No-Frills Reformer

Today's workout is something I'm calling coming home. We're filming this in the time of COVID, and it's our first little test back in the studio, second actually. You'll find it really great class from Amy Havens. But for me, it is my personal coming home, my personal first chance to be with my reformer in the studio here. And I don't know where you are in this situation, but I think we always have the opportunity to remind ourselves what this work can provide for us.

Sometimes it's just a familiar place to do the practice. And sometimes it is just being on a certain piece of equipment. I might name her soon, her? Yeah. Anyway, welcome to class, basic, just get moving, that's what we're doing. And I'm so, so happy to be here and to have you here with me.

So we're gonna just start with an inhale here. I'm gonna go around the end here in a second and do a rolldown. But for now, let's just find ourselves in the space that we are in. Find ourselves in this space we are in our bodies as well and inhale, and I am raising my arms. I'm gonna fill up this room like never before today for myself.

Breathing w/ Arms

And exhale. I'm finding myself naturally wanting to extend the spine. So inhaling up, as I exhale, I'm still, it's like, I'm trying to cut up and out and through the roof. It's subtle, but it still feels really good. Make yourself feel good, inhale up.

And exhale. Just gonna walk around to the edge of the reformer. Come with me, or you know what I mean. I have one red spring on at the moment or one full spring, just to spring. Because we're just gonna start to massage the spine and get more into the workout.

Hamstring Stretch Pushing Carriage

I let my head dive down. Inhale to extend your spine. Try to leave your pelvis over your ankles. Oh, and then from there exhale as if you're lifting your pelvis, your abdominals, your body off that foot bar. Go again. Inhale. Try not to change much at the lower body.

Stretching yourself up, even extend or shrug your shoulders, reach far, far, far. Let them kind of... let the carriage push them back into place and then start to roll up. Just pay attention to yourself and what's happening, inhale. That's how you come home.

Pay attention to you. And exhale. Again, inhale. You could do it lighter. I wouldn't go much heavier. We're not trying to effort here so much as find space in the spine.

Find some room for ourselves. Come all the way back in. Keep rounding, keep rounding. Tailbone's getting heavier the closer you come to that stopper. When you do, let your hands come up, and then hold onto the bar.

If the bar's really low, bend your knees more. And then from here, it's not gonna look like much, but just the subtle sense of pressing the heel of your hands into your foot bar so that you can find a sense of elongation even without real movement. Inhale, and exhale. Kinda relax on that. Inhale, I'm pressing and just thinking upwards, even though I'm hinged slightly forward, and exhale.

Breathing w/Hands on Footbar

Hamstring Stretch Pushing Carriage on One Side

Didn't change where my feet were standing just one more, inhale. Trying to kinda slinky our spines and come in. We don't have to do a grand finale, but do let yourself just roll up through the middle. Maybe hands on the bar, inhale. Let's go back down again and we'll go the other side.

So both my hands are going to my right. I'm trying to keep my knees slightly bent and forward. They could be straightened. Do the same thing. Inhale, push out, exhale. Again.

I keep the knees in because it's... I'm all about trying to find ease right now. And it allows me to stretch the tailbone or that into my spine upwards. Even as I reach forward, we'll come back all the way, all the way. Let the hands float to the middle and just roll on up.

Ah, one more deep breath just for nothing, because of we need to breathe and let it go. Let's get on reformer. I am going to go straight into foot and leg work today. I'll get into abs stuff in a bit, but for now, three to four springs. So on the balance body, I'm doing three red and I might stop there.

Heels

So we get ourselves forward. Foot bars are locked in. I do have my head rest up, partly up. It's up to you you can go higher, or you could have it down completely. Heels are parallel. Oh baby.

I already feel like I'm home. Heels are on, and heavy pelvis. Maybe lift and drop so you can kinda feel the difference if you're gripping anywhere, and off we go. We exhale, press out, stay there, just get long. And then come on home.

Exhale out, trying to keep the ankles still. That'll be part of the theme in this series and three, and pull in. If you wanna go faster, go ahead. I'll try to avoid counting. Just breathe.

And connect on both sides of your body, out and in. Out and in. Check for yourself that you're not snapping the knees, you're not gonna land. You're not gonna pull those feet off the bar. You're gonna place yourself.

