Extension Reformer

Hi, I'm Benjamin Degenhart and I'm back for another reformer workout. Today I have Kathleen and Chaz helping me with this class, which is themed and extension. The idea is to find opportunities to really unlock our backbend, open up the chest, get our back body nice and strong. It's a fairly quick and fast paced. We form our workouts so I hope you ready. We're going to start on our backs with footwork.

We're setting up on the grads reformer with three or four Springs. That's really up to your level of strength and your comfort level. The headpieces on the medium setting, so lifted up if it's not there already and we're going to take one press, one extension all the way out to pause for a moment and already here starting to think about lengthening out or spine, which is so obvious in piles, but right now we're being compressed between the foot bar and the shoulder blocks, so really hone in on that effort it takes to stretch the Springs out with your spine fully extending and bend your knees and keeping that length and will flow through. I have nine more times out and back in eight and back in so through all the exercises that each all serve their own purpose, footwork clearly being about the feed. We're shifting our focus somewhat towards that extension work that can be found in all of the exercises all the way in and then we'll change to the arches of our feet. After we've done our 10 the heels drop underneath the foot bar.

Toes curl over. Let's take one to stay. Find that work in your back again. Once your legs are fully extended, bend your knees, maintain the length nine times you'll flow out and back in. You've got eight and seven. Return six back. Use the arms pressing back into your MADD to enhance that feeling of back body engagement.

We've got three push resist and to take one more all the way out, all the way in. Lift both feet onto the heels, pulling your toes back, one to stay and refine the effort in your back. Really feel, especially here on the heels of the back of your legs is firing up as well. Bend your knees all the way back home, flow for none and all this time of lengthening out, settle into a very irregular normal breath for you that supports you in this movement. Again, using your arms to actively open the chest, maybe even starting to more actively push your head into the headrest to feel the muscles in your neck and upper back. Start to activate all the way out and in after 10 come onto your toes for your tendon stretch. Press at one time. Again, finding that backline activation. Keep all that low where the heels and pressing to Alden total lift backup flow for now. Add up and eight try to keep those heels spiraling into one another and even weight on all 10 toes back body.

Now he's and dropped into your mat. Actively extending for two up and one present you all Alton toes. Your knees come in as lower the foot bars down, one foot under the foot bar, the other under the kickstand. Extend your legs over the bar. Grab your handles. We're getting ready for a hundred let's extend the legs over the foot.

Pallet and drop. Start to move yourself away from the blocks and find your hundred position. First, you pull into your straps, lengthen the legs out of your body, and pause here for a moment. I'm not going to have you pump just yet, but there's already counts for your hundred, right? Just holding it and breathing here. This doesn't look much like extension, but by pushing your handles away from you and distancing your chest and head away from those handles, you might start to find that first opportunity to lengthen out your back. Stay for one more. Inhale, one more exhale and then recover legs down, arms up, release your head, and then we'll turn a hundred into the 50 because I already had you. Hold that, but find out same relationship to your handles. Pull yourself into position.

Find that lift and extension in the upper back rather than curling forward and begin to pump. Two, three, four, five. Exhale, two, three, four, five. Reach up and forward into your straps. Exhale. Try to push yourself away from the handles. Inhale and XL. Two more. Inhale, press the legs into each other. Exhale. One more time. Can you find more space in the back of your neck? XL two, three, four, five.

You are done. Release the legs down. Arms up, head floats down. Let's flip our head. Piece two flat first. Sit yourself up. Set up on two Springs. Nice teasers. Come back down and we'll do our overhead preparation.

We're not going overhead today. We're just keeping the short and concise and focusing on back body activation. So all you're going to do, he has pressed both arms down, lift both legs to a 90 degree angle and just hold right there. Now actively press your head into your head. Rest. Feel your entire spine actively engaging with your carriage.

And then simultaneously lower legs. Lift arms are return the carriage all the way home. We'll repeat this twice. More, both arms down, both legs, up actively, raising the legs, keeping your back, body fired, legs pressing together, and then you release legs down. Arms up. Just one more here. Pressing down. We'll continue this work into our next exercise. Coordination with the head down. So from here, bend your knees in, bend your arms, and you're in your start position again.

