips. Are going to bend the knees. Yep. Any Clintons hips? Go back.
There we go. Hips fold, knees forward, ankles forward. You could sit all the way down to the exactly. All right, now scoot a little bit over to your left and then your ass right to the right. You're going to bring your left arm around your waist. You're going to bring that right hand right onto that shoulder block there. Good.
You're going to lie down on your side and then you're just going to bring the knees into the chest and then turn onto your back. Good. And you can bring your feet up here. So it seems like, you know, why am I having you do all of that? Uh, in plots what we do is we teach a lot of life lessons or we would like to create good habits that you're going to take out into your life and do regularly. So maybe minus this part, but when you're going down, when you're laying in bed, it's always good to lie on your side. Then rollover. And then when getting up, which I'm not going to have you do yet, it's always good to roll onto side first and then set up. So a lot of the things that we're going to do is just going to create really good at the troll patterns for you. Okay?
So what I'm going to do is I'm going to start you with the footwork series. You're going to do beyond four springs. Heels are going to be together, toes apart. Good. And you're in a slight Little v here, so it's about three fingers with distance here and these are going to be in line with your shoulders. Arms going to go right down by the sides. Now bring your pelvis just a little bit over to your left. There we go. So then that way the negative space on either side of your body and also either side of your feet is going to be the same. Now keep these heels together. Imagine there was a hundred dollar bill in between the knees in between the heels there. You want to not lose that. All right.
Toes
Now that same thought of when we sat down lifting up through the crown of the head, zippering up through the abdominals, lifting from underneath the seed, you're going to do the same thing. Going to slowly stretch the legs out.
There we go. And extending out for
And come back in last time. Extending the legs out and bend the knees and go back in. All right, I'm going to have you bring feet together, knees together, and you're going to go onto the arch of the foot. Toes are going to go over, heels are gonna go under, so you're like a bird on a perch. Now with this exercise in the beginning, you might get a little bit crampy in your feet. That's normal. I'll let me know if it gets too much. All right, you're gonna hold this. This is another a hundred dollars.
Arches
This is a watt of a hundred lots of Benjamin's there. Now zipper up extending out and bend the knees and come back in and again, extending out to and Ben back in and extend out three and Ben back in feet. Okay. Yup. Extending out four and Ben back in and up. Five. Yes, that's it. And come back in. Let's go for five more.Extending out and bending in, extending out to and bending in and out on three and into more. Extending out four and in last time, extending out on five and then the knees and come back in. All right, let's go onto, I would take that for a moment. Let's go onto the heels. You're going to flex the feet. Great. And then I'll give you this again. You're going to just lightly hold that, but don't drop it. And then same thing, extending out and bend the knees and come back in. Extending out to and bending into, extending out on three and then extending out four and in extending out on five and five more extending out and in extending out too.
Heels
And in extending out three and in extending out on four and in one more time, extending out this time. Don't come all the way in. Just come halfway in. I'm going to strengthen your PCL and we're going to work on the quads a little bit. I want you to go out two inches, hold there. Now come into inches, go out two inches and into inches and out two and into. Now let's pick up the tempo a little bit out and in and five and in and success in and seven and an eight and in nine and in and 10 and in and come all the way in. You can feel that there, right? All right, so let's go onto the arch of the feet. Same thing. Go halfway out. Good. Now go in a little and out a little and in a little out. No, let's go quicker and in and out and in and out and in n five more.
Heels - Pulses
In and out and four and out and three and out to an out and one. End Out and come all the way in. All right, same thing. Let's go on to the toes and then you're going to go halfway out. Go out a little bit more. Now hold there. Just think of untucking your tailbone a little bit.
Arches - Pulses
I actually think of sticking about out. That's always a odd the other way. There we go. Now go into inches and out. Two inches into out. Two, three, two out. Two, four, two out to five. Two out, two, six and seven and eight and nine and 10 out. Hold. Now don't let this carriage move. You're going to lower. Just your heels. There we go. And you're going to lift the heels. Lift, lift, lift. Good.
