Lower Body Power Reformer

Let's work our legs. Today we're going to have a good time pushing ourselves and I'm doing some Pilates and some creative Pilates. Please make sure you take care of you. If anything I ask you to do doesn't work for yourself, modify or skip it. Let's get started. So put this ball between your legs, maybe near your knees, maybe near your thighs, whatever feels like a good idea, and sit with your, your feet grounded and your pelvis grounded and just take three breaths. Checking in the calm before the storm. I've closed my eyes.

Close yours in how? Growing tall through your spine. Exhale and grow taller, yet in Halligan, growing taller. Feel that lift from your core and exhale growing taller yet one more breath and then awakened your eyes. Send your arms forward for me. Inhale here with an exhale. Flex your spine rounding through your low back and start rolling back.

Keeping your feet grounded just to a position that feels like a good idea without really losing your balance. Squeeze the ball a little bit and curl yourself back up. Good. Do it again. Inhale, exhale, round back. Stretch the back. Now I just did a really nice stretching workout so I feel so loose. I'm going to use that looseness to try to find the edges of the movements today.

Exhale to peel back, rounding gorgeous, and then round and roll up. Sit nice and tall. Clasp your fingers together and just press your head into your hands. Spread your collarbones in your shoulder blades and go ahead and twist one way, squeezing the ball as you do and come back through to center and twist the other way and back to center. And again with a double pulse waking up.

[inaudible] just one more time please. [inaudible] come to center, send your arms forward, hold onto the ball in one hand. Use the exhale to peel back along the same path you did before, but this time find the edge. That place for me, I'm a little tight. And so this is about where something has to give. Either my legs have to lift or my body's gonna fall down.

So that's where I'm going to place my ball and it doesn't look pretty doing it, but there it is. Now I have a little recliner. I'm gonna use that recliner to use my abs more and I'm going to do a little marching here. One leg comes up and then we're going to do a quick little change. The goal here is to keep the shape of my abdominals the same shame and change. Beautiful. Or the shape of my back. The same. Yeah.

Just breathing when it makes sense. Waking up those abs. Gorgeous. One more time here. Two legs. Come up. Hold both legs and hug deep. Really push into the ball to give yourself a little more flection. Find tabletop ish with your legs. Dry your belly nice and active. And let's try Wu. A single leg stretch here that Wu was, it was a little hard for me to stay grounded on the ball, so I had to think about it while I was teaching. You breathe and move.

Here we go. Five and five and four and four. Nice. Three and three. That was a little harder than I expected today. And one more time. Now, two legs. Come in. Let's find a little bit of rotation. So with your arms reaching option one or your arms behind your head. Did I really do option two and your crisscross. Here we go. Ah, beautiful. Oh, stop moaning.

You don't want to hear that over and over. And we breathe and I love it. So it's not a big twist or all roll off the ball, but we're going to come back to the same shape in a few moments. Draw your legs in, give yourself a hug, gently rock yourself up. And I'm ready to go. Now I have this jump board on and I'm set for foot work.

So I have four Springs on, three reds and a blue. Okay, we're going to just stole the ball so it's out of the way. Use it again in a moment and lie down. So we're going to do our foot work here on the jump board. So start with your two legs straight and find a place with your heels on the bar where you can, or on the board rather, where you can keep your ankles flexed all the way in. So notice here, my feet have flattened. So I'm going to take my feet up a little bit higher so I don't actually rest my whole foot on the platform.

Exhale to press out and in. Think about pulling together and pressing out. So pulling the inner thighs active, pressing through the heels, pulling the inner thighs as you go out, pressing through the heels as you go in. Now see if you can consider doing that without changing the shape of the legs as you breathe and move. Now my friends, I know you know your pelvis should be neutral, that your chest should be open and you should find a breath that suits you. Do one more and then press to lit to straight and then bring your feet as low down on the platform as you possibly can comfortably.

