Grab Your Partner Reformer

Hey everyone, it's me, Eric AQuESTT. If you've taken my sessions, you know that there's a lot of creativity in this situation. It's even more cause I'm gonna ask you to grab a partner for this workout. So you may know him, you may not, but my partner for this workout is mr Niko Gonzalez. A good friend of mine. And why don't we just Eve just do a little dosey DOE, right? So this is your grab your partner reformer workout.

So here's the deal, my friends, we are using one reformer. Yes, I said it for two people and I want to talk to you a little bit about this. This is nontraditional. This is working in weight bearing in standing positions. It's great for all levels of clients. It is scalable. You can teach this as a whole. You can do this as a whole.

You can piece in part it out and do sections of it. It is level. And one thing that you want to really think about this as far as the levels are concerned is that when you have to work together with a partner, it really helps you with coordination, with balance, with agility. And as far as our active agers are concerned, it helps them with their social age. It helps them with their self efficacy, efficacy, and their confidence. But ultimately what I want to do with you guys at home is to have some fun. So go grab your son or daughter, go grab your spouse, go grab, not an animal, but somebody that you can work out with. And let's have a little bit of fun.

So we're going to begin on a blue spring and we're pretty much staying there the whole entire time. This first piece is going to start with the long box on. You've seen my previous workout or another one of my workouts with some of these same shapes. We're going to do it with two people. It works great and it's a lot of fun. So let's get started. All right, so Nico and I are going to be facing each other. High five my partner, and we're going to come into a wide stance here. Slade hip, hinge forward. You're going to place your riser hand down on the box and we're going to train the hinge to get started. So we're going to hinge out, let the box go. Send that hip towards the foot bar and bring yourself back.

Inhale, let that lateral line open up and bring yourself back and team. If you hear a little giggling, it's very natural to giggle and laugh and smile and have effervescence when you're doing a partner workout because it tends to go by very quickly. Last one, and then we're going to take that riser knee, Ben. So we're going to take that lateral line and go into that lunge position and bring it back home. Nice and controlled. Inhale as you take it over and exhale as you bring it back. Just three more.

We'll take it to five and lasts two. And then on this last one, we're going to come back and your foot Barney on the way back. So you're taking it into that nice wide frog squat or plea, a training, that stability leg on the riser side. Get two more. And Nico, I think we can try and find our balance after this last one. So here we go. We're going to come in and let's go for it. We'll see what happens.

Did we do it? Oh yeah. And land good. And four woo. And three good. Sometimes you can make funny faces at each other if you want to. And last one. Good. Great job. So now turn, pivot. Other hand comes down coming into a straight leg stance.

Again, let's start by training the hinge as we send the box forward and bring it back. So we're getting a little dynamic flexibility through the hip, through the back of the legs here as you kind of feel where you're at here in this position. And the feet should be pellet pointed relatively North South here. So take a look at them as you're sending that box away. Now bend the front knee on this next one. So Ben, that front knee and then come back.

You've got four more of these and then we're going to go to a single leg balance deadlift. Great. Last two outside arm can be down by the sides. It can be on the hips. Just be comfortable here. Last one. And now come into that balance, working together out and then come down and land in that 90 90 lunch and out and land in that 90 90 hovering that back knee. Look down as much as you need, but as you start to get comfortable, look down as little as possible and get that gaze up on the horizon. Now stay with me, Nico. Hold the 90 90 isometrically and we're going to arm jump.

Good and jump. Good. Reach and reach. That's for good. Give me ten five more. Five for propulsion. Three core integration. Last one. Rise up on this next one. Push and up and down. So up propulsion and down. Up, down, up, down. Getting lower.

Body strength and power involved in upper body balance and trunk integration. Two more press. And last one. Good and stand up out of that. Great. So we need to go to the other side before we take the box off. So let's dosey DOE around to the other side and we'll get through it again.

Wide second position. Got to get the other side done. Hand comes down to the box and we're just going to start by training that hinge. So you're going to hip hinge, send that hip towards the foot bar and then bring it back. Good. And out and back. We'll stay even here. So let's go to five, two more and reach.

Don't judge yourself if this is your tighter side and one and now your riser knee bends as you take it out and in. Good and reach and in. And this is three, just two more. And then we're going to take it a little bit more into lower body strength by bending your foot bar leg, not here, but on this next one. So here we go. Take it out, come back and bend, hit and then reach.

Open those hips, get that nice stability through that riser leg. And two more. Good. Last one. You ready to try? Balance. Here we go. Take it out. Okay. That was my smart side. I'm not going to lie. Good. You're looking way better than me. Nico. Two more and reach and and one good job.

Pivot. Face your risers again. Straight legs here. Test the water by training the hinge. Hinge out and hinge back. Yeah, so dynamic flexibility. This is definitely my side. That's a little bit tighter being a runner. Two more.