Toes - Pulses
Did that carriage move and lower the guilts? Lower, lower, lower. I don't know. I'm just asking. And now lift the heels. Lift. Lift lip vows better. Lower the yields. Birth three, two, one, two, three. Good. Lower, lower, lower, lower and lift. Lift, lift and lower. There we go. Lift. Let's go for five more and lower. And don't be stingy on that. Lower. Yes, there we go. And lift. Lift, lift, lower. Lower.
Heels Lower Lift w/ Knees Bent
Now we're getting that tremor of truth there. Lower, lower, lower lift, lift, lift. Two more. Lower lift, lift. Lift one more. Lower and lift and bend the knees and come in. But that's okay. That tremor is a good thing, so don't worry about that. So I'm going to keep you on your toes. You're gonna bring heels together, toes apart. Good. And then we're going to make sure this little toes on my teachers and say this is very valuable. Real estate. When the money keep that connected, that all right, knees are going to be in line with your shoulders.
Heels Lower Lift
You're going to zipper up and extend to a full extension. One, two out there. You're going to hold. Maybe go up just a little bit more. I'll stretch the legs a little bit more. Perfect. Good. Now what you're going to do is you're going to keep the legs straight. You're going to lower the heels for three counsel, lower, lower, lower.Now for three counts, you're going to lift the heels. Lift, lift, lift and lower. Two, three and lift two, three. Lower, lower, lower and lift. Lift. Lift for two, three and lift two, three and five to throw. It doesn't have you soften the knees slightly. Yes. Lift two, three. Perfect. Let's go for five more. Lower. Lower, lower lift. Lift, lift. Lower. Two, three. Lift two, three. Yes.
Lower and lift two more and lower. Lower, lower lift. Lift. Lift. One more. Lower and lift. Lift. Lift. Now bend the knees and come all the way in. All right. How are you doing? Okay, good. All right. You're going to bend your knees into the chest and give yourself a little hug there and then what we'll do is we're going to do an exercise called, we're going to do the rest of the a hundred actually, so we did 50 earlier. I'm going to have your reach up, grab a hold of this and then just bring the knees into the chest. Here.
Hundred
You're going to bring your elbows right down onto the mat. Very narrow. Good. I'm going to have you roll the head, neck and shoulders up. Look at your abdominals. Extend the arms straight first. There we go. Now reached the legs out towards me. Yes. Good. And then heels together, toes apart. I'm going to rotate you there. Try to lift your upper body little higher actually towards me. Ben, here we go and I'll start pumping up and down as you breathe in with the air.Breathe out. Two, three, four, five in Xcel, three, four, five. Inhale, three, four, five XL. I'm going to take my hand away for the last two. Inhale, XL three, four, five. One more XL, three, four 50 good. Knees into the chest and then bend the elbows and rest your head. Good. Okay, so I'm going to have you hold there for a second.
Going to take us to two springs and I'll take these from you and you can just hug your legs and rest there for a second. And then what I'm going to do is I'm going to get us all set up for two exercises. One is called frog, the other one is called the leg circles. And you're doing okay down there. All right, good. So you're going to, uh, I'm going to help you here and going to bring your left foot through here and then right foot, we'll go right through here. And then you're going to bend the knees and let these straps just fall in between. Now just for security, I'm going to give you the a hundred dollar bill.
Frog
Once again, you're going to squeeze that in between the heels. Good. You're going to bring the arms right down by the sides and you can just let them relax there. Good. Now what you're going to do is you're going to zipper up through your abdominals, but don't let that tailbone tucked up as you do it. You're going to reach the feet towards me. I want you to imagine you're in a bowl of Jello. Good. And now hold there.Stretch those legs a little bit more. Good. I'm going to bring your legs just a little higher. Now you're going to bend the knees and you're going to come back in. Good. And again, you're going to zipper up. Extend the legs out and now pull back through Jello as you come back in.
Now hold there. This time I want you to bring your hands while you're transitioning. I'll take that for a second. You're going to sit on your fingertips. Good. You can bring the hands just a little bit lower. There we go. I'm gonna give you this a hundred dollar bill again. Now in this position here, I just want you to rest there.
Just feel what the weight feels like on your fingertips. Now your goal is when the legs stretch out to not increase weight on your fingertips. You want to maintain that weight throughout. So the trick is as the legs go out, something needs to be going the opposite way. So we're going to be pulling in and up through the abdominals. So the other thing I think about is the space between my bottom rib and my hip is going to stay the same. So if I had a toothpick here and one here, I don't want to break my toothpicks. I don't want to drop my toothpicks.