Your head actually pushes into your head. Rest as you extend your arms down, legs long and low. Inhale, hold open. Close your legs. Exhale, bend your knees up in and still pressing your head back. Bend your arms at the end. Go again. Inhale, reach your legs long and low. Push them apart, pull them together. Knees up in into you. Elbows bent twice more on your own. We own up to the piece of actively pressing your back body down into the carriage. Last one, inhale, reach open.

Close knees up in in elbows bend. And that's a warm of, take the handles into one hand. Set yourself up and take a half spin to the other side. I'm going to remove a spring along the way. So we're set up on one spring right now. We'll face the strap and pull the end of the reformer and we'll set up for a nice archival version of rowing fronts where we bring our body into extension on the return piece. Let's bring the hands to the chest. Sit up.

Nice and tall legs. Press together. We'll take a half roll back from here. Feel like you're stretching your legs actively forward and then just reverse that one step. Come back up. Keep the hands with your chest and do that again. Half roll back down. If your legs are crossed here, actively pressed them into one another. Sit yourself back up. Recover from that first step, we're going to add on half roll back. This is where we open our arms out to the side.

Allow your chest to live to go into an act of extension of the spine, pressing the straps back and then we hinge forward out of the hips, arms almost. Stay where they are, and then circle over your feed to release any tension on the spring. You'll sit yourself back up and we'll start again. Very nice. You guys have rolled back. Hands to chest, arms open, chest leads the lift of your spine. Keep the arms intention as you hinge out of your hips. Arms recover, reaching forward, releasing any tension on the strap and spring.

We'll take two more like that. Just staying with this one variation today. Half roll back your chest. Lead the way arms expand out to the side. Pitch forward out of the hips, soft and you have creases. Arms reach over your legs. Final one sitting up, hands to chest, half rolled back. Good open arms. Why keep the chest wide as you lift yourself up, hindering forward and arms circle over the legs.

You can pull yourself in on your feed for a lovely stretch. We're going to add a little bit of extension into our rowing back as well, so flip around face the other way. Can leave your straps behind her, then pick them back up. Sitting close to but not on the shoulder. Blogs, legs long in front of you. Palms facing down in your handles. Elbows pulling back. Make sure the strap passes under your form into our from the chest rowing movement. You extend your arms up on a high diagonal already lifting the back into that.

Lower the arms down. Lift all the way up till you feel like the straps are pulling your arms behind your ears. Pause there, lift your chest up as you press your arms. Actively down. Adding a moment of extension in here and it's through that twice more. Elbows back, stretch, full. Go down, lift up at the highest point that your chest lead away. Lift yourself up, up, up, staying on top of the sitz bone.

Still one more time so you're not letting the straps whack you back over the shoulder. Vlogs down and up. Arms actively pressing down. Chest lifts up. Flex your feet round down from the hips. Press your handles beyond the feed. Roll yourself up. Same rules apply. We're adding an extension at the top of that lift. Nice. Twice more. Rolling it.

Press app key tension on the spring as you roll yourself up, up, up above, find your extension. Press the arms down. This will be your last one. Chin over. Chest rounding down. Push your handles beyond below the heels. If you can roll yourself back and up. Gays lifts, chest lifts, arms pres down and you are done with your rowing for today. Nice work. We'll take those open chests with us as we set up with a long box getting ready for a house on and a full swamp so we can hang your handles up.

Grab your boxes. I'll go ahead and change your Springs over here. I'm a teacher. There's variation on a lot of my reformer classes, but just to remind you the setup that I prefer is with both Springs, two Springs attached in the middle so that you have space for your knees outside the Springs to trail. The way you set your hips up is with the edges, the edge of the box slightly below the creases of your hips, your feet. You can use a sticky pad absolutely for padding. Your feet are going to go inside the reformer frame. Your knees stay inside the reformer frame as well. So go ahead and set that up. [inaudible] two Springs. We'll give you a good amount of tension and support, which we're going to need for our half Swan here. All right, so once you are there, just let your arms hang off the sides towards the ground.

Press into your legs like footwork on the stomach, and once your legs are straight, reach the arms forward and find a lift of your chest to the point you can without bending your knees. Now this may not get as high in your body as you see right here, right? And that's fine. You lift any amount you can with the leg straight. Then we cover, come forward, soften your spine and then you coming back home. Let's do that again. Press into all 10 toes, stretch the legs long.

