Arriving to Move

Right everyone, welcome to the Pilates Anytime Reformer series. This is our first session out of eight and I really want to just invite you to arrive with a purposeful posture as we connect in the space of moving our bodies. I have no doubt that we are all very passionate about Pilates and it's just really my heart's deepest desire that I get to invest in you. I'm sure a lot of you are instructors. A lot of you are Pilates gurus in your own ways.

So please take this moment. Take this next hour for me to invest in you. And yeah, then we can have a chat a little bit later. So I have my reformer set up with the footbar down to start with, and I have got one light spring on just for a bit of spinal articulation to start with. Okay, you guys, let's get going.

You're going to bring your feet underneath your hips. You're going to engage your abdominals, engage your back and just arrive with a beautiful upright posture from the beginning. Extend your arms down towards your heels and we're going to roll down. So first take that inhalation. As you engage your abdominals, lower your chin.

Roll your body forward, everyone. Extend the arms forward and just press the palms into the edge of the carriage. On your inhale, extend your spine, elongate, elongate, elongate. On the exhale, move from the pelvis and articulate your spine into deep flexion. Let's repeat this, inhale to extend.

Elongate the spine, create space between the vertebras, feel those hamstrings, and exhale, from the lumbar spine, curl up. We'll do three more. Inhale, inhale, inhale. Elongate, keeping the neck long at the same time. As you exhale, lift your pelvic floor, draw the abdominals and enjoy the stretch that you feel over your back, two more.

Inhale to extend. Careful for the hyperextended knees if that's your body. Exhale, curl up, keeping in mind we are still just warming up and then let's do the last one. Inhale, inhale, inhale, and exhale, this time, roll up all the way. Articulate your spine.

Rolling yourself up and arrive back in that purposeful posture. We're going to add a rotation. We inhale, exhale, contract the abdominals, lower the chin. Roll forward with your hands, pressing back into the carriage. On the inhale, extend your carriage out again as we did in the previous exercise.

You're going to reach your right arm out to the side in a T position. And in this time I'd like you to inhale, rotate from your waist and extend up to the ceiling. Exhale, come back to the T position. Two more, inhale, inhale, inhale. And exhale, come back to the T.

Last one, inhale, rotate, enjoy the rotation, open that heart a little bit higher, and then exhale, come down. Press the hand with shoulder stability into the carriage and we reach your left arm to the side. Inhale to rotate and lift, and lift, exhale back into the T position, two more. I'm bending my knees to take that load off the joints, and exhale, scan your own body and make the adjustments that you know your body needs. One more now, inhale, inhale, inhale.

Come back to your center, place the hand down, give yourself one last stretch on that inhale, and exhale, literally engage that pelvic floor. Curling up, roll yourself up all the way and arrive in your upright posture. Awesome, you guys, let's move on from here. You can lift your footbar up and then you can place your springs on that you would use for your foot work. I am going to do a heavy spring for today and then I am going to bring myself into my supine position.

So footbar's all the way up. Make sure your footbar's secure. Make sure your stopper's in the right place and then we're going to come and lie down in a supine position. But first we'll do a little warmup here. Come and place your heels on your bar just so we can locate those hamstrings, everyone.

We're going to do a pelvic curl. So inhale for your preparation from your neutral pelvis. As you exhale, bring that pelvis into a posterior tilt. Continue the movement, as you exhale, roll your pelvis up off your carriage. Inhale, hold.

And we exhale, articulate that spine down. Rolling down, rolling down, curling down, moving your pelvis through the imprint into your neutral spine, inhale again. And we exhale, deep lumbar flexion. Keeping those adductors, those inner thighs, running parallel to one another, lift the pelvis, feel those glutes, inhale. And we exhale to roll down, keeping the movement very linear, feel the back of the legs.

And we release to the neutral. Let's do two more, inhale for me. Exhale, pelvic floor, deep abdominals. Every time we take a deeper layer into the muscle activation of the movement, fire those glutes here make sure your glutes are working, inhale, and we exhale to curl, and curl, and curl, those hamstrings should feel the work. We're going to do one more inhale and we exhale, deep flexion.

Articulate, keep those adductors parallel to each other. Press up, press up, press up. Make sure you always move more towards that posterior tilt for the glutes to work, inhale, and this time as you roll down, you can lift your arms up to the ceiling, keep your carriage still, please, guys, and come back to your neutral. Extend your arms, bend your elbows, and just reach back and hold onto your strap's pegs. Lift your right leg bent off the floor.

Bring your left leg bent off the floor. Let your legs become one solid unit. Draw those adductors together. On your inbreath, rotate your thighs over to the right side, moving from the waist. Exhale, draw your legs back to your center.

We'll repeat that, inhale, the knees stay stacked on top of each other, and we exhale, fire the obliques. Come back to the center. Inhale over. Opposite shoulder blade stays anchored on your carriage, exhale back. It's a small movement and it's a deep movement.