I just want to hold them in place throughout. Okay, so let's give it a go. You're going to reach towards me as you zipper up, keeping your toothpicks, making sure I think may be a little extra away. That's okay. Ben Mini. We need one, two, one to measure from, right. So once again, zipper up reach. That was better. That's okay. Good. Bend the knees and come back in. What helps me? I imagine I have a glass of red wine on my stomach and you know, no one likes to waste the alcohol filled to the rim. Don't spill any wine.
They're all right. Reach up towards me. I see that as good motivation for you. And now bend the knees and come back in. Let's go for one more and zipper up. Don't spill any wine. It's a really good vintage bottle. All right.
I'm going to keep your leg straight there. Keep the fingertips there. Same idea here. You're going to open, but as the legs lower, don't increase weight on your fingertips. Then bring the legs together and then lift the legs back up. You can stretch the legs just a little straighter. Yep. There we go. And you're going to open the legs now. Lower the legs, legs together, and lift. Now on your own, you're gonna open and lower. Good together.
Leg Circles
And lift. Open. Lower. Don't increase weight. Yes. Together. And lift one more time. Open. Hold there. Let me ask you something. Which hand has more weight on it? All right. That's okay. I think it was a right, but yeah, put a little bit more weight on that left one. All right. Stretch the legs a little bit more now when you lower, don't think of lowering from here. Lower from here. Push down through here.Exactly. Now bring the inner thighs together and lift. Now let's reverse it. You're gonna keep the legs straight and keep them together. Lower from here. Lower. Exactly. And Open and lift together.
Lower from your thighs. Open up together. Now you're doing good. Let's take the hands away. [inaudible] and you can bring the arms right down by the sides. Now you're going to use the mat as your reference. Don't increase weight with your pelvis, lower from your thighs. Good open lift together.
Two more lower open, lift together. One more time and lower. That's it. Open up together and you can bend the knees into the chest. Very good job and I will take this from you and you can just rest there. Oops. Let's keep those knees into the chest. There we go.
Heels
Our right now I'm going to give you a chance of working on coming up from a seated position, so we're going to just roll to your side sitting facing that direction. [inaudible]. All right. You can use your hand to help you get up and then once your ups could just a little bit over to your left. Now feet together, knees together. It would go all the way together with your feet. Yup. There we go. Now your upper body's allowed to go forward a little bit.You're going to push down through your heels, go up through the head, up through the seat, and then bring your hips forward. Exactly. Good. All right. I'm going to take this over to the electric chair real quick and then we're gonna come back to this. All right, so I'll make, this is called the electric chair. I'm gonna have you sit here now that I've given you a complex, no specific way to get on. You can just sit there and then you're going to bring your back completely flat in line with this chair back board here. Now what you're going to do is you're going to bring your heels onto their good now, feet together, knees together. Good.
And you're gonna bring your arms around these shovels here and doesn't make two fists. Now along as it's okay with your knees, I'm going to have your lift. The pedal is high up to where you can. How was that? Good. Now you're going to flex the feet and we're just going to pump down and up. But when you pumped down, your goal is to never let your lower back come off of the sport. Here. So I want you to imagine the board is like putty or clay.
You're going to pull into the core as you push the pedal down, right to there, I think. Good. And then come back up as you push the pedal down, pull back through the core good, and then press into the chair. Good. And press into the chair and press into the chair. Now I always tell my students, is there a note for you down there? You don't need to look down there right now. Presence into the chair, good and into the chair.
And again, push in so you only push down as far as you can. Maintaining the stability of your trunk. And let's go two more and go up one more time and down and go up. Now let's go onto the toes. Okay. Feet together, knees together. You're going to lift the heels a little bit. Good. How this on the knees? Yep.