So I'm looking for an opening across the front of my hips with support still from the abs here. Lift the heels up and continue in this position, keeping those heels lifted at the same height and we press out. Consider that same feeling polling as you go out and pressing as you go in. But without changing the shape of the foot or the leg. So using the inner thighs a little more when you come in and feeling the glutes as you go out or as you go in using the inner thighs as you go out.

My bad, feeling the glutes as you go in, boy, trying to say everything and move quickly. Let's just do two more please. Good. And then one more. Let's stay with two legs straight and then slide your heels together and feel that small V position. Now if you know you're tight and you have a hard time maintaining rotation, you'll bring your feet up a little bit, modify as needed. We gently come in and we pull out. Think about that, pulling out, pressing in, so you're really resisting the spring.

You're controlling the spring rather than it controlling you. It's so important when we practice jumping, which is where we're headed today. Yeah, yeah. Let's do a couple more. They're breathing and moving. Feel those legs and one more time please. Out. Good. Come to parallel. Place your feet flat and find the outs.

Your wide V position. Now this is a wide jump board and so I have a bigger V here. It's okay if you're not as wide. Just make sure your heels are very secure. Bend your knees in as far as you feel comfortable keeping those heels down so you may not come all the way in unless you find that sweet spot and press out. So for me, I had to kind of walk my feet into a slightly different position in order to come all the way in here. But if I'm using a standard jump board, sometimes I can't come all the way in.

If my hips are a little tight on that day. Fill your chest open, breathing and moving please. Again, you're pulling out, you're pressing in. Think about that, pulling and pressing, controlling the spring. Let's just do a couple more there. Use your breath please. Good. And then let's take the feet in. Walk them in and stand on your two feet here. So here I would like you to feel a high toe position. You're pressing high up onto the toes, you're going to lower your heels down, you're going to bend your knees only as far as you can.

Keep your heels really grounded, that pushing in, and then you're going to pull to straight lift your heels, lower down, pushing in. So when you move into the jumping, make sure that you do have that grounded heel every single time. So the jump or the bend for the jump is a lot smaller than we think. Good. This is the last one here. Take your right foot high, take your left foot low. So I want that left foot so low that the thigh back of the thigh if possible, is actually resting on the platform, on the carriage. And then putting the focus on the right leg here. I'm going to bend my knee, my back heel lifts, or my bottom heel lifts and I press out.

So here I'm going to do single legs. Okay, keeping. Now that back heel lifted the whole time and this will resemble a split squat standing. So strengthening the legs separately. Now here's where it gets really interesting. Are you ready? We bend the knee in here. Stay. Use that back leg, the bottom leg to push out. Notice my front leg has to adapt, but it's staying connected.

Just in case I need help. Beautiful. Ooh. Kind of hard to go. All the way to straight. I'm going to get myself there on that one. Good. I wasn't thinking about it enough. So notice that my heel lifts on my front leg. In order for me to keep that back heel lifted and straighten my back leg. Just one more beautiful.

And then press two legs to straight and we changed. So put the top. So change legs. The left leg is up top. The right leg is down low. So here both legs are standing. Try to fill a nice opening across the right leg. The left leg now becomes the standing like the top leg. Then the knee in the bottom heel lifts press.

So I'm keeping my bottom leg grounded the whole time. Good. But I'm using, um, my left, I'm using only my left leg, so it's connected, but it's not working. Good. Let's just do one more here and then we're going to come in and hold for a moment. I'm in this kind of deep split squat position. Press through the back foot or the bottom foot and press up using only that leg if you're able to, keeping that heel lifted and bend in. Nice. So now should you need to use your other foot to help you out. Go for it.

But aim for about five here and see if you can make a connection to the mat each time with your back leg opening through the front of your hip. Notice that just one more good. And then let's press out with both legs. Find a nice comfortable position to bend all the way in. Roll yourself to one side and come up to a sitting position. Change the Springs to just two Springs. I'm going to recommend two reds.

