Foot-Focused Reformer

Hi, my name is Dana Santi and I am with my very good friend, Frank CDOT. And we, um, just explored and went through the foot corrector and its relevance to, um, not only the foot, uh, the foot work on the reformer, but all of the positions, right? That can be found throughout all of the work. But we're gonna give examples. I'm going to show you examples to kind of compare the work that we just did to the work that he's going to be doing on the reformer. So go ahead. My friend have a seat. So I have him on two Springs and um, I'm going to keep him there.

It's sometimes easier to not fight the, um, spring when you're trying to understand what the foot is doing in these first initial exercises. So keeping him parallel on the first one just for the sake of understanding the action of the foot. Okay. When it turns out, it gets a little bit more complicated. All right. Knees in a little bit. So your foot is on the plate here and your heel is pressing over and into the pedal. Okay. And now keep that position and take the legs out from it and then come back in. So now I'm going to have you go out. So press into me here. Now, stay there. Hold on to that present to my fingers more. Yes.

Make the Achilles long. Now as you come back in, this is where the ball of the foot is on the pedal, right? And the heels on the plate. And so we go out again and we come back in and we go out again, press yup. And bring it in and one more and bring it in. Now do a few without me and out and bring it in. Right? So in a perfect world, right, we would just want the feet to stay where they were. Okay. And not have to do anything. It's all about the feed, but nothing to do with the feed. All right. Now to your arches.

So we had the, the foot sliding through the pedal. Okay. So has he goes out, right? That's the foot sliding back. And as he comes in, that's the foot sliding forward. So we knew when we went back that we had to keep a little love in the front part of the arch. Okay. Press. And now when we come in a little in the heel, and again, not that we don't want one part working, right?

We're trying to keep it balanced. So it's that constant 50 50 but by utilizing that it kind of works right the back of his legs and the front of his legs. All right. Do a few more. One more? Yes. All right. And now to the heel. Okay. So from here, this is going to be with the heel on the plate, right? And then the ball of the foot is pressing into the pedal and I'm going to hold his toes back a little and press. Now as you come back in, this is the foot on the plate, right? And then the foot in the, the heel on the pedal and press and bring it in and press.

Yup. And bring it in and press and bring it in and press and bring it in. Just do two more. Yes. One more. Nice. All right, so now knees into your chest. Okay, we're going to do the hundred. Okay.

And because we're just working on feeds, I'm going to have them do it without the straps today, but in the hundred right, the toes just go forward and down. Okay, so we're on the pedal here, so as we go up, right, we're going to, that's us pulling back right on the pedal as we go down. That's going to be us pulling forward. Okay, so bring the arms behind you and exhale for a second. Sorry. And inhale, lift and pump and breathe. That's it. And so we have this constant as we're here, it's just going to stay [inaudible] and we just want to make sure exactly. He keeps pressure on both sides and the arches are lifted or you go [inaudible] two more and one more. So now as you go to bring them down, it goes forward. Yes. Makes sense. Yep. All right.

Go ahead and step on off and now we're going to go into his long stretch. So long stretch position still on two Springs. He's going to be in the heels, end up to be in mid air, right? So hands here, put the ball of the feet in the middle of the head rest. Okay, so he comes forward. Now make sure this, put all this on the plate, right?

That gold plate that was on the foot corrector. The hard part now is this has to be pressing that pedal, right? But there's nothing there, right? We're pressing into midair. Doesn't mean that action doesn't count. Okay. It's super important. And so from here, press it out and keep it very still. That's it. And then exhale, bring it back in and press it out.

That's it. And then ball of the foot is on the pedal, right? And your heel. And then the ball of the foot. Yep. And again, and exhale one more. And exhale. Now kneel down for your down stretch. Okay, so again, this position will come up all the time, right?

And it's the same action. So I'm going to try to get yep. Right. If we can't get it perfect. It's super hard. Okay. All you're gonna try to do is just lay the skin down. Just start somewhere, right, of wherever it needs to go. This heel is going to press right over the foot, over, over the shoulder rest, and then back into the arch, right? That's the action that it's, that's happening. Okay.

Tighten the inner thighs head back a little. There you go. And inhale. And then exhale. Exhale, exhale. And again, inhale and exhale. Exhale, exhale. That's it. And one more. Inhale and exhale. Exhale. Exhale. Now I'm going to try and see if he can just keep his feet here.