Find your lift of the chest without the knees buckling. You want that energy through the line of your legs to support your back or return and come back down. Nice. Now these guys, you might not be able to appreciate the difference between a half and a full Swan because they're already coming up so high. But here's the difference. You stretch back out going into a full Swan. Now you find that same lift first, but at the top you soften your knees, take your chest even farther back like you're trying to rest your head on your heels one day. Stretch your legs back to straight, reach forward and release. Drape your torso over the box. Bend your knees, come back in. You have two more of these. You can go at your own pace and to any amount of lift backbend or knee bend that you need for your body here. Remember we here to open the chest, find extension and strengthen our back and you come back in. Beautiful. One more time. Flow right through it. Don't linger around too long.

I know it's fun or we have so much. Do restraint and your legs shoot forward. Drape yourself over. Soften your knees. Awesome. And then go ahead and step off to the side. Make sure that you release any spring tension there.

Still might be by supporting itself properly. We'll drop to one spring from here. We're currently on two so take one off. We'll get rid of any pads. We're not going to need them right now. And we go into our pulling straps or T pole rather. We go right away into arms, out wide to the side.

So once you're on your stomach, making sure the box is centered between your shoulders and your knees underneath your body, whatever that means for you, you grab ahold of the end of your leather strap or the start, depending on how you look at it, your arms length now to the side into the letter T, your hip bones are pressing down. Everything else is already somewhat lifted, including your thighs, your feed, your eyes, your head, your chin, your chest, and then from there you pull, you pull your arm straight back. Maybe everything lifted up a little high, maybe nuts. You're definitely breathing. You reach your arms away from your center, keeping the lift until it's time to release it a little. Then start again. Pick yourself up, pull it back. Chest lifts forward. Beautiful. Open the arms wide and away from you.

The spring barely moves as you started returning the arms, three more taps Pauling back. We're just going to stay with this one variation today. We're going to milk it a little bit. Reach the arms away from the center, release the back bend a little twice more, pulling straight back. Almost aim for heels and head to land on the same height in the back. Man, this is your last one. Paul lifted chest forward and up. Gorgeous. Reach your arms away from you. Take the straps into one hand.

Step off to that side where you're holding them, and we're going to set up for a combination of backstroke and teaser adding. Of course, a little extension. Today we're going to stay on one spring. You sit on the very front edge of your box taking the straps with you, so reorganize them behind you. Recline onto your back, bend your knees into your chest. Make that ring with your hands that you know from your breaststroke. And then, Oh, sorry, backstroke. I am anticipating the breaststroke already.

You go ahead and release your head back and that's where we add our extension here. Now, rather than just dropping your head back and kind of saying passive. With that, I want you to feel like you're actively stretching the back of your head into the back end of your box. Your hips are still pressing down. We start our backstroke from here. Your arms and your legs go straight up you circle. You're still an extension. Now from here you reach forward. You pick up your head, neck and shoulders, and as your legs close your lift into that teaser. All right, this is our dress rehearsal just to get through the choreography of this.

Now go ahead and bend knees and arms into wards. You as you recline back down, and once it's time to rest your head, you let it release all the way back into that start position. All right, from here we go again. Arms and legs extend straight up. Now use the power of your arms and your legs circling forward to pick yourself up into that teaser. Lifting the legs from the back side, lifting the arms from underneath, and then bending arms and knees already in here at the top to help your recline. Resist the spring tension. Release your head back when it's time for it. Remember, this is an active Backman of the spine. We'll take one more like that.

Arms and legs up open. Reach forward. Pick yourself up into your teaser. You're going to release this into our regular release from the teaser so our legs and arms stay long this time. Pick up your arms, a little high, your legs a little higher as the final moment in our teas that are slowly come on down. Let your arms come out to the side. This time that your legs drop your head release back and again, rather than getting passive, think of this as your tee pole once more so your arms are out to the side, your head is actively pushing into the back of the box. You can still stay there, your legs out together and pressing down, but rather than resting, you think of this as an active moment and then you become passive. Take the straps with you as you step off to the side.

Actually you can release them down or hang them up. Once you're off your reformer and we're setting up for a breaststroke prep. As you know, I could hardly wait for the breaststroke. Here it is. We're going to use the foot bar as essentially our training wheels for the exercise and so that we can do it unassisted and with complete autonomy and find a nice little extension in our own bodies. The way you set yourself up is facing the foot bar.