You're gonna pull yourself back in. You are at one with your reformer. Once again, last one out and in, stay in. Be ready to hold everything else the same, pull the toes down or the balls of the feet down. Off we go, we press out and pull in.

Toes

How about two more? We're just trying to heat up. Must call that two, geez. It's been awhile. Swivel, not just your heels touching, but the whole leg kinda turns toward each other from front to the back.

Pilates Stance

Oh, I'm doing my best not to just ride the carriage or the springs. It's out, and it's a pull in. I often talk about the infinity sign. It's like the energy stays. It just keeps getting pushed onto a new place.

A couple more, let's say. Stay out on this next one and just check yourself out. Are you so gripped in your glutes and hamstrings and legs that you're really rounded upwards? If so, explore perhaps letting your tailbone or your pelvis rest down, then squeeze inward as much as you want and go for that. That's cool.

Come on back, heels wide on the bar. Heels basically near the middle of maybe lower, feet flexed, knees are slightly turned out. Off we go, press and pull in. Out and in. If you really want to search for connections, see if you can imagine that your legs started up somewhere around your sternum.

Heels Wide Second

And off we go, we lengthen out. Check your pelvis, check your grip, but loosen the reins and then draw inward. Here we go. Sorry if I slowed you down there. Off, we go out and we pull in.

Toes Wide Second

Heels Lower Lift

It's lower down or work your way down or I don't know. You can think about that, but you're not just dropping. That's what I'm trying to get at. And then just for a few, nothing you'll even... I'll see or you'd see, but try emphasizing one side a tiny bit more, just a little bit.

Just see how that goes and then switch it. And then try to make them even without sacrificing length or reach. Next one, stay up as high as you... Pretty much as you can without rolling the ankles out. And from there you bend, let's say right knee goes to the ceiling, other heel way under.

Running

We push up. Yes, yes. That's like all familiar, but I am not familiar with it anymore in that way, if that makes sense. It's like we measure ourselves against the message sometimes. And that's how we know where we need to go next.

Or what we might need to do outside of the studio. I'm giving us four more, one up, two up, three up, four, we're up and we come on down. Whew. I'm taking it down a little bit, like a half spring. I think I did that, yes.

Side Lying Single Leg

One foot is, depending on leg length and stuff, you may have to go way forward with the heel or back, but you want to be able to be firm on your heel for this one. You might even need to lift your headrest. Okey-dokey, bottom leg. Let's just pull it up off the foot bar altogether. If you've got really long legs, and I do not, you might feel more comfortable straightening your leg, so that's an option for you.

Here we go. Press out, take a second to get out there and then see what you're doing. In other words, are you rolling back? Are you rolling forward? Are you wedged into either one of those shoulder rests?

Try to line up your hips so one is on top of the other. Your toes are a little bit free and then come down. Let's go. We press out and in. You don't have to come in so far that you have to lift the heel. Out and in.

And out and in. Three more, press out, in, out, in. I should learn to count. Here we go. Now it's a pumping. So it's gonna be 10. It's one and two and three and four, little bigger, five, full six, seven, eight, nine, go all the way on, 10, out, out out.

Side Lying Single Leg Pulses

Side Lying Single Leg w/External Rotation

Here's six. Now, we do the same pumping for 10. If you want a breast patterns. And in, in and out, out and in, in and out, all the way. Oh, welcome home. Switch sides.

Side Lying Single Leg w/External Rotation Pulses

Side Lying Single Leg

Full extension of the knee without just locking it, it can be straight, but it doesn't have to be resting in a locked position. I'm gonna do two more here. And then we came almost all the way down and did our pumping. Let's do 10. Is one and two, and in, in and out, out and in, in.

Side Lying Single Leg Pulses

Side Lying Single Leg w/External Rotation

Side Lying Single Leg w/External Rotation Pulses

Hundred

Both knees are up, put a little resistance on it. We inhale and here or you go exhale, curl everything. I'm shoot the legs out. Or to let them be high. It's inhale two, three, four, or five out. You gotta breathe.

Inhale that's the point and out. Three and out. Four, and out. Here's five. You can get fancy and do something else if you want.

I'm gonna go up to three, four, five. Up two, three, and buy up by me my legs. It's up to you. That's not super fancy I know, but you might know others. Three to go bump, bump, bump. Focus on the breath in...