Toes
Okay, so you're going to press down maybe right there and now lift back up and again, press down as you pull through the core and yes, and push into the back of the chair and go up. Press into the back of the chair and up. Press into the back of the chair. Let's go for five more and press and good and pull him. Yes. And come up and again, pull away from my fingers and up. Three more. Yes, that's it. Two more. Pull way and up.One more time. Pull away now. Hold there. Pull over those fingers. There we go. Now lift the pedal up a little bit. Now hold there. Lift your heels up. You're going to hold here for ten nine higher heels. Eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two. Let the pedal up. An inch in hold for ten nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three. Don't panic. Two. One, lift another inch and hold for 10 no panic at the plotty studio. Seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. One more time. Up and hold for ten nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one. You can lift the pedal all the way up. If I know people were saying what is he doing? He's not doing anything, but you're doing a lot of something. Right. Okay. All right.
And you can stand up. All right, and we're going to go back to the reformer. Okay? Okay, so I'm gonna have you sit down here. You're going to face front and get now scoot a little bit more forward. Then we are going to revisit what we did in the mat a little bit. Bring the hands behind the base of your head. Now what you're going to do is you're going to start with the crown of the head and it's going to round forward and roll away from me and keep a rounding forward and keep going. Keep going, keep going.
Seated Roll Down
Yep, keep going. Great. Keep going. Maybe a little bit more and stop there. Keep your upper body forward, but push only your lower back into my leg. Good. Now roll up through your spine to a tall, straight back.
Now keep your upper back off the wall, but put your lower back into my leg. Exactly. That's that same push that we just did on the electric chair of pushing into the back. Yes, in rolling up through your spine. Okay. And then you can stand up onto the floor and we're going to do an exercise called the stomach massage series. Okay, so
Round Back
Now you're going to push out a little bit with using your feet right to there. Now bring one foot up onto here, then the other foot up. Good. Now from here you can bring the arms on the outside of the thighs and you're going to hold the front of this carriage here. Good. So it's that same idea, spine stretch forward from above the box round or upper body. As far forward as you Canada.Now you can grab very firm to the front. Their is going to be very broad. Now everything above the box, it's gonna stay forward, but you're going to push your lower back as hard into the box as you can. And now stretch the leg straight. Good? Yes. Keep pushing the lower back into that box. And then you're going to bend the knees and come back in. Good.
All right, let's do that again. You're going to push into the box with the lower back, cause you spine. Stretch forward with your upper back. That that head drop just a little bit more. And now bend in. Go back in.
Lower back, goes into the box as you pull into the naval, as you spine stretch forward with that upper back. Good. And now come back in and again, push into the box with that lower back. Exactly. And bend the knees and go back in. And again, push into the box with the lower back and come back in. One more time. Press into the box with the lower back. Exactly. And Bend and go back in.
And you can feel a nice stretch here. All right, you can roll up to your spine. I'm gonna leave you on three springs, but what you're gonna do is you're going to reach the arms back and grab the back corners of that box. Good. You can use that box to help you lift your upper back. Good. Imagine that you have a walnut right in between your shoulder blades. Crack that walnut. Then from there, lift through the back.
Flat Back
You're going to be like a marionette puppet. Two strings here, two strings here, one here. That's all five strings up. Same thing. Push into the box and stretch your legs straight. Lifting up through those two front puppet strings. Good and bend the knees and go back in and again, you're going to push into that box. Good. And come back in. You're doing okay. And again, push into the box.This time are going to hold there. We're going to add on. You're going to lower your heels, you're going to lift the heels, and now you're going to bend the knees and go back in. Good. All right. Push the lower back into the box to stretch the legs. There we go. Now lower the heels with straight legs. Now push your lower back into the box to lift the heels.
Bend the knees and go back in. Exactly. All right, and again, push into the box and then lower those heels. Push into the box, bend the knees and come back in. All right, you're doing pretty good. I'm going to take it up just a little bit. All right, pressing out and then lower the heels. Lift the heels and bend the knees and go back in and again. Press into the box, lower the heels into the box and lift the heels and again into the box. Lower the heels into the box. And Bevins and come in one more time.
Press into the box, lower, press into the box and go in. Good. All right. You're going to reach the arms forward on up diagonal there. Now you can let your lower back touch the box and you're going to stretch the legs street. Good. And bend the knees and go back in and again, stretch the legs too and come back in.