You could do less or you could do more. Um, I almost forgot what I was doing there, but I remembered, have a seat here with your feet on the headrest. And then this spring is a little bit heavy for the rollbacks, but I want you to use the resistance to help you create more feelings. So notice I've put my mother's straps around my wrists and you want to be far enough forward so you're not going to hit the jump board back there. And then here, I'm going to let the spring, actually I need to be here. I'm going to let the spring pull me forward and I'm going to pull away rounding through my low back and find the place where my low back will touch down, maybe, maybe not perfect.

And then here the spring pulls me up and I'm creating resistance so I'm not really using my hands too much. Sit nice and tall. It's okay that there's not spring here. Exhale round back. Create resistance. Use the resistance of the spring to round back and round up and sit nice and tall and exhale rounding back. Let the resistance pull you forward. So I'm letting my shoulders relax a little bit here.

I'm trying not to elevate too much, but I'm not really pulling my shoulders back too much. Yeah, I'm letting that stretch happen. So let's stay back here and sway both of your legs over to your right and then your body is going to twist a little bit in the opposite direction. Lift that one arm up a little bit. So my right arm right now is lifting just a little bit and I'm going to use that same resistance to lift and lower. So I'm a little twisted, lift and lower, but now I'm thinking really of the resistance more than the lift last too. And one more time like that.

And we're going to come through and we go the other way. So rotating the legs and then the body goes the other way and the arm lifts just a little bit and there's a resistance here deep in my obliques. [inaudible] resisting. And one more time resisting. Come to center. Roll all the way up. Put your straps down. Now if your straps tend to clunk around when you're jumping, you can just put them on the floor and then you don't have to hear them.

I don't really like hearing them on wood floors. So we're on to red Springs, which is perfect for jumping lie back down. You might want your head rest up, makes it a little easier to stabilize through your core. I'm going to make that choice today so I can see where I'm at. So two straight legs in a position where it feels comfortable for you, not too high, not too low. Let's just start with a gentle two leg jump. Remembering that you want to land, you want to pull and push. So as I land, I'm really grounding and pushing into the platform. That's the goal here.

Feel the breath, feel the ads, and just have fun here. Okay. Now if you start to feel anything in your knees or you feel anything, I'm a little tricky. It doesn't feel right. Slow down or use less spring. Let's go ahead and hold one leg. So one leg is a tabletop. I find it actually easier to warm up for jumping with just doing a single leg rather than doing both legs simultaneously.

It's either easier for me to connect to the right muscles. One more time and we'll change. Find your breath, find your flow. So I'm rolling through my foot, I'm absorbing the landing each time, feeling the heel connection, trying to keep my other leg pretty as well, but I'm not so worried about that right now. And let's change. So we're going to change and land change in land. Now, if it works for you, try to get both of your legs to be straight for a moment and feel that moment of loft. A little harder to do when we have a heavier spring. But I'm hoping that you feel powerful in your legs when we're done here and also in your abs. One more time and then two legs come down, turn the legs out, turn the legs in, turning out. Turning in.

That is one of my favorite things to do when jumping cause I really like to work the rotation in my hips, so I'm trying to really feel that together and feel that opening one more time and then come to a soft, whoops. Come to a soft landing. All right. Come all the way in a, it's like walking and chewing gum. They say it's hard to do jumping and teaching. Hmm. All right. Same spring. We tucked those toes under and put them right up against the shoulder. S get a good stretch for the feet.

That should feel nice through the ankles right now. Sit back for just a moment. If that suits you, engage your abdominals and we come up to a plank position. This resembles the down stretch, but I'm looking for a straight back plank, so you're going to use your arms to push that heavy spring away from the stopper, keeping your body at the same and come in. Let's do that two or three times trying to keep your plank body hollowing through the abs. Beautiful. Try to feel also the hamstrings. That gentle spiral in of your thigh bones will engage the hamstrings a little more. Stay here. We're going to bend the elbows, stretching the spring without lifting and lowering the body and press out.