Your hands are underneath your shoulders on the foot bar, which has probably a lot more far forward than you would think. Once you're there, make sure that your hip bones are pressing down into your box. Your legs are already somewhat lifted because that's our theme for today. To find that backline activation and the choreography is pretty much just like our breaststroke. You kick your heels to your seat twice, one to your arms and your legs extend simultaneously, meaning you push the bar out and away from you. Spring is long. Reach your legs already back in up.

Now lift your chest forward and up to match that and let the spring trail you in and forward at the end. Almost. Press your feet towards the ground, left the abdominal wall up a little higher. There we go. And then you bend the arms to come all the way back down without two more times. You cake once, twice. Extend arms and legs. Push the bar out. Spring almost stays where it is as you lift yourself up. Chest, legs. Nice. Bend the arms and come back down. Let's do two more.

Kick once, twice. Stretch it long. Press the feed back and down to help you leave or the abdominal wall up and away from the box. And down you come. Last one. K, kick stretch. Lift yourself forward and up. Feel the bar pushing into your hands and use that to open your chest even wider. So nice. Bend the arms. Come on down. Step off to the side, and we'll get rid of the box that goes behind our reformer.

We'll set up for our alarm and down stretch next. So come back with your sticky pads. We'll place them on the head. Rest, head rest lifts the highest position. And we're going to add a spring. So now we're on to Springs for a long stretch. Alright, and foot Hanford. Set yourself up in your playing position right away. And yes, it's a playing, but also it's an extension theme class. So from the get go, think about pushing your heels actively back, pulling your chest forward, like pulling straps. In fact, keeping the back body alive and then pushing out as far as you can. Maintain that length. Pull the chest through your arms to initiate the return. There we go, and then come all the way forward.

We'll do that a couple more times. Pressing up and calming in. Nice. One more time, especially today. Think of your long stretch as a warm up for the down stretch, which has that super active backbend in it. It's here. Bend your knees, take them down, feed against the blocks, fields reached back, hips push forward in our position. Hands press down for your chest to lift up. There is your back. Then we're supporting it along the greatest range possible. Push the carriage out, press your thighs down and then lift your chest forward and up to initiate the return to more of those pressing out. Think of really stretching the front of your quads down onto the mat.

Lift back up one more time. Pressing out support that Backman with your strong center. Lift all the way up. Sit your hips towards the heels, get soft here for a second and then stand up for your up stretch. And of course today or up stretch has the down stretch built in where basically we evolving the hips underneath the body to find our back. Then from there looks a little something like this.

Your arms and your legs push away from each other. Hips come down, spring stay for a second. Your eyes lift forward and up. You begin coming forward in your back bend. You stay in your back bend as you press back. Yes. And you become around again as you pull back in. So as you come forward, make sure you get to a point that you know you can return from hips down. Pull yourself forward in your down stretch. Chest lifts up, heels kick back.

Keep that strength as you press back out so good and round the spine from both ends to come all the way back in. One more time. Press it down. Chest up, thighs down. Reverse out, pushing back. So dyes lift your hip. Creases up and then from there, step off to the side. Again, we're keeping this a fairly short and quick session to open up our chest, so we're moving right into our tendon stretched from here, which has our stomach massage in it. It has our long back stretch in, it's all we'll just compound all of those actions into one exercise. Here's how I would like to do that today. Take your sticky pad and place it against the front edge of your carriage.

We're still on two Springs. I recommend you have your outer Springs attached. Have a seat on your foot bar facing the pulley end of your reformer. Sit more in front of it. Then on top of it, that'll make sense in a second. Your feet are halfway on the carriage halfway off so you can really flex your feet, heels together, toes apart. That's available to you in just a couple of times. Extend those legs straight.

Feel how the carriage and spring tension pushes you into the foot bar rather than above it and bend your knees back in. Just do that a couple more times to build some trust into the spring tension coming back at you on the next one. Your leg. Stay straight. Already activate those arms pushing back. Lift your hips off the bar, round your spine. Lift your hips up behind you, and this is the start of your tendon stretch. Yes, you got an a. Press the arms back your heels forward. Keep the spine round. Once your hips come away from the bar, lift your eyes, lift your chest, find extension in your back, and then release spine.