Reach
Now this time as you go out, try to take your lower back, back off the box and go out and lean forward towards me. Stretch those legs completely if that's okay. Yep. Hold there. Now try to take the lower back off the box. Reached and tried to touch my shoulders. Yes. Now come back in and I want you to touch my hands.I don't feel anything yet. Very. Go ahead again, go out. Good and come in. I'll make sure your wrist long. Touch your fingertips. Do my hands now take your lower back off the box. Hold there as a brief appearance there or there are right grabbed my wrist and then you could just lean your body forward. [inaudible] there we go. This is okay, this is your second dessert are right and you can ask it to the side and stand up our right.
And what we're going to do is we're going to continue with this short box here and you're going to sit here facing towards the front. Okay, you're going to bring both underneath the straps here. Now you're going to open those feet very, very wide and you're going to wrap one arm around the waist, then the other Amara around the waist, and then round your body forward spine stretch forward. So you make a tight little ball here. You're going to keep this ball shape. You're going to keep your legs opening wide, you're going to roll the ball backwards.
Round
Then you're going to roll the ball forward and tailbone under to roll backwards. Crown of the head forward to roll front. Now hold there. So what you're gonna do is you're going to round forward a little bit more. Now above you, I have a pole. This is the ceiling. I don't want you to touch the ceiling.So roll under in a hotel round four, but clear the ceiling. Go under it, under it, under it, under. That was good, and again, don't touch. Stay under that good. And now go forward. Go under it, under it, under it, under it, under it. It just made it that one. That was good though. And again, curl under, under under now go forward. Forward, forward, forward, forward. Excellent. Good. Roll up to your spine to a tall back. Now I want you to keep this flat back here.
Flat Back
I'm now leaning forward a little bit. Now bring your hands behind the base of your head. Good. Now what you're going to do is you're going to keep a flat back. You're going to look straight forward and you're going to from the waist, hinge backwards. Hold there and come back up to center. And again, squeeze your bottom, lift in, hinge, and come back up to center.Now hold there. I want you to lift here. Just relax here. You're going to zipper up in hinge backwards. Hold right there. Now squeeze your bottom. Lift your spine longer closed as ribs. Hold here for three. Hold there to hold. One. Come up to center. Had a cat as the tremor truths. Again, lift the spine, squeeze the bottom. Now don't go back from your head.
Go back by zippering up. Now when you go back, don't let your background keep your back flat. So hold there one second. Lift up here and go back. There we go. And come back up to center and again, lifting hinge back. Hold there, hold there. Squeeze that bottom. Lift that spine up. Hold there for three old, their two older one, lift up to center.
All right. Okay, so you're going to bring the hands behind the base of the head again. One Hand on top of the other hand. I'm not yet good. Now you're going to bend over to the rate. Ooh, and come center. I'm like really setting a lot of money to the Cairo today and come center.
Side to Side
Now what you're going to do is you're going to make, I'll bring the arms up and you're going to make a fist with that hand and bring the other arm here. Now pushed the fist up and now push up and go over. Go over, go over and hold there. Push with the just to come back to center. Change fist. Now push up into the hand. You can't go up anymore, so you have to go up over, over, over. Now lift to come center, switch fist and again. Lift and push with the festival. Yeah, over, over, over. Come up to center. Switch and now lift and go over reach.Reach and come up to center of the arms. Come down. Rest forward. Third Dessert for today. Good. Roll up through your spine. One Vertebrae at a time. Good. All right, so what you're gonna do with you. Okay. We're going to take your right leg. Let's have you stand up for a second.
Seated Knee Lifts
Okay. I'm going to have you sit down. You're going to sit right here. Oh, sorry. Right over here. And just be careful when sitting down. Yeah, because your hands now. Now go forward a little bit. You're kind of right on the edge there. Now you're going to cross your arms like a genie. Now your goal, it might not happen today. That's okay. Rome was not built in a day.You're going to try to not shift and lift your right knee up. Good. That's your left one, but that's okay. And lower. Now let's lift them right up and lower. Now lift here more. Good and lower. Now lift the right up and lower warmer time.
Lift up and lower. Lift up and lower. So you see you have to really use low here to be able to do that. Now you can use your hands. You're going to stand up. Good. Let's back over here. Sit here facing towards the front. [inaudible] bring your uh, this foot out here.