So I'm going to come all the way in so that the jump board touches my sternum using my arms quite a bit, but also using my abs quite a bit and a little more. Couple more here I should say. Just keep the flow going. Go slower. If you need to, and one more time please. Two straight arm. Bring yourself into the stopper and let's go ahead and jump again. Same thing, have fun with it. Put some music on. Sing, dance.

Press your two legs out to straight. Feel the grounding through the feet. Organize yourself when you're ready to get going and begin jumping perhaps with two legs. If you need to go to one leg first, that's always okay, but we're going to try to do two legs first. Really absorbing the jump each time. Notice if you feel compression on your shoulders from the shoulder rests. It's a good chance that you're not using your abs well enough or you're not stabilizing your spine well enough. And Bri, good.

Let's go. Turn out and turn in and turn out and neutral. Really, I'm not asking for internal rotation today and turn to neutral external in neutral. Beautiful. Just find the flow and push just a little longer than you thought you could. Maybe right can always pause me and keep jumping if you want.

Come to a single way. Let's do about 10 beautiful. Pay attention to your pelvis and of course, think about your abdominals and we'll legs good. The essence of 10 may not be perfect. You can count if you'd like, but the feeling of about 10 is good. If you need to do a few extra on one leg on any given day, simply do so reading and enjoying. So what's wonderful about this as we get a little bit of a cardio burst, change, change, attempt to have two straight legs, two straight legs. Beautiful. And let's do just a couple more there.

And last one, each side, two feet on the platform. Roll yourself to one side and come up to a sitting position. Let's use this ball again. Only one spring for the ball work though please. So one red spring is what I'm on now I'm in a place the ball kind of back here and just like we did earlier on, you're going to use it as a little bit of a, a little bit of a lounge chair. Not really right, because it's going to make you use your abs more. Now should you not have a blue ball, you're welcome to just lie flat and do this or to hold your chest lift on your own.

What I like about this as it requires me to work a little more to ground down to find resistance, go ahead and place your hands behind your head. Head is gently resting in the hands. And let's take one leg up. Let's stay on one leg neutral pelvis and do a nice little jumping here about five. Now we have much lighter spring, so there's a lot less about the legs and it's a lot more about the abs, keeping the connection as you lift off. Good. One more. And then we can change legs. So again, lifting, try to keep the pelvis nice and still and try to keep the shape of your core exactly the same. Good. Now from here we can change. Ready? Just change and land. Feel that landing.

Grounding using the legs. Yes, but it's less about the legs. It's more about the abs, but dig deep. Breathe. Nice. I am feeling both my legs and my abs and it feels a delicious good. Let's just do one more and unless hold that other leg here for just a moment.

Yeah, I want you to hold the shape. You're going to lift a little bit and twist a little bit toward your bent leg. If you roll too far, you're going to twist off. I want you to stay on the ball, not on the shoulder. Rest in your mind. Now try jumping here, just three of them. Whoa. And two and three. Good. Now here, go ahead and change sides, so just feel the shape first and make sure you can manage it before you alternate so we hold it. We tried jumping and one got a little harder for me on one side than the other and the ball really amplifies that change or repeat the single sided version.

Really feel that landing. That's where you are working even deeper in your core. Handful more please breath. So it is a beautiful jumping crisscross. One more on each side please.

And let's press two legs on the bar or this is not a bar, it's a jumping platform and come up to a sitting position. Are going to go into a sideline position, still using the ball. So it's going to go just below your underarm in that vicinity. So make sure it feels like a good idea. Whoops for you wherever you happen to put it and your challenge.

Challenging your balance here. So I'm going to put my two feet on the bar on the platform and I've got quite a lot of support coming from my core and I'm using my arm less. Okay. In fact, you can actually challenge yourself by not really putting your arm down right. So just see if you can feel this shape, feel the challenge here. Place your hand on the shoulder rest just for support to make sure you're not going to lose your way. Pull that bottom knee up and let's try our sideline jumping here a little bit.