It'll be a fun experiment. Okay, so bloody hard. Now take the yes. Try to get the whole ball, the foot down. Now press into the heels is much as you can. Yes. Okay. Come in. Now. Bring the hips. The pelvis goes over the ankle. Bones a little bit more. So come on back here. Yes. All right.

Press it out and now drop down. Now come forward. Now keep weight in the heel. Keep it, keep it. Now come through. Bring the pelvis over the ankle bones again. Yep. And press and down and forward and bring it home. And one more press. Yes, it is not easy.

Trust me now, keep this here. Ready. Keep it. Bring the pelvis, bring it, bring it, bring it and home. Now he's going to stay here and we're just going to do like a little variation on the elephant. So from here I'm going to have him get this Achilles tendon right all pressed in and push out. Now keep it back there and pull it back in. Ha ha ha. And again, press, that's it and bring it in. Oh good. And again, press and bring it in. Yes.

See the action his leg right naturally on hyperextends right and cross again. If the foot's working correctly, he has the movement. Just happens one more and bring it back in. Now the elephant is, we know it. Drop your heels down. Okay. From here, pressure in the heel and then the ball of the foot is pressing the pedal.

The toes are lifted up and back to you. And now keeping the hips over the ankle bones and we go press and bring it in and press and bring it in and press and bring it in. That's it. Try to lift the arches a little bit more, Frankie. That's it. And again, and bring it in one more and bring it in. Yes. Step off. Okay.

Now let's go into, um, stomach massage. All right, so we're going to just keep it on too. It's, it's very hard. Okay. So just for the sake of consistency, we'll keep it parallel. Bring the knees in just a little bit together. Yeah. All right. So again, same thing. I'm just going to try to keep right all the skin on that I possibly can. Okay. As he goes out. So here you're on your plate here, you're on your pedal. Okay. So we'll going out. That's it.

Now stay here. Now you add your tendon stretch, so you lower and you're going over the pedal, right? So this has to stay. And now from here you're pressing into the pedal with your heels. Stay with me. That's it. And then come back in and press through the heel more. That's it. And now over.

So keep some pressure on the pedal here and now keep some pressure on the pedal here and then bring it back in and try a few by yourself and press and lower and lift. That's it. So in reality, right, that we just don't want the ball of the foot right to move. We just want it to stay and press. A lot of times when we lower that, the whole top of the foot, right? Likes to just drag down with it and it has to be active and working. Do one more and bring it back in. Yes.

So this same action would happen in all positions that I would put his arms for the stomach massage. Okay. So let's move on and we're going to go into, um, tendon stretch. Okay. So tendon stretch, we should get attendance stretch every single time we do it. Okay. Doesn't mean that you're flexible and you don't need it. Right. Everybody needs it. And his genius was that you would get it every single time.

Um, you just have to make sure that your feet are doing what they should be doing. So stand up, go into it. Now I'm going to have you open the heels up a little bit. Okay. We're going to try to press the heels under the carriage as you go out.

So press them under and now try to round right here. You're on the pedal right here. Round over it. That's it. And now come back and just keep the foot where it is. Yes. And press. Now I got you. All right. Lift your arches away from there. Yes, thank you.

And bring it back in. So your pelvis is over your ankle bones. See where that comes in. And again, lift the arches and lower the heels. Lower the heels. That's it. You're pulling the foot back, right? And now you're pulling the foot forward and one more and bring it back. There you go.

And bring it forward and release. Yes. All right, step on off. Let's move onto, um, let's do your short box. So yes, have a seat here. Okay. So we have the strap here and the strap. You have to think of your feet as if they're just standing. Okay. They're just flat.

So what I want him to do is use his arches to pull into the strap instead of, it's not a flex of a foot. There's that. It does. That doesn't exist. So we're going to just keep right. I tell all my clients, just try to pull your pinky toe away from your big toe [inaudible] and then pull up into these upper points of your arch here. Yes. Okay. So that way then both parts of his feet, right, are working hands to your hipbones. Drop the head forward and now just roll backwards and you're just going to try to keep that and come back home and again back and bring it home and one more and bring it home. Now take your hands, place in behind your head. Just clasp on together. Yup. Okay. From here, suck your guts in. There you go. Pull the arches back into your strap.

