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Hi, thank you so much for joining me today. Today I have an advanced reformer workout and I have a pad, a box, a pole, and also a little towel down near the where the springs are in case I get sweaty and I have to take a white while. I change the springs. I'll be going through all of the transitions and talking you through them. If those might be unfamiliar. And I'm going to do everything pretty much the standard way.
Uh, I do make one change for myself, which is uh, in the footwork series I usually it's done on three springs or four springs depending on the size and level of the person. I however, cannot be trusted to use my stomach and my bottom. My legs just want to take over if I have lots of springs to push around. So I'm going to do footwork on one spring. And if you've not ever done foot work on one spring before, uh, give it a try and see what you think.
And it will make the pace a little bit, not as vigorous but not by much. So I'm going to take three springs off, leaving one spring in the middle and I am in the habit of getting on and off the reformer on the right side of the reformer. Um, mostly. So I'm going to start there. Okay, I'm going to start standing. I'm going to sit my bottom right on the corner of the carrot so I can lie back in one motion and we'll do 10 of each of the footwork series.
So balls of the feet on the bar, heels pressing together. This is too, make sure it comes in completely without making a big noise. This is number six, seven, eight, nine, 10. Okay, lift about both feet. Go to the arches again, you're pushing onto the foot bar in both directions. Really connecting and forming a relationship with your apparatus and it's really that pushing into the bar on the return. That gives me a little bit of working my seat.
Pilates Stance
I'm going to do two more because I am not so good at counting to 10. So sometimes 10 ish heels on the bar. Push. This is when you get to see how much your toes were helping you. Three, four, keep pushing. Five, six, seven, eight, nine and 10.
Arches
Back to the first position you were in. Heels together, toes apart, stretch out. And then use your center. Push your heels down to three, push up to three, down to three, up to three. So they're always in constant motion and you're never kind of dumping yourself down into that. Okay, this is seven, eight, nine. One more time and then return. And then I'm actually gonna put the springs back on.
Heels
I'm going to put three springs on. I'll have a total of three for the hundred. Normally you won't change the springs. You will lower your foot bar with your feet. Slide a bit away from the shoulder rest. Lift up into your hundred and begin.
Tendon Stretch
Breathe in for five pumps and exhale for five pumps through to three four, five, six, seven, eight. Okay, nine. This is the last set. [inaudible] finish like you started. Take your handles into one hand. Sit up into your teaser. Take put one spring on in the middle, take the other two off. So you have two left in the middle, lie back, put your head piece down and it's time for the overhead over and up. And then lift yourself to lower yourself.
Hundred
Yeah. And again, we're gonna do five. This is number three. Okay. Keep trying to reach your arms and legs into position so they arrive at the same time. Once more. Okay.
Overhead
Scoop. Bend everything in for coordination five times. Yeah, really stretch out. Keep reaching as you open close. Take a big breath in. Take a big breath out. Twice more. [inaudible] take your handles into one hand. Sit Up and turn all the way around.
Coordination
This is why you went to that trouble before. So now you just have to take one off behind you. Three of rowing, one reach way down to the tailbone. Lift your back as you lift your arms and reach to your handles. Take up as much space as you go around. Sit up tall, scoop.
Back - One
Reach to your handles. Okay. This moment is really like the boomerang. [inaudible]. One more time.
[inaudible] sit up tall. Lift your back up to your handles. Reach and close the springs without banging. Okay, go up and forward on the inside. [inaudible] last one. [inaudible].
Back - Two
Place your handles just beside your legs. Turn all the way around. Pick up your handles and begin for rowing. Three reach. Lift your waistline up to your hands and reach out to the side. Okay. Twice more.
Front - One
Yeah. Lift. Reach. Last one. Keep feeling like your waistline needs to go where your hands are. Perfect. [inaudible] and then reach your heels forward. Lift yourself over your legs and stretch. This is number four and lift. This one feels really good. Pardon my grunting.
Front - Two
Yeah. One more time. Stretch. Reach below your heels. Try to make your low back. Go there. Oh yeah. And lift. You stay lifted as the tension goes away in the springs. Okay.