Hundred w/Legs Lower Lift

Frog

Sometimes I take the two thumbs and just put them in the crevice of the ... The difference between the thigh and the pelvis and let the thighs come in. Hopefully not letting the butt curl up. That's about where we want to come. Some of you will be able to come away and go for it.

Why not? It's your body. Now without over exerting, just straighten the legs back. You can exert as much as you want on the inner side closing, but let's just see what happens. If it's like use as little as you need and stay under control. And then put your hands down when it feels right or sit ever did.

I got my feet flexed. It's like I'm drawing the wall into me and I'm pushing it away. I'm in charge, that'll be the day. But it feels like it right now and it feels great. So look for that in yourself as well.

I'm going to do just two more. There's one, pull in. Staying out there on this next one, just stay there. Let the legs come up. For the record, I still have them ever so slightly turned out.

Leg Circles

It's a bit of a square, depending on your situation. Here we go. I'm inhaling, drumming both legs up. Separate and exhale. And honestly it's been long enough, certainly on this reformer, that it's worse kinda taking that little pause at the top to see if I can stay under control as I open.

How about three more. Stirred up. So we're at the top. Let's go down for a second. Sorry I didn't know what to say there. Often around, would come together and then pull down.

Open around. You can go really wide. If you're really flexible, I'd encourage you to hold back a little because that will be different. Try to push it without changing your spine or pelvis if you can. I'll call three more from here. One.

Two and three. I am gonna do a little short spine here. Put your head, rest down if it's up. Some springs out, it'd be pretty good. We started in that frog position and here's acute.

Everyone does a little different so feel free to do your own version or come with me. We press out two straight legs. I'm gonna keep my hips down as long as I can. Fold over until I feel that stopper. Yes, my hips are trying. They have to come up a little off.

Short Spine

Melt your way down. Roll your way down. Get yourself down. Whatever you have to do without pulling on the carriage. When you've gone as low as you can select your feet. Call up those hammies and bring it back to the start.

Exhale, fold it over, inhale. Once you've hit a roll up. It's like you're not pulling on the straps, but you're in concert with them. Bend the knees from the top of your throat, your spine, roll down. When you've gone as low as you can, flex the feet and drag or pull the whole thing over.

Continuing that motion, off we go, press out. Inhale, exhale up, up, up, up, up. Bend, Roll it down. Flex the feet and bring it over. Can we do one more? Press out.

Stay connected to the back of the legs if you're there now even though you're stretching them. It's a little bit of a play. Up you go, peeling up, bend to frog. Not so low. So low anyway.

Roll down. Roll down. Roll down, finish it where are we started. From here, reach through grab the straps we'll do a little coordination. And again with it, you can do with the arms bend. I'm gonna do it the same way I did before with the hundred.

Coordination

It goes, exhale up. Keep exhaling, open, close, now inhale. Drag those knees in and come down. Exhale. Go right back. Open closed bend, inhale.

Again, open, close, bend. And open, close, bend, keep reaching into those handles. And down last one, we go push, open, close. Bend, bend, bend, reach for it, reach for it. Put your forehead on your knees. Just sort of kidding.

And you might be able to put your straps away. Come on up, let's do a little stretch here. I'm going to come up to a kneeling lunge. As eat lunch, kneeling lunge, It's not kneeling lunch. Do this. Put your knee on the carriage.

Lunge Stretch

From here, by the way, I'm gonna take off one spring cause I don't need any more. It's okay to leave it, but I'm gonna leave it down on one full spring. It's this biasing towards a tucked pelvis. So pubic bone kinda aiming towards your sternum. It won't look like my back is rounded, but it's the energy that I'm putting into it.

Hands on the bar. And without just going back, I'm gonna start to slide the carriage away from me, keeping exactly what I just set up everywhere else or at least trying to. And that's where that foot comes into play. Use that surface area to push into it. If you're really dropped into it, you're gonna feel it in your back.

We're not doing that, We're just hanging out there for a minute. You can push as much as you want in fact. And now going to drop more weight into my hands, a tiny bit and really push with the leg till the knee comes off and hopefully get the knee straight. But nothing else changed. Well, there's a stretch I haven't done in awhile.