Paul's back to the window of your arms to come back up. Do that twice more, pressing at energy through the heels of the feet and heels of their hands around your back to lift back up. One more like that. Pressing out any amount. Open the chest. Shin lifts up and comes back in. As you lift yourself to the top, we're add one thing here. Press out again. Stick. Bend the arms. Try to take a little dip in front of the foot bar restraint and the arms and come back up. If that's not in it for you today, leave it out.

We'll try it 20 more times. Press it out. Find your extension optional dip down and up. Round the back to lift the hips back up. This is your last one. Press it out. Find the extension. That's what we're here for. That's more important than any flourish to the exercise. Nice.

You got it. Lift the hips up. Have a seat. Bend your knees. Let that one go. Nice work. You guys. Go ahead and step off to the side. Well there's some sweat and steam happening here. I like it. I like you to take the sticky pads and remove them. We're done with those.

We're going into our semicircle next. So the Springs are still in a great setup to outer Springs or foot bars. Come down. Things become a little easier now, but not easy. Have a lie down on your back. Place your feet on the foot bar. I'm a fan of heels together. Toes apart for this. If you prefer a parallel, totally fine cause again, we're here for extension more than anything else.

Wiggle yourself away from the blocks. See what arm position suits you best today in a supportive manner. That could be hands cupped around the sides of the shoulder box. It could be a fist into the front side of your shoulder block. More importantly, stretch your knees forward and away from you that your heel support each other and soft men to that shape for a moment. Yeah, I've done a lot of hard work to get here. There should be an indulgent, fun, stretchy moment or so.

They say keep pushing your hands back as your spine begins to melt over the edge of the carers. Let your hips drop down. If it touches the floor, that's just fine by me and then push your arms and your legs away from each other to get moved for non the spring. Keep outward pressure as you lift the hips back up and then float the knees up and forward to come all the way back in. Let's go a little quicker through this. You roll yourself down, soften the front creases of your hips. Push out to lift back up. Nice. Keep that energy through the arms as you come all the way in.

One more like that. We're rolling down, active back. Bend your head, pushing into the carriage. Lift this up. Come all the way back in and go ahead and reverse it. Press it back. Key BRMs pushing back, feet pushing forward. As you melt down, come in and send the knees up and forward and two. Yes, this is idea of sweeping the floor with the backs of your pants. If that happens, you're doing it right. What am I for? Synapse?

And if you don't get that far down, you're doing it right as well. Pull the hips up and forward. Give yourself a thigh stretch for a moment here. Let your knees really push away from you. Let go of your blocks. Maybe grab a hold on your ankles here and again, just soften into it. Find your breath if you've lost it along the way.

And this is a precursor to what we're doing next, which is our chest expansion and size stretch. Get your hands back on the blocks. Wiggle, wiggle back. Step off to the side. Almost there. Almost there. Grab your straps. We're staying on those same two Springs. Go ahead and hook your feet around the edge of the carer so we're pretty far back here and grab a hold of your handles rather than the strap.

All right, so give yourself more length that way because with that far back, palms facing back at a strong Fisker with both hands. Take it. Inhale to pull. This wraps back behind you and as you twist your head from side to side and hold the breath, find that active extension through your chest, the back body stacked. Look straight ahead, XL and release the tension. Three more sets in how Paul turn your head left center right center. Exhale, come forward. But key that beautiful extension in your back and pull and note as an extension doesn't always mean that we are in a back.

Bandages means our back body's super alive and helping us stay up right. Last one pole. Turn your head left and center right and center. Let the spring tension carrier forward. We're going to add a spring for our size stretch and this time we'll move the knees forward against the blocks. No, your feet can stay parallel behind the knees.

If you are more comfortable in a slightly turned out position, you can bring your feet together, but you keep your knees with the shoulder blocks. Walk your hands out on the straps enough so you can really hang on to them. There's three Springs are there to support you in our thigh stretch. Look down towards your knees before you even start and then begin to recline. Hips, heels, but they'll never land on the heels.