Okay. Last one here and then you know where we're headed. This front knee bends, so the box goes out, you take that knee bend and the front. Good. And for just preparing for that single leg balance. Single leg dead lift if you want to call it that last one here. Great. And here we go. You're going to transfer weight to that front leg and then land come to the 90 90 lunch, come back again.

Stability leg on the front is the leg that's driving the movement and heading you into that balance position. Two more. Press out, control that box. Last one. Now stay in that isometric position and we go propulsion out and catch an eight and seven and six and five. Bringing that heart rate up a little bit. Three and two. 10 where we rise up and lower right now. Go up, catch up, catch up. Good. That's five. Give me five more.

Five and four and three and two and one. Excellent job. So we're done with the box. Let's ditch it. Taking it off and we'll just put it out of the way. The good news is we're not changing the weight. We're going to stay on the same weight. So Nico, come and face me.

We're going to use the platform with one hand and the carriage with another hand. So place one hand down on the platform. Bring your other hand to the carriage. Walk yourself back into an incline plank position. From here, we're going to take five pushups, bending both elbows, bend and straighten. Exhale, keeping the trunk and the core. Nice and strong and stable. Three more. Oh, Nico's working hard too. And last one we add on with a spider leg.

Your platform leg, knee is going to bend as you take it out. Yes. Four. Whew. Three. Your range of motion is your range of motion. And now we add on spider. Push up. Boom.

Come out, side plank reach. Find each other, touch, come back down. And again, spider. Oh Nico's crushing it. Side plank. Reach up and over. Come back down. I think we can do two more.

Come in and back. Side plank. Reach up and touch back down. Last one, spider. Push it up. Oh Nico. So good. So strong. Reach up and touch and come all the way down. Now walk it in. I know we've got to get to the other side, but before we get there we're going to do some lower body strength and power combined with upper body. So what? Going over, pick up your loop with your hand. Again, remember these are scalable. So what I want you to think about is you could just simply have two people per one reformer right here doing your chest expansion, pressing back rate, all of the same principles apply. Chest is nice and open spine is tall.

Two more. But if you want to come with Nico and I, you're going to slide your rail leg back. And from here you're going to take your lunge first. So come down to the lunge and as you rise up you're going to press back. Yes. So it's a single arm chest expansion working together with a essentially a 90 90 step back lunge, last two and one.

Now we turn and face one another. Keep him out, loop in the same hand wide. Second position, draw the shoulder back and just begin with an elbow lift and working that deltoid. You can stay right here, totally fine. Or you can come. Nico and I, as we take a nice wide squat, first chest is lifted and as we rise up, we pull working together on that tension. Okay, give me three more. Three and two. Nice and one. Turn and face the foot bar. Switch your other hand to the loop. Staying in this staggered stance.

The arm is back behind you and you simply bend your elbow and take a bicep curl here. Again, if you want to change the tension, you can simply move forward for it to be a little bit harder. If you want it to be easier, you can simply move back. Now you can stay right here or you can, when you can come with Nico and I as we take the lunch first and then the bicep curl. Whew. Okay. Again, feeling if you can work together and keep the ropes in symmetry. Two more. And last one last thing to do, actually, sorry, two more things to do before we get to the other side.

So take a step over and place the foot that's closest to the shoulder rest up in on. Yeah. So from here we're going to take a little adductor pull arms, come out to the tee position, test the waters with your partner first and make sure that you're relatively even and where you want to be with that adductor pull. Yeah, so we've got slight external rotation on both of our hips and that's totally fine. Let's add lateral flection. So add that lateral line, come back and reach and back three more. And then let's work on a little bit of hand eye coordination right here. So come through high 10, boom out, and then lateral, good, high, 10 and lateral, just three more.

10 and lateral. Good eye contact and lateral and last one and lateral flection. Great, so let that carriage come to the stopper and we're both going to have a seat on the reformer. And now this is a big negotiation. We'll see if we can pull this off. On this side, you're going to scoot your sits bones really close to this side edge. You're going to lift your loop with your hand and place your hand in the loop.

Make sure that you have a contact point on the carriage here with the other hand. It can be here, it can be towards the center, and then you want it to lean back a little bit. You're probably going to touch one another and find your balance. And from here you're going to take your outside hand and reach it. Yes. Woo and reach. Good. You got, whoops, the reamer and two and one. Good. I'll see if I can do better over on that other side.

Put that pig down or that loop on the peg and put it down. And it's time for a dosey DOE to the other side. So if you remember where we started, we're in pushup land again. So here we go. One hand on the platform, one hand on the carriage. Nico's upper body strength is a little bit more powerful than I, so he's going to try and be nice to me and work with me here as we bend just five times. Good.