[inaudible] lighten that up a little and go straight back and come back up and straight back. Pulling the arches in and up and back and up. And now just do twist and reach. So twist and going out. That's it. Come back up and twist. Going out, up and home. Now go into tree. Okay. So grab underneath the thigh, take the leg, extend it and Ben and extend.

Now walk your hands up towards the ankle. Okay, from here, bend your elbows a little. Drop the head down. [inaudible] and walk down the leg. Go through it. [inaudible] that's it. So I'm going to keep it here. You got it. Come back up. Now take your toes. Okay. We in the classical world, sometimes they used to tell us to pick the Apple right off at the top of the tree here. But we've got to be smarter than that, right? It wasn't just P, it just wasn't flexing the foot. So he's pulling his toes back.

This is pressing into the pedal. So push into this more. Yes. Feel that arches lifted. Right. And the heel is on the plate. So push in more and pull the toes back. So push this to me this way. Yeah, you feel major and then release. Okay. And switch.

And if you want to do it with your leg higher, you can, there's nothing wrong with it. What you have to recognize is right. Here's your hundred foot that we just did and we were pulling back. Yeah. And then pull forward and then pull back.

Walk up [inaudible] okay. And now from here, drop and there you go. Walk down [inaudible] and walk back up. And now from here you're going to pick your Apple. So grab the toes. [inaudible] a little lower. You got to really just get the toes [inaudible] now push through the of the foot. Yes, you can see it. That's lifted. Yup. Press through here. More. So mad at me.

Pressler here more. And then release. All right, step up. Okay, let's go into, um, semi-circle. So we have two outside Springs on. Okay. Rotated out or in whatever your choice we're going to stay in today. Um, just for the sake of him understanding where we're going and I'm also going to take your hands and place them here. Yeah. Okay.

Right now, press into the ball of the foot and we're doing the same thing, right? Just make sure that everything is accounted for, the arches are still lifted. And now lower down from your upper back [inaudible] and then press through. That's it. And then lift on up [inaudible] and home and go again and lower down and press through and then lift. Now lift higher, lift higher, lift higher, that's it. And from here, press out and lower down and bring it in and go up and over.

Right. So the pelvis is over the ankle bones and again, and press it out and lower down and bring it in and up and over. Yes, pull yourself back a bit and then step on off. And let's go into, um, knee stretches. Let's just do knees off. Okay, so start kneeling and I'm going to try to make him now stay in that same position that we did, the up stretching and that, um, elephant variation. So from here, come on back towards the ankle bones. That's it. And now lift and go and one and N and two, that's it.

So that action in the foot stays the same out and in and in. And in. Two more nice one. And then release. Okay, go ahead. Step on off. Move on to running. So running is very complicated. Um, it to me in my eyes is not a cool down, but to each their own. I am going to take his feet, put a little closer together, bring your knees in a little. Okay, now press out.

Okay. So we lower one heel and we lift one. Heal. So here is your tendon stretch. Right here is the foot on the plate and the heel on the pedal. Okay, now that action has to change and keep it here. So keep pressing into me here. That's it.

And now as you come through and press into me here, that's it. Lift the arch of this foot a little more. Yeah. And then switch and change. And now I'm going to make you lift this arch cause you don't want to. And then switch and change and lift and press into me here. [inaudible] and press push into me more.

[inaudible] and switch. Yes. And switch [inaudible] and then come back in and now pelvic lift. So wherever you end up going. Okay. It's just going to be in one of those positions, right? Whether I made him go here with his heels. Okay.

That action is going to stay the same whether I made him go to the arch right here, that action's going to stay the same if it were open. Right? Like we've learned it there. Okay? That's the action of the foot, right? It's still in one of those positions. We could go onto the ball of the foot and do the toes. Right? Um, let's, let's, uh, let's do this one for you. Okay.

So I'm going to keep working the top of his arch backwards. Okay? So this is why I'm picking this one from here. Lift the hips. Okay, so now press out. He's pulling the foot backward and now he's pulling the foot forward. And again, Ooh, this is good for you. Come back in. Yes.

And again, out and in and out and in and out. And in. One more out and in. Nice and easy. Lower down. Yes. And there you have it. Thank you. My brother.