Just make sure you know where your platform is. Good. Nice. So here you can continue just like this or if you'd like to play with this a little, you can externally rotate and come back to neutral, externally rotate. And if that external rotation feels like a good idea and you want to take a little split, uh, it's kind of fun. Beautiful, beautiful. So my harder side, I don't know how pretty it looks, but that's okay. I'm trying and I can feel it and that's all that really matters. Gently straightened both legs and hold here.

So we're going to support with the bottom leg here. Really lift yourself up and try to feel a feeling of stretch. Once again, hand here if you'd like. If you really want to challenge yourself, don't use your hand. Lift your leg up above your platform here and we're going to come forward and we're going to reach back and we're going to forward pulse, back, pulse, forward and back. Choose the breadth that suits you. Try to keep your carriage completely still. I can feel mine wobbling around a little bit as I shift and I really want to try very hard to keep it still. I can definitely feel my glutes.

One more time. Take the leg back, rotate a little bit, maybe even adjust your arms so it's just more relaxed. Probably put up, should have put my shoulder rest down. It feels a little funny. Lifted and gently come in. Let's change sides. I'm going to, I said shoulder rest. I meant to say headrest. I'm going to go ahead and put my head rest down right now cause my arm felt like it was in a weird spot and I didn't realize that. That's why until just now. So look at me. I'm breathing heavy. Your teacher is working hard. So here we go. We're going to arrest the ball just underneath the underarm and then this feels like much better. A much better place for my hand. This is great.

So glad I realized that. So go ahead and press out. So get settled here and feel that you're standing for a moment on both of your legs supporting really from your core and go ahead and stand on the top leg and bring the bottom leg up underneath you and just try jumping a few times. What I find is really interesting here is that I feel so very different on my two sides that I oftentimes like to explore things in a slightly different way. So on the on this side, this just feels a little bit easier. So, um, I'm going to do the same things.

Just notice if you feel something different and when you're practicing on your own, certainly try to iron out those imbalances. Try a little turnout and parallel turnout and parallel turnout and parallel. And then if you want to add a little flare to this, you can go into a little split and a little split and a split and a split and a split. Beautiful. A couple more like that. [inaudible] and let's pause. So ground your bottom leg and I'm actually trying to walk my leg up as high as I can here so I get more stretched through my waist. It feels really nice to me.

And then you can hold with your hand in front or not. Okay. Take that leg just above the jump board and come forward. Flexing and back pointing. Perhaps forward flexing back pointing. So I want you to consider what's going on on your bottom leg for me, actually one of the challenges here is keeping my bottom leg stable.

My top leg has no problem wobbling around here or kicking around, but really staying stable through my bottom leg is the challenge for me. That is amplified by using the jump board like this last one, hold gonna rotate forward a little. See now my hand has a place to be and I can feel that beautiful stretch reaching the leg back and up and then curl the leg in and maneuver yourself off of the ball and onto the next thing. So now let's go ahead and put the ball aside because we're not going to need it anymore. You're still on one spring, which is a good idea. I am going to ask you to push your arms a little bit.

So if this feels too heavy, feel free to lighten it. I happen to like this heavy spring, so it's really up to you. So we're going to sit with our legs straight in a comfortable position and just do a little bit of arm play here. So sitting up straight and feeling a light. Go ahead and just one arm and then the other. So a few rows with rotation.

And what I hope to achieve here is just this beautiful flow and fluidity with your arms. So I'm not going to do a whole lot of queuing other than what it is that we're doing. So maybe just one more on each side like this. Feel that beautiful rotation, looking around with your eyes as well. Wonderful. And then here, take your two arms. Notice the grip I have, I'm going to open like so now this is where if it's too much for you, go to a blue spring, but I really like pushing myself here a little bit. I'm going to open, I'm going to look up and I'm thinking about spreading through my shoulder blades as well as through my collarbones. Let's do one more like that.