And then just allow the carriage to come in enough to set the knee down. Let's do it again. Go right back out. Nice long leg. And then bring it back in. From here, probably don't have to come in all the way maybe, but now just shift your hips back together and it's straightened up like this on the ground.

And the real trick here is lifting the tailbone a bit, getting the back flat. It's not necessarily going for a straight split. In fact you might feel it more if you don't go for that. Think of lifting or separating maybe the distance between your... If your right foot's on the floor, your right sit bone and heel.

Hamstring Stretch

Lunge Stretch

Kinda easy on the hands. Come in a little bit, kinda lighten up on it. Let's go again, check your foot and go again. If you're up for it, this is that chance to use the surface area of the bottom of your foot. And you get to just nothing else changes.

It's just, can you push the carriage away and get the leg straight? And breathe and be happy or something. Let the knee bend. So it touches and you get a little support there. You can even come forward a bit.

I'm doing it again though right away. Off we go, forward leg is just helping to support. Let the knee come down. This is where we just start to shift back. And I know it's not a bad idea to check that your hips are level.

Hard to do in this position but think about it anyway. Start to straighten the forward leg. And this is another one of those ones that even if you didn't straighten the forward knee, you could have a bent as long as your back is flat and you try to square off the hips. You're probably going to get a decent stretch. Some of you will look like you or can go further, but look for it, you know, really reach up and down.

Hamstring Stretch

Single Arm Press

We're coming right in next to the shoulders. Be careful when you get back on. (Kristi panting) Here's what we're doing. Look at your hand, it's right by your ear. Maybe even touch your ear for a second.

It's not going to stay there, but it's going to come away a little bit. The rest of you is lined up, elbows probably in front of that spring rather than way behind you. So you're having that already an external rotation. This might be one of the harder ones and we're aiming for straight up. That's all I got.

If I were to really focus on only getting straight, I'd have to lean. So I'm not gonna do that to myself or my shoulder specifically. Straight up and down. Straight up and down. Straight up, what's your back doing and not leaning back.

Your whole body's gonna wanna compensate for this. Let's go one more time. Switch hands. It's also is a hard one, depending on how many times you've jumped and fallen off a trampoline. Here's the deal though.

Drawing a Sword

You could throw in the wrist on it. I'm not doing that today. Meaning you could round the wrist then the elbow, then come back. But today I'm just gonna leave the wrist straight. And it's two and in rear depth, kind of where, if you're thinking muscles or you might be thinking to start.

Just two more. No big deal, right? Sort of. I'm gonna give you one tip. There's a real strong tendency, right about here to dip the elbow, try not to do that. Should I give you one more so you can focus on that move, call it six.

It's pull right here when you go to extend it, try not to drop that elbow. Boom. Stay on the side. Stay with the strap in that hand. Move yourself out so that your knees are closer to the edge. Do your best to get your hips over your heels.

Single Arm Tricep Press

Here's three. (Kristi panting) I have to do six otherwise I'll forget what we did on the other side. There's five. Is it last one? Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. I'll work on it.

Five was the magic number it seems. Put that away, carefully step off, let's go the other side. So we started with our knee right up against the shoulder rest. The hand that just worked, it's still working. Do your best to stay aligned, to not leaning back or forward.

Single Arm Press

I'm still feeling the sense of the shoulder blade sort of dropping first as my fingertips at least try to stay on the same plane. They're not going over my head. There's three. Should we do six on this side too? I mean six on this one. I'm not sure, but we're going to try for it. I believe that'll be five.

Check yourself out. Here we go. Woo. Stay here but switch hands. Get a good grip on it. Make it in the middle of your palm, not your fingers.

Drawing a Sword

We did talk about the elbow not dropping in order to accomplish this. Once you've gone as far as you can you literally just follow that line. A couple more. This might be six, but I'm not sure. So I'm going to do one more.

If not, you just get to start setting up for the next one, which is to move your knees. Here it is. Boom. Okay. Then we come all the way back in. We carefully slide ourselves out of it.

It can go all the way to the shoulder or to the edge of the carriage to do that just means you'll be in more of a lateral flection stretch. It's up to you. Other hand is on the shoulder block. Find your center first. You're not pitching away.

Single Arm Tricep Press

And it's not six do one more and come on back. Set it down. Almost there. I am gonna change it down from a half a spring. It was on a half a spring, I'm going to one full. So just a slight bit heavier just to support my shoulder and this version that we're gonna do of mermaid.