And for good three and two and micro adjustments are fine. Now hold it here from here as we send the carriage out. The platform knee comes into your spider. I don't even know if I'm bending Nico, but I'm trying to more last one now hold it. We've got three total repetitions. Spider, push up M and side and reach.

Find your fingers. Good. Come back around. Two more. What? I forgot my spider. Good. And reach. Touch. Okay. This last one. Hold on, let me make it my best one. Come out and in and up and touch. Great job.

And walk yourself back in super time to turn and face again. Pick up that loop with your hand. We're going to try and stay about where we were on the other side and just give a few chest expansions in that very first position that we talked about on the other side. Two more exhale. Press back, lift through the top of the crown of the head. Now you can stay here or you can come with Nico and I and slide that inside leg back. And remember we're going to train that lower body here a little bit more down into your lunch first and then press working together.

So don't go too crazy on me, Nico. Keeping equal tension in those ropes. Good. Three more. The RI and two nice and one turn and face one another. Nice wide second position. Just start with that deltoid. Ooh, it feels a little heavier on the side. I'm not going to lie.

Three more shoulders are back. Two and one adding in the coordination of the lower body as we pull. Great. Pull up. Exhale as you drive up through those feet and the arm two more times. Good. Last one. Excellent. Pivot, switch hands, staggered stance. Take a look at the feet, make sure that they're North South and just start with that bicep curl with that shoulder slightly externally rotated. Again, coordination of movement here. Last two.

This is challenging enough on balance. You can stay right here. You can come with us as you take the lunge and then you come into the bicep and pull up. Again, this is balanced as well, so you're really trying to keep your vision out on the horizon as you start to get this movement pattern. Two more and last one. Very nicely done. So are you ready? Turn face away. Have a seat.

Oh, sorry, I lied. I'm keeping myself honest. We have to do your adductor before we move on, so let's try and set ourselves up as we were before. Slight external rotation and foot comes up on that shoulder rest. Let's test it. Arms come out. Stand up. Tall, lateral line engaged. As you exhale, pull in. Yeah, I'm good. Are you good? Yeah.

Nice. Let's do three more and then we're going to laterally flex towards that foot bar. Last one. Good. Here we go. And exhale, reach and out. Strong and reach. We're sweating. I hope you are too and hopefully you're smiling.

Hopefully your workout is going by super fast and one and now we add in lateral flection, hand eye, good lateral flection and hand eye. Boom. Lateral flection. Yes. Pull. Good. Last one. Excellent. And crushed it. So the most challenging before we finish you up, we'll see how I do. I'm facing you now.

I got to maybe try and cheat a little bit on the other side, but we'll see what happens here. It's about progress. Grab that loop, make sure you have a contact point on the carriage along with your sitz bones. Come back. Whoa. Hold on. See if you can find your balance, see where you're at, and then just slowly reach up. Good. And come back down and reach and down. And three, we only did five on the other side and two. Good. Last one. My, Oh my.

I transferred the learning on something right there. That's a lesson to us. All right. Now sit back up against me. Nico. I'm going to load one spring so that the carriage doesn't move. Our bodies have now become feedback for one another, right? So we're feeling each other's spine.

Try and find the back of each other's head and reach your arms out to a tee position so that the backs of your hands touch sitting up as tall as you can. Use each other as partners. Yes, but as feedback here, I'm going to twist to my left. As you exhale, rotate. Go with your partner. Inhale, center, other side. Exhale, rotate. Good. So really trying to keep the knees pointing forward in both situations. Good. Last three and twist. I lied.

Let's do three more from here so that we're even, because our [inaudible] friends would be happy with us that way. Last one. Good. Now from here, bring your hands together. Link them. I'm going to flex forward and take Nico into extension. He's going to rest his head if he wants to. I'm going to give him that moment and then he's going to give me my moment as he takes me into extension.

Using each other's bodies as an opportunity to really facilitate some nice spine mobility. One more. I'm taking Mico into extension and he's going to take me into extension. Ah, it feels amazing and we're going to lift up and take the arms all the way out and down. Stand on up together has a team come with me, Nico. You're my partner. It's grab your partner, reformer, and from here we're going to allow our arms to be an extension of the spine as we lift them up. Let's do a roll down with this. When you go, exhale, roll up and over. Let the body drape down towards the floor. Inhale, your hamstring length is your hamstring length. Don't judge yourself. Don't judge anyone else. Take an inhale. Exhale, rebuild your spine as you activate your core and stack each and every bone one at a time with more length in between the next, the crown of the heads, the last thing to reach to the ceiling as you allow those arms to float one last time, flex your risks at the top. And again, I always like to end with beginning with the possibilities of the rest of your day as you open your heart center. And I say thank you to you and I'll see you soon.