Return to the rowing certainly changed the Springs if you need to, right? So we'll row again the sun just two times please and row. Nice. And then two straight arms out to the side and then we'll add on a little bit opening, maybe looking up, enjoying that now, right arm up, left arm to the side. So check out that and you're going to look. And then change. So you're going to look, try to use both arms equally and just do what you can. And again, certainly change the spring if it's too heavy back to the row. Here we go. All right, beautiful and left. Let's do it again.

Try to feel the back. Lots of beautiful pulling here. Two straight arms to the side. Open. Look, a little bit of back extension and again, open. You can even go into a little flection if that feels like a good idea does to me. One more. And then one arm up and one arm up and change. And I'll tell you what, my arms are getting tired and that was the point I wanted to work them and flow and kind of enjoy. Let's rest that. Put the straps away please. Here, change your spring to a blue spring. And I'm doing a creative leg exercise here.

Borrowing a little bit from the one chair. So I'm going to ask you, I'm on a blue spring. I'm going to ask you to stand with your standing leg right up against the reformer and then you're going to rest your foot on the um, on the carriage in a place where it feels like your foot. You can rest your whole foot as best as possible. Now if you're slippery, feel free to get a sticky pad, but I also want you to do your best to ground down so I'm not leaning, I am standing on my leg as I draw, bear into the reformer to draw my leg back and I'm trying very hard to keep my pelvis nice and square. Lots of hamstring and glute here and stretch all the way to straight. So with Bassey on the, on the one to chair, we do an exercise called leg press standing to me this is like leg press pulling. So here we go, leg pulling if you will.

Really using those hamstrings and check in with your own self and do make sure that you're still standing on your back leg rather than leaning forward. We'll do just a couple more there. I feel quite a lot of sensation in the back of my leg. And I want you to notice what your foot feels like when it's bent, when the leg is bent and when the leg is straight, cause it'll probably feel a little different on the other side. So now we're going to do a hip opener version.

Now if you know your hips are not that open and kind of weak, you might need to scoot forward a little bit. I did a tiny bit, but not much. So here I'm going to stand and I want to be able to create this shape right here while I'm standing tall. So without leaning forward, we're going to pull that leg back. The movement is tiny, but there's a lot going on here in the glute and release. And I'm going to pull back and opening my thigh and releasing a little, and I'm opening my thigh and releasing and we can take the arms up. We can put the hands behind the head. Maybe I kind of like that and let's just do a couple more here. Growing tall.

I feel like this was a really great way to highlight the imbalances and also work a little bit on balance. Let's do the other side. So standing once again so that your standing leg is right up next to the reformer and those of you who are challenged, challenged by balance. This is a great way to give you a little bit of support. Use the reformer frame to kind of hold yourself here. Standing tall, pelvis square. We're going to bend and pull in. So again, the goal here is to not lean at all and I've noticed that um, it took me quite a lot of practice to notice, to feel when I was leaning. And so use a mirror and check it out and see what's happening with you.

And also be mindful of trying really hard to go all the way to a straight leg. I just am a little off here. There we go. And to pull down through your heel as you pull in each time. Lots of glute, lots of hamstring. So the arm position that suits you always feel free to modify or change.

Just do one more here and then I'm going to just scoot forward a little tiny bit with my standing leg and go in. I've gone into a little bit of external rotation. Oops, I need to scoot forward a little more because I'm looking to be able to create this outward shape here. Then I'm going to pull back using those deep rotators to do so and release a little bit forward. So again, the tendency here is to feel this as a knee bend and try to avoid letting it become a knee bend. It's a five movement. Yeah, choosing the arm position that suits you, but really trying to go deep into that hip. They're finding those deep rotators and just one more there please and we'll go ahead and release. So we'll change now to one heavy spring. So a red or a green, whatever feels like a good idea you. And that's where we'll be for a little while changing as needed.