And then flip your handles. Sit Cross legged. Bring your arms up in front. Make the shave and put that shave wherever you need to. You don't have to go all the way behind your head. I like to do it right on top of my head.
Shaving
It helps me to keep the position and work on that flexibility. Okay. Keep lifting as you resist the springs down. We're going to do five. Oh and now on the fifth one, open your arms, cross your legs the other way and arrive in the hook. Okay.
Hug A Tree
Open your back. Yeah. Oh, open your chest. Okay. This is actually a great exercise to let your something more central than your hands. Do the hugging motion.
So maybe your shoulder blades draw toward one each one another and then they draw down and around as you hug. One more time. Makes five I believe. Okay. And then hang up your handles. Okay.
At a second spring we're going to do swan on the long box. [inaudible] the head will go up in anticipation of the long stretch series. Widows will be just in a moment. The pad goes on the box and then you can use the straps for your feet or not. I prefer the version with the straps. It's a bit awkward on the way in, so the foot goes in, the ball of the foot goes to the bar. Turn yourself around, keep the ball of the foot on the bar. If you can push the carriage out, get yourself into place, and then you can put your feet under there in your heels together. Toes apart position. Pretend it's a ladder barrel.
So stand in your lower body and reach and lift. [inaudible] stretch out. Push that foot bar away and lift yourself. Push into the football around your back and come back two more. Reach Long. Make your back really long as much as you can. Lift, touch the box, stretch out [inaudible] return one more time.
Swan
[inaudible] Bush and come down. Fancy transition number one, hold onto the box. Take a foot out of the strap, stand up, lose the strap, reach down and stretch the back of your legs. After that exercise and lose your pad, push the carriage out. Put your trunk right where it goes for the pulling straps. Keep your feet onto the bar, take your straps, get them all organized so that it's right, the strap is tight. And then finally you'll take your feet off.
The carriage will come home and you're in the right position for the exercise. Stand on your feet, lift your chest and try to pull yourself forward more than the strap goes back and return. Lift your back shape. Feel like the back muscle and the muscles of your grip are the same muscles. Last one. Now let's see if that can happen all together. [inaudible] slide on on the strap just past the rivets so that when you're in the t you're a little bit forward of straight out to the side.
Pulling Straps
Okay. Again, those shoulderblades draw together. Okay, so that they're moving the carriage, not so much your arms. It's nice to use the rivets to make sure that your arms are actually in the same place. Okay?
T-Pull
Oh, one more [inaudible]. Okay. Take your handles in one hand. Step off to whatever side the handles are in. Add your second spring for the backstroke with your free hand handles.
Go one in each hand. Fancy transition number two, hand on the box, foot on the bar or the frame. Don't sit. Sit right on the edge. Use your stomach. Lie back three backstroke in each direction. Up Open. [inaudible] keep thinking that your stomach pulling into the box is moving the carriage more than your arms. And reverse last one.
Backstroke
Hold your handles in one hand. Sit Up and balance in your teaser. Reached down. Take off your spring, whew. And lie back. That was kind of a wild ride. Each time you do it. Three teaser. We'll do some different variations when we get up there. Neuros how I'm kind of taking a little moment lying here too long.
Teaser
Reach everything up and first just down and scoop. Hannah, reach forward as you lower your arms. Okay. And then reach and lifts yourself longer on the box. Okay. Keep your stomach on the box as much as you can.
You can take your hands together for a nice stretch if you like. And then come on back up. Try not to get lost down there. So now circles in the arms, three in each direction. Reverse. Yeah, take your stretch. So now we're gonna do leg circles. Reach, scoop, arrive. Keep your reach and your lift.
Yeah, reverse rolled out. Okay. Take your handles in one hand you're going to step off for the breaststroke. Normally it's nice if there's, if someone to spot you, there's several directions and also a combo without a spot. I'm going to do the first direction three times one spring.