Mermaid w/Rotation

Here's what we do we gonna push out, keeping the body as upright as possible until the arm is straight. So at the moment, I'm not on the carriage from here. Let's enjoy it. We go. It's both my arm dropping, my shoulder dropping and my shin pressing. And now I have those contact points that I'm gonna just hang on to. As we rotate the spine all the way, as much as you can, if you want to grab on you can or just get near it, reopen and come up.

Coming to that original starting position where maybe you're not on the stopper, your arms, stay straight. Push out, rotate, take it from the ribs. Take it from the ribs. The arm is just sort of your guide is not the thing that gets you there. Pull the abs in.

She says to herself, reopen and come up. Again press it out. Get long through the spine. Now it makes it easier to rotate, rotate, rotate, reopen, and come up. We'll do a slightly different version there.

Coming up, let's go. Open one more time, this is four. It is this one I know. Rotate, rotate, rotate. Now do what you can even if you have to come in a little to see what you can do to get both hands on the bar, you might have to move that initial hand over. And then it's a subtle downward pressure.

Mermaid w/Rotation and Extention

Maybe you need to wiggle the hand back toward the middle reopen and come on up. Once you get there, you can hang onto the shoulder block or the other thing, been awhile. Arm goes up, lift up. Someone pulls you up and then enjoy some form of stretch. Play with that, other side.

Side Bend Stretch

Mermaid w/Rotation

But like right here, when you're opened up again, is your head straight up or is it in line with the rest of your spine? I come up, there's little things you can think about that make a difference. Number three. So here two, as your ribs turn, your head is connected to your spine as are your ribs. So this will take it with you.

Reopen and up. Here's the one when we did that last little GC back extension piece. Take it out. Turn it. You may have to come in to find place for your hand.

You may have to move the other one so that you can move it all. And this is where it's just nice. And again, I have the heel of my hand there. I have the shin pressing into the shoulder block even as the shoulder block comes toward the foot bar. Oh.

Mermaid w/Rotation and Extention

Side Bend Stretch

Pulling the Risers

Cause even if you focus only on the arms, it won't be enough. Knees are at the shoulder blocks once again. And we're just gonna walk ourselves out to the risers. If you don't have risers, what you get to do is hold the frame. Yeah, that's it.

So here we go. I'm just kinda taking a second before I start waddling out there and engage through the middle, take myself out, find my risers and then as best I can, I'm gonna straighten my arms or almost straight. And then it's literally just pulling through those risers. If you're on... If you don't have rises, you'll be going on a downward slope, that's okay.

Elbows are natural for me. I'm not pointing them straight back. I'm not pointing them super wide either. If anything, I'm slightly pointing them wide intentionally. But now here's the thing. We talk back extension.

You kinda hang onto the front of your body, your ribs, and you think about looking forward, but not so much just with your eyes or face as if your chest could somehow reach through an up like a reverse chest lift almost. A couple more. One more. And then let yourself find the frame and walk yourself back. From here, find a comfortable way to sit.

I was thinking of just stay right here. But I think what I'd rather do is either have my feet on the floor cross-legged. I'm gonna go cross-legged because less can go wrong from me, but you could have just sat on your knees as well. So whichever works best for you. We're just gonna finish this with a bit more back extension and maybe I'll turn sideways.

Chest Opening

We're just gonna reach them out, but as they get near our side, right about here, in line with the body, start to lift your chest and look up. Then once you can feel, if you can feel that upper back a little bit, you could take your hands a little further and squeeze those shoulder blades together. Really go for it. It's okay. You can squeeze them. Go ahead and then relax it, bring it back to the start, serve it out.

You're tall. It's like we did it. And then we're opening allowing for more room and more space and reminding herself that upper back hangs on to so much for us. Once you're around the side of your body, this is where you've lift more in the spine. Then if you have it in you, you look up along with that and squeeze the shoulder blades. Release and come back.

And from there, I'm just gonna face you. Wherever you're sitting is fine. Just take a deep breath in, exhale out. One more time, inhale in, feel good about the time you took for yourself. And I hope you will come back again, back to yourself, home, back here to Pilates Anytime.

Breathing w/ Arms