Modified Tree
Now your goal is to think of your pelvis being on a scale. Same idea. You're not going to let your weight chance for, you're going to take your right leg out of the strap. [inaudible] and then Brit. Yup. That's going to stay there. Yeah, but he couldn't bring this here. Now equal weight on both hips. I'm gonna lift the right thigh up. Now hold onto the back of the spy here. Good. Now what you're going to do is you're going to bring the arm and you're going to hug it. [inaudible] like this. Yes.Now you're going to grab a hold of your wrist here. Now what you're gonna do is you're going to roll backwards one vertebrae at a time. You're going to keep that bottom flip flex. I'm going to give you your, okay, I'm going to give you a little bit of, so as stretch here, okay? And I have you, I won't let you go. All right. You start to feel the front of your thighs stretching. Good. Now you push this thigh in to come back up to center and again, you're going to curl under and you're going to bring your body down.
You can look at your belly button in front now. Good. And you feel that stretch and you went even further at that time now, right? That goes forward to help you up. Let's go for one more curling under numbness. It's going to give you a little bit of pressure here just to increase that stretch. Good. And then come back up. All right, and let's switch.
So holding on behind that. Yes, that's correct. And then curling under. Good. You all right? And curling up. And again, curving under good and curve back up. One more time. Curling under, under, under. Put a little bit more weight on your right hip. Yes, there we go. And feel that stretch. Yep.
And coming back up our right and you can step to the side. We're on the home stretch. Just a few more. So you're going to sit here facing that direction. I'm going to give you a little bit of an extension. You're going to bring your feet right onto there.
Roll Back w/ Thoracic Extension
You're going to grab up on deep here. There we go. Now walk a little bit more so your thumbs are close to this. Even if you have to round the dock there. Now let the head drop forward and just relax there. Now you're going to roll backwards from your tailbone and continue to roll.Bring the knees together and we're all the way back. [inaudible] and keep going. Keep going, keep going. And you can let your head go and Xcel. How is that? And a chest and then round over and you can let the straps help you up at the straps. Pui Up. Good. And again, now just let this really reach their rollback. You don't have to do anything. Straps are going to do the work for you and go all the way back and then let the head go. And exhale. Good Chin at the chest. Now let the straps pull you up. Let them go forward, forward, forward. Let's go for one more. So curling back.
Relax here.
And you can stand onto the floor.
Reverse Knee Stretch
Now bring your thumbs with the fingers. Good. Now around your back pooling up, you're not going to move anything. And your upper body, you're gonna bring your knees up. Bring your hands a little bit further back, I think. Yup. You're going to bring your knees to toward your wrist. So poor bear ago.And you're going to go back out and again, bring your knees towards your wrist and go back out. Don't push me here. Curl your tailbone under. I'm thinking of sitting. Yes, that was it though. One more time. Pull under and you can feel your lower abdominals working there. All right, standing onto the floor. We're going to do similar type of movement now.
Elephant
So what you're gonna do is you're gonna step on one hand, one foot other hand, other foot facing that direction. So bring left hand on right foot, right hand, left foot. Good. Just like that. Nice straight legs. Let's find that angry cat position again. Drop the head. Drop your tailbone. Good. Now what you're going to do is try to lift your toes up into the air. Your other toes. Those are your heels. That's okay. Now what you're going to do is you're going to push just back through your heels. Now that same pull in that we did put into the lower abdominals, tuck your tailbone under to come in. Come all the way in.I think you're going out. Let's go head again and go out. Yep. Now press out [inaudible]. Good. Now pull under exactly and go out and pull under and again, out pool under. One more time out and poor under. All right, it's down onto the floor for Megan. So for your knees, I'm going to do this next exercise only. You're going to step on one hand, one knee, other hand, other knee, and you're going to find that same angry cat position.
Round
Okay. Now you're going to Tuck your toes under uh, the other way. Yes. And then from here I'm going to have you round the back, like in Greek hat. Now your goal is to not move this carriage simultaneously. Lift both knees up into the air, two inches and a hold here for three, two, one. Lower the needs down. And again, lift the knees up on hold for three, two, one. Lower the knees down. One more. Lift the knees up and hold there. Push the carriage out. Two inches. Now pull it in one push, pull it into push.Pull it in. Three push. Pull it in. Four push. Pull it in. Five. Jet Lee is the operative word. Then the knee is down. Good. All right. You did good with that. So I'm gonna make it just a little bit harder for you. Where are you going? You're not going anywhere. So someone's fleeing.