Move the carriage, place your handles right on the corners of the box. Place your body on the box, your kneecaps. We just barely off the box. Let the carriage come in and your palms will face up on the carriage. One, two, three. Stand in your legs. Reach forward and lift and return.
Breaststroke
[inaudible] one more [inaudible] and then hold onto the box just like you did when you got on. Step off and just not, don't let the carriage crash behind you. The next exercise is the hamstring stretch. It has a very specific way of getting on. There's a couple of ways, but this is the way that I prefer. So the handle is going to drop. You gonna put your close, the reformer side that's close to you.
That foot is going to go in the leather loop and you're going to stand on the frame. Hold onto the other loop, hold onto the carriage, put your other foot in. Stand on the frame. Lie onto the box in the same place that you were for the breaststroke. Okay. And then place your hands on your back, like double leg kick and lift up your chest.
Hamstring Curls
You're going to pull the carriage and then you're going to control and stretch your leg. You can even stretch your leg after the carriage closes so you can get a nice reach. Let's do two more. Okay, last one. Okay.
And then from there, sit up on the box, straddling the box. Reach down and take hold of the leather straps. Take your handles and just to make sure you don't cross them for the horseback. Here we go. Three horseback. Squeeze the box with your legs, stretch your foot to the point. And then down and up. Okay.
Horseback
Push your heels forward. Sit Tall. And again, squeeze the box. Okay. Down in scoop. Okay. And then push the heels forward last time. You can add circles if you like.
Okay. And then at this point, the next time we need our handles is the short spinal massage. So pull the leather strap through, place your handles on the mat or the floor underneath the reformer. And now let's go to the long stretch. The foot bar goes up, the spring goes on for two springs. The box goes away and a pad gets placed onto the headpiece.
It's nice to set up the reformer as you go so that you can come back and just get on. Okay? So we'll do five of everything in this series. [inaudible] resists the carriage home. [inaudible] [inaudible].
Long Stretch
Place your feet for the down stretch. Lower yourself into position. Press out, resist and lift. Lift, lift, lift, lift. Okay, lift, lift, lift, lift. Lift your waistline all the way up to your, all the way up to the ceiling, through your shoulders. Do more round your back. Stand up for the up stretch. We'll do three up stretch and two of the Combo [inaudible].
Down Stretch
Keep really standing in your heels no matter where you are in the exercise. Okay? Because here's where you need it. Lift up your chest. Keep pushing through your heels. Elephant yourself in.
Up Stretch 1
Okay. Push your heels down for the elephant. Try to stretch your heel down as far into the carriage as they'll go. Okay, we're going to do five and then three on each leg. Okay?
Up Stretch 2
Don't shift anything. When you take a leg away. Should look exactly the same in the back position. Yeah, hold the carriage in as you change. [inaudible] take the foot in the air. Step to the floor. Turn around long back. Stretch. [inaudible] stay tall as you lower.
Elephant
Okay. Really stand on your feet in this one. So it's a lower body exercise and not an arm exercise. Inadvertently it is an arm exercise. Okay?
Single Leg Elephant
In that you need arms. Last one. Step off without stepping onto the carriage. The pads slides down. All the springs are on and you can take a wipe with your towel. Have a seat. Sit up super tall.
Long Back Stretch
Here we go. Out, down, up in. We're going to set up a rhythm in this first 10. This is number five and you're gonna try not to break the rhythm as you change the springs. [inaudible] two more on the way in. Take a spring off on the way out. Put your hands back where they go.
Round Back
[inaudible] keep using your bottom and your stomach so that it will help you to not push yourself out of your pants with your legs. This one's a bit notorious [inaudible] and I'm going to do three more, which is sort of 10 ish. Okay. And here we go. On the way in, reach down and take a spring off. Reach up and start the next one. Push on the bar. Lift, lift, lift, lift your waist to your fingertips. Okay, two more. And then we'll add the twist.
Flat Back
Okay. Twist and return. Nice. Exhale. Okay. Okay, one more each way. Okay. Step off without your hands. Take your pad, place it along the edge of the reformer. This is the tendon stretch.