Stay with that for a second. Even though you're not back bending yet. Your back body is active. Lift the straps up. She'll lift you back up. We'll do that one more time. Take it back. Breathe into any parts that start to feel really tight or heightened at this point where we gave a lot of energy to the back body, so things might get really shaky right about. Now, lift yourself back. Oh, we'll take two more optional with a backbend. All right, looking down towards the knees to start, just to safeguard your spine and upper back. Now once you get to the depth of your thigh stretch actively pull your chest away, release your head back, chin over, chest first, look down to the knees and lift the arms to lift the spine. So nice you guys.

One more time. This is the most active expression of our backbends in today's class are really indulging this one. Open your chest wide. We turn your head on top. First SAR from the front of your ribs. Lift yourself all the way back up and hang your straps back of nice work. You guys step off to the side. A couple more things.

We're going into our short box next, so go ahead and grab those. Head piece comes flat. Yeah, actually the handles will go to the floor. We're not going to need them anymore by by straps. Set your short box up in a way that it's supported between the hooks and the shoulder blocks. Two Springs just to hold the carriage in place. Unfortunately, even if you're used to a sticky pad, I actually want you to remove it and here's why.

I want your hips to be able to glide under and allow you to go into a full expression today. Yeah, I said in your thigh stretch, that was the deepest expression of your active back bend. Think of this as your passive backbends. Even though there's no such thing as passive in pull out is bring your hands around the waist, flex your feet underneath the strap, pull the strap apart. That's your anchor. That's your security. Keep that. Allow your hips to slide under you as you recline back in.

Today's goal for a short box is to drape yourself all the way back. Joseph, pull out, he's called this the back bending series, so that's what we hear for your Highbridge and your hands to the floor. Even on that first one already, maybe outsource a little bit of weight and two little hands to give your chest a bit of a lift, but make sure your legs don't get passive underneath you. Bring your arms back around the waist. Whenever you're ready. Genova chest, you come back up like wherever, ready to come back out of that stretch. Let's do it one more time. Roll yourself back. Key those feed active start to finish as your support for your Highbridge.

Open the chest, hands to the ground. Again, take some weight into those hands. Maybe push the arms to straight. See what comes up. Actively extend your spine from your tail to your head. Release arms around the waist. You come all the way back up. We'll do that twice with our hands behind our head and also call the back.

Bending. Two hands. Pull behind the head. Think neck pole. You press your back into your hands. Start the same way you round yourself back away from those super active legs and feet into as much of a backbend. As you know, you can come back up from pull with the feet. Chin over. Chest. Lift yourself back up. Sit up super tall. One more time. If that didn't go so well, back off in your range of motion.

Roll yourself back. No thyself. Hope in the chest. Wide active back bend, active lift to come all the way back up to the top. Nice. And then set yourself up nice and tall. Final one. Here is our tree. You bend the right knee into your chest? No. Keeping in mind the theme of the day, it's less about that leg going super high of and getting super pretty and straight and strong.

It's more about that leg supporting us to come down and up from our backbend right, so extend the leg out straight, bended right back into that twice more. Kick it out, bend it back in. Take one more hole the leg. Walk to the top of the leg. Draw yourself into a nice round spine to start back off until you have secure tension on your left foot strap and then go into your hybrids. From there you walk down the back of your leg.

Find center as you recline into your Highbridge. Hands against the floor. Maybe a little push if that's available to you. Nice. Use that to write your hips again side by side, and then bring your hands behind the leg. Chin over, chest, come all the way back up, up, up, and do one more. This walking down into your Highbridge, pressing your hands into the floor. Actively back bend ears. Two hips. Release the tension. Hands behind the leg. Lift yourself back up.

Always keeping the hips ride side by side. Lift yourself all the way up to straight leg, straight spine. Soften the knee, take it under the strap, and we'll switch to the second side just twice. And again, emphasizing that opportunity to hang off of that strap and let that support us into a lovely back bender chest opener. Cashing in on all that hard work we've done. Pull yourself into the top of your tree after you've kicked it out three times.

Take your body back, fine intention under your strap with your right leg. Walk down. Unroll your spine into your extension, hands to the ground overhead, maybe a little push. All of these are optional. You can also grab onto the sides of the frame. If that's your flavor, take your hands behind the leg, lift yourself all the way back up. We'll go right down one more time. All the while keeping that right leg nice and strong as your anchor, as your support. Beautiful.