Knees Off
So you're going to bring the heels against there. Round the back like an angry cat. Now it's harder. Try not to move the carriage as you lift both knees up cause you're on one spring now. Now push out two inches. Entailed one under to go in. Now push out and pull in. Go out a little more right there. Pull in and again out. Pour in.Let's do two more out. Pull in one more time. Out. Pull under, under, under, under, under. All the way in. Hold it there. Hold it there. Hold it there. Lower down. Good job. And standing onto the floor are two more exercises for you. We're going to start how we were going to go back, how we started. So you're going to sit down facing that way and I'm going to now sit all the way down. Yup. Good. Come over a little bit towards me.
Running Prep
Then you're gonna lie onto your side and then onto your back. Okay, good. You're going to bring the toes onto this here. Feet together, knees together, and I lied. Let me have you stand back up. Let me do one more thing that's going to help you. Let's come over here. I'm just going to have you bring your hands onto these wooden points here and you're just going to squeeze your legs together. You can lift up onto your toes. Good. Now been one. Needs to drop one heel now lift both up, now change and let's go up. Then one year she dropped one here and up and change and up.
Now let's go a quicker and up and up
Running
Three more and up. Two more and up. One more. Up and up. Bend both knees. Come in. Good. Last exercise for today. Bring your feet into the corners here. Good. And then your goal is not move the carriage.
Pelvic Lift
You're gonna roll the spine up from the tailbone raw all the way up. Keep going. Keep going. Go about three more inches up right there. Now you're going to not allow the pelvis to change. You're going to pull into the core, stretch the legs straight.Good. And then bend the knees and go back in. And again, anyone over 25 should be doing this exercise and coming back in and out on three and Ben, back in, out on four and Ben, back in and out on five. Ben Back. And let's just do one more cause I'm going to give you something for your hamstring. Let's go out for the ACL and come back in in n n. N. Roll the spine down. Okay, now you're going to bring your heels onto this bar here. Good.
I'm going to have you open parallel hip width. Now roll the spine up. Oh, sorry. From the tailbone. That was my fault. Come all the way up now. Hold there. Now roll back down. Let's do it again this time try not to move that character on a lighter spring. So rolling up right there. I'll stay there. I'm going to have you try to bring your right knee into the chest.
Single Leg Bridge
Good. Now keep that. You're going to slowly stretch this leg. Push out right there. That's good. And come back in. We won't go fully out and again out and can start to feel that hamstring. This is going to be good for the ACL and come back in. Now hold there.Someone's panicking slow. I'm at in control. It it. Control it. Control it, control it. One more. Going out. Hold there. Now come in and control it. Control it. Control the control it. Bring this heel down and now let's switch. Bring this leg in. Try to curl the hips up a little bit more right there.
Now go out and you're going to see the difference between these two. Right? And Go back in, out to you. Okay. And in this one's much stronger and come in. Let's go for one more and come in. Let's go back to this leg, bend this knee into the chest, and then go out right there and come in. And you can hug this one if it's more comfortable to a with your hands if you like, and come back in, in, in, in, uh, someone's being stingy.
Come all the way in, all the way and all the way in. And again, out, right to there, all the way in, all the way in, all the way in, all the way in last time out to there and go all the way in, in, in, in, in both feet down. We're not going to do the other one. You can bend the knees in, hug the legs, and you are done for today. Good work, Mike.
The Teacher's Corner: The Client's First Session
Mention
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Brett Howard (Teacher) |
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Marta F |
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Katherine R |
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Fatima A |
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Caroline B |
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Catherine G |
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Debbie K |
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Leah B |
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Tasha C |
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Stacey O |
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Randi S |
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Julie K |
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Kathleen Fitzgerald Henry |
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Sharon B |
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Judith R |
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Taryn Upchurch |
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Lori |
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Vicky Andrews |
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Willow M |
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