Reach
You can do two legs only or you can add the one leg variation side and back. That's what I'm going to do. [inaudible] and think of the foot position. Kind of like the arches foot position that you did when you got to lie down. But sadly, no more lying down.
Twist
Okay? If you do two legs, only just two, five. If you do everything else, just do three. Take your leg out to the side, three side [inaudible] to the back, three back. Okay. Return do three center again. [inaudible] just to get in the mood for the other side.
Tendon Stretch
[inaudible] to the back. [inaudible] bring yourself back and step off without sitting. The foot bar goes down, the pad comes with headpiece down. It's time for the short box. Bring everything together because we've got a lot of exercises to do. The pad goes on the box, the pole goes in front, and you'll get the straps for your feet. [inaudible] this first one, if you go only halfway back, do five. If you go all the way back, you're going to do three and just going to channel your inner roll up for this one.
Single Leg Tendon Stretch
[inaudible] [inaudible] and I'm kind of doing a couple of each [inaudible] so I guess five is the magic number. Sit Up Tall, lift your back first. Reach the pole up. Okay. Things that you're going up and forward. Okay.
Tendon Stretch
And we'll do five. Yeah, one more. Reach the pole down to take a tiny, a little break. Reach the pole back up again as you sit tall. Exhale as you reach to the side and exhale, keep standing on your feet as much as you can under that strap. Okay. One more each way.
Single Leg Tendon Stretch
Keep feeling like you're lifting each side of your waistline up to the fingertips. Okay. Reach the pole down. Sit up tall. Reach the pole up again. Lift, rotate and get taller and reach. Add Up.
Round Back
And each time you returned to the center. Okay. Lift a little bit more. I'm just going to back up cause my strap is getting a little slack. [inaudible] so that you'll return to the center a little taller each time.
Flat Back
Yeah, we did two sets of that one because we're saving space in our body and our minds for the around the world. Again, you want to take off and arrive longer than you left. So lift and rotate. Reach, reach, reach more and then up. Yeah, return trip. Yeah. And then stow the bar.
Side to Side
Let's start with the right leg and we'll do a little of the tree. Yeah. Lift yourself up and forward and then keep this shape as you stand in your feet. It's a little harder. Now they're separate and then stand in them as you pull yourself away from the opposite direction.
Twist and Reach
Okay? And first of all, just go down, okay, for a moment. Now we'll stay down for a little longer. [inaudible] reach and grab wherever you can on the frame. [inaudible] now when you get back there, this time, if it's available to you and you can reach and put your hands on the floor, press on the floor. If it feels fine, do three leg circles in each direction.
Around the World
Okay? Come all the way up. Grab onto your toes, lift yourself up and forward. Take a last stretch, and then you can actually cross your ankle to the figure four position. Grab onto your handles, lift up your waistline and stretch forward. Okay, and now we'll do it all again on the other leg. Okay.
Tree
Stretch three times sitting as tall as you can. Lift up to your leg, push and stand in your legs as you suck back in the opposite direction. Okay, and first just easy, I'm going to move my hip just a little bit. [inaudible] [inaudible] and standing in your feet is actually gonna help you to use your bottom so that you won't have that sort of adjustment that I have to do. Um, I'm just over time and we'll get better so that you don't have to do that. Adjusting [inaudible] wash on the floor.
Single Leg Circles
Okay. And then three leg circles [inaudible] and then come back. Hey man, walk up to your toes, stretch your heel to the ceiling, pull your stomach in [inaudible] and then lift up for a nice last stretch. [inaudible] and then let's take it all away. The pad can go next to the reformer, the box and the pole can go back. And then when we come back, I'll set up for the short spinal massage, which our straps are already in place for. [inaudible] I like to just set the straps for myself and then have a seat.
Figure Four Stretch
I'm going to take a tiny wipe again and then I'll lie back. Okay, so lift up your feet to the straps. Don't move the carriage [inaudible] and then we're going to do five short spinal massage. Stand in your feet. [inaudible] and then keep reaching your feet away so you can pull your stomach down to the carriage in the opposite direction. Yeah, and have a little moment of your back. Not stretching, just lying on the mat, kind of in repose, shall we say in between each one.