So I'm going to stand with my, I'm going to come over here just so that you can see a little better the first time I'm going to stand on this side with my left foot, angling out a little bit. I'm going to reach back with my right foot and put it up against the shoulder rest. And then here my thighbone stays in line in alignment. But as I, as I press back here and find my way to a lunge position, I'm going to square my pelvis around a little bit. So it's a big stretch through my side body. But more importantly here, I'm going to get quite a lot of glute work, which is nice. So find a position that suits you. The option one would be to stay open, the option two to be facing forward, and then here we're going to angle that right leg in external rotation upward as we bend and straighten, trying to fire up the glute there. Now if you want to take it a little deeper, you're going to take one arm up.

And if you want to keep working here and take it even a little more balanced challenge, take a more balanced challenge. You have both arms, arms up and we'll just try one more there. Feel that beautiful glute work and let's change sides. So, so it's the opposite of what we think. We're a little twisted. You're standing on your right leg here and you put your foot back on the shoulder. Rest, adjusting as needed so that it's comfortable. Bend the front knee. Option one, you stay right here. Option two, we can rotate around assuming that feels like a good idea in your body.

You bend a little deeper. And then here we're going to bend and straighten the leg. So feeling the glute. Now you can take one arm up and you can take also the other arm up. So you're working balance here and also stretching and also challenging those glutes quite a bit. One more please.

And we can come out of that. Beautiful. So let's come to the knees with the knees, very close to the front edge. This looks like tricep work but it's meant to be a stretch for your side body. So with your two hands on this platform, press out and find a nice comfortable position here. Walk your your right arm across to the opposite side so the hand is flat right now you can use your other hand as needed on the frame and try to stretch through your side body a little bit and then you're going to bend your elbow, come in as far as it works for you and press out.

Try to do that with just the one arm, but feel free to pitch in with the other arm if needed. Now if kneeling doesn't work for you, please use a long box and life flat on your long box and practice the same move. It actually is quite wonderful. You just might have to go with a lighter spring because you'll slip and slide if the spring is too heavy. So stay here and slide your pet your pelvis off your feet and find a beautiful stretch for your side body. Let your head hang, breathing in and breathing out. So let's go ahead and change sides.

So we'll take now the left arm across and you want to kind of turn in a little bit, reach out and feel a stretch. Now if this spring is too heavy to do a single arm press, you can chip in with your other arm or you can change your spring. You're going to bend your elbow and try to put that arm flat down and you're going to press out. Now I have to say that on this side it is quite challenging for me, but I'm up for the challenge and I want to iron out the differences between my two arms. So I'm using this hand when I need to right at this beginning point just to get myself going so I can actually achieve this movement with this spring.

Hold your arms straight, slide your pelvis off your feet and enjoy that beautiful stretch for a couple moments here, stretching your side body scratch any itches that need scratching flees, and then gently come in from there. So one final exercise here for back extension. Let's put the feet really solidly up against the shoulder. Re-ask at a good stretch for your feet. Feel your legs kind of spiraling in a little bit.

We're going to undulate forward into the down stretch position, opening through your heart, and because this is higher up, I want you to really feel that you're not using your arms too much here in the beginning. Lot of bodywork. Slide down. Keep your gaze up, heart open, and we're going to lift. See how light you can be on your arms here. Lifting, lifting, lifting, go. Again, big lift, lots of abdominal support, lots of back muscles. Just one more here. Lots of hamstrings. Feel those hamstrings. Stay. Try lifting one arm up. Place it down. Lift the other arm up.

Place it down. Yes. Can you lift both arms up and flex your spine? Bringing your arms around. Sit perhaps on your feet or in a position that suits you for a moment. Step off of your reformer with your feet right underneath your hips. Let's just take a roll down together and enjoy a little hamstring stretch. Supporting a little with your abs going within. Roll down, head, neck, upper back. Relax your arms, soften your knees a little bit, relax your head, take a breath, bend your knees a little more, straighten your legs with an exhale.

Just one more time and straighten your legs as much as it feels like a good idea. And then take a nice graceful roll up to a standing position. [inaudible] and I thank you so much for playing.