Push into the ground, release and chin over. Chest. Lift yourself all the way back up to the top. Lift the spy. Lift the leg just for a final moment of stretch and extension here. Then bend your knee. You can take both feet out of the strap now.

All right, final push. We're getting off the boxes. Place them behind your reformers going into our knees stretch sequence to put a bow around our reformer workout and I promise I have a nice treat at the end of this workout. All right, we're on two Springs still foot bar comes up to a high position. Set yourself up, hands on the bar, feet against the blocks and now really indulge in flexing and rounding your spine, which might already feel like a nice little stretch and I always encourage my own body in my practice, but also those are my students and you guys right now to use the power of your arms to drive a stretch into your back already before even engaging with the Springs. That is just the cherry on top. If you will, go ahead and press your feet back, move the Springs and come in and press out income in and press out and come in. We'll all take eight, seven, six, five, four. Keep emphasizing your desires. Stretch the back of your body into that C curve and then find your extension.

Again. Use the power of your arms already. Drive a nice act of backbend into your spine. It's your almost last opportunity to do so. Push the feedback and come in out in it eight and seven and in key pushing the arms forward at odd times. You've got full in four, three, two and one. You know what's coming. I know what's coming. Let's do it. Round your back.

Pick up your knees and go for 10 out and out and it may not feel like a stretch on your back, but see if you can get that same amount of bend forward. Bend into your spine, two and one and done, rested down. Take your footwork, spring settings, so three or four, whatever you chose for that. Leave your head piece of light on on your backs. Let's run. Oh, go ahead and press your legs out. Feel your heartbeat inside your chest, sweat, drip off your forehead, all those things. Let them happen and then go into your running, switching side to side knowing there's no way to get it wrong as long as it doesn't feel good. Now while you're doing that again, now we're moving from side to side. Reds essentially the same idea footwork had reformers trying to push into as, and your goal right now is to stay long against it. Yeah, I've been working on all that back strength all along.

That's the posture you want to take with you. After this session, come all the way home. From there, step off to the side. We're going to finish up with a little side split just to give our bodies a chance to come to an upright position and explore all that back strength and even a little bit of a back bend there. Your foot bar comes down. We're in two Springs for this. Oh, everybody has a different preference. If you like to use a sticky pad, I recommend putting one underneath your foot bar, especially if you are wearing socks all right through barefoot and you feel like you don't need that support. You have a reformer where the foot frame allows you to stand comfortably.

You go ahead and do that. Stand on the carriage first. Place your foot on the frame then and then wiggle your foot out against the shoulder blocks. Arms out wide to the side, and you don't have to go all the way against the shoulder blocks you find what works for you today. Right now at this point in your session now already here, send energy into those heels. Lifted the sides of the ways we charms away from one another. Push both legs is way from one another. Stay for a moment.

Find that back strength to lift yourself up. Then let the carriage Paul close underneath you twice more. Push both legs away from one another. Find the strength and lift of your back, all that strength you've been working on, and let the Springs close underneath you. One more time. Press out. Stay out from here. Chin over. Chest. Roll yourself down, but try to keep the carriage exactly where it is. Take it down. Any amount you're comfortable holding your balance to then roll back up, keeping both legs energized, arms out to the side.

Here's one more chance to extend. Push into your heels. Lift your chest forward and up. Using the back body from heels to head, upright the spine. Close the Springs. Bend your foot bar leg. Wiggle your right foot and step onto the carriage and we'll turn around.

Set the bar the foot onto the footprint of your reformer. First, find the frame. Wiggle the other foot out, so heel to heel to heel. Any amount that you feel comfortable and that you know you can push out into a side. Split from arms out wide to the side. Take the arch out of your back here. Push the legs aside, away from one another. Then get long so long the Springs have no other option, but to start closing underneath you twice more pressing out sides of the waist. Lift. Beautiful and you close back in.

This is your last one. We're going to stay out again the same finish rolled out any amount. Let your lower back soften into this as well. Energy through the heels. Now as you restack the spine, lifting up arms lifted the height of your shoulders into that final glorious back bend. Opening the chest, upright your spine. Close the carriage with control. Soften your foot bar leg.

Wiggle the opposite leg in, step onto the care to safely find your way down to the ground. And you, my friends are all set. That's our extension reformer. I hope you enjoyed it.