Tree
[inaudible] and you'll pause and then take off [inaudible] and then we have one more to make five [inaudible]. And then to be nice to yourself, take your hands on your shins, take a big breath in and just exhale and bring your legs toward your chest. Exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale. And then take your handles and your straps off your feet. Pull on the handle, the straps will go away. Hang those up for later for chest expansion and put your head piece back up.
Single Leg Circles
And actually this is the semicircle. I usually do it with the foot bar up, but let's, today we'll do a couple in each direction. So with the foot bar down, you'll lift yourself up and slide out to your semicircle. Okay. And then again, stand on your feet and try to scoop and insert yourself into the springs. Without moving the carriage very much.
Figure Four Stretch
Your heels will not touch the frame and then curl the tailbone up. Sure. One more this direction. [inaudible] now reverse pushed on your feet. Really be strong with your arms as well.
Short Spine Massage
[inaudible] [inaudible] Oh, and then pull yourself back onto the carriage. Use your feet like you did at the beginning to put the foot bar up again. Okay? Yes, you can check it and make sure it's secure. And then you're going to lift yourself up and slide back up. So now, two in each direction here. Stand on your feet.
Semi Circle
It's a little bit long or way down. [inaudible] okay. Yeah. [inaudible] and keep really taking up all the space between your points of contact, your feet, your back, and your hands. [inaudible] let's reverse [inaudible] last one. [inaudible] and then pick your head up. Pull yourself all the way back.
Bring your knees into your chest for a moment and then step off. We're going to go to the chest expansion, thighs, stretch, et cetera. Grab your straps, Neil, against the shoulder rest. You can also have your feet hooking at the edge of the carriage. And we're going to do two sets of chest expansion.
Chest Expansion
Remember your back muscles and your grip from the pulling straps. [inaudible] now is when you need it. [inaudible] take a big breath in, hold your breath as you look side to side and then exhale and grow taller. [inaudible] take your handles in one hand, reach back at a third spring. You now have three springs. This is the thigh stretch.
Get all your chest expansion stuff in there that you just had and lift the strap to lift yourself to tip backward [inaudible] and then stand on your shins. Pull your stomach in and come back. We're going to do two, two more and then one more. If it's available to you, we'll go all the way back. Yeah, so hold your position, your long line. That is not an arch. And then at the very top you're going to lift up to arch the upper back return and return all the way to closing the springs. Take your handles in one hand. Step off, take the two outside springs off. You now have just one left in the middle.
Thigh Stretch
This is the arm springs. Sorry. The arm circles, you'll get on one hand, one handle in each hand behind your back. Try to be really precise about getting to your position without a lot of wiggling. I always say that and then I wiggle a lot. So three circles in each direction. Yeah, and really this is the lower body that's standing strong and powering this circle of the upper body. Three in the other direction [inaudible] and then at this point take your handles, come back to get your long black straps and this is my favorite place to take a break while I set up the straps for long spine just prior to doing snake and twist. You can also do your snake and twist and set these up right before corkscrew.
Arm Circles
But I always think this is Joe Palladia is giving me like a little time to collect myself. I'm thinking about how the snake is going to go. Okay. Now we're out of time and we have to do this naked. So place your foot so that your foot is either across the corner of the foot bar or parallel on the foot bar, whichever you choose. Make sure your heel has a place to be. And then grab your carriage, lift yourself up into position.
And let's do two snake and two twist. Stand on your feet. Lift yourself into Swan. Push on your feet to return. [inaudible] go out a little push on the carriage and twist like the corkscrew. Exhale, pull. Stand on your feet, come back.
Snake
[inaudible] try to be as upright as you can as you twist, okay? And then you'll step off and then you get a little walk around to the other side. Plant your foot, grab your carriage and hop on. Okay? Sometimes it's nice to just meet this breathing exercise. Take a big breath in, exhale as you get your swang inhale as you come back. And then exhale as you twist.