Inhale over, rotating, rotating, and exhale back, two more, please. Inhale over, keep those knees nice and tidy on top of each other, exhale, draw the legs back. Last one, elbows stay wide, inhale, inhale, inhale, and exhale back to your center. Place your heels back on your bar, extend your arms up to 90 degrees, and this is going to be a position that we're going to repeat later on. So get your shoulder stabilizers to be engaged.

We move forward into a chest lift, inhale. Exhale, lengthen your chin. Not your chin, your neck, exhale forward. Inhale to pause and hold and then exhale to lower back down, arms back to 90, inhale. Exhale, chin towards the chest, navel to spine.

Lift and reach and reach. Maximize your flexion in your chest. Do a quick little check and make sure your pelvis is neutral. Inhale, hold. And we exhale to roll and go back.

Four more, inhale. Exhale up. Curling up, move your eyes towards your mid thigh. This is your fundamental movement that sets you up for a lot of our other exercises. So let's get this right from the beginning and lower down, inhale.

And exhale, neck flexion, chest moves, lift and hold. Inhale, inhale, inhale, and exhale, lower back down. One more, inhale. Breathe out, reach forward, pressing all the stale air out of your body. Hold your pelvis here.

Circle your arms, interlace your hands behind your head, everyone. We breathe in, we add a rotation over to the right side, exhale. Inhale center, rotate over to the left side, nice and deep inhale. And (softly exhaling) Four more, inhale. Maintain the height of your chest, feel those obliques, and exhale, three, back to the center.

Exhale, two. And back, are you still nice and high? Keep the flexion, keep the flexion. Come back, hold it, and lower down, placing your arms down by your side. Awesome, you guys.

We move into our foot work. So align your heels with your sitting bones so we have that functional placement of the joints. We're going to inhale for your preparation, fire your hamstrings and exhale, extend your legs away, full extension. Inhale, bend, and come back. Exhale, extend.

And inhale, bend, we'll do six more. Exhale, really activate those muscles around the bones to get the precision of the movement. And press, four more, and resist back. And exhale, three. And back.

And one more, and back all the way. Move the balls of the feet on the bar. Remember how important the ankle stability is here, you guys, inhale, fire the hamstrings, hip extensors, and extend. And come back, inhale. Exhale, press, draw up the knee caps and back to the center.

And exhale, reach out, is that pelvis neutral? Take a second here, make sure your spine is neutral and your pelvis is neutral, and resist back. And four more. And back, exhale three, I want deep work, this is your time. And two, and one more exhale, reach, reach, reach, and resist back into your small V, keeping the toes on the bar.

Rotate your thighs out to the side and we extend. Draw those adductors together a little bit more. Inhale, come back. press the feet, then move the joints. Press and hold and squeeze and back.

And exhale, exhale, exhale. Inhale back, five more. Inhale with resistance, and exhale three, draw those adductors for me please, guys. And two, the more you squeeze your heels together, the deeper the work into those adductors, and come back all the way. Place your heels wide on your bar.

Find a safe position. You're still in your hip external rotation, we inhale, Exhale, extend your legs and draw the heels towards each other and come back. And exhale, it's so easy to cheat with these exercises and this is where the power of your mind comes in. So use all of your Pilates principles. Use your breath, use your adductors.

Finish the breath and come back. Five more, and elongate that spring and back. Three more, exhale, exhale, inhale, and two more, draw together and back. And exhale, reach, reach the crown of the head away as you bend your knees and slowly draw this carriage back in. Toes wide, ankle stability, exhale, extend, draw in, and come back.

And exhale, draw, draw, draw, and keep those heels stable. (softly exhaling) Four more. Exhale, exhale, and back. Don't rush the work, you guys, three more. Give me quality of movement.

(softly exhaling) And last one, draw in, draw in, and come back all the way. You're going to bring your feet back to your parallel toes on the bar. We're going to move into your calf rises, your calf rises for the Americans. Breathe in, on the exhale, activate your extensors and extend the knees away. Let's lower the heels down, inhale.

On the exhale, rise up, rise up, rise up. Inhale, lower. Exhale, goodness gracious, lots of creaking going on in my feet and ankles, inhale, and exhale, rise. Inhale, lower. Exhale, press, maximize your movements, guys, four more.

And (softly exhaling) inhale, and exhale, two more, inhale, reach, reach, and exhale, rise. One more inhale, inhale, exhale, rise and hold it. Rise and hold it, are you committed to your full plantarflexion in this position? You're going to press your right heel under the bar, bend your left knee. We go up and we swap around and we're going to use a double breath and we go inhale and inhale, exhale, exhale.

Inhale, full ankle movements, please. Exhale, exhale, four more sets. Get the rhythm going. Three more, inhale, and exhale. And two more, you should feel those calves burning.

One more inhale, inhale, exhale, exhale, your right heel is under your bar. You're not hyperextending your knee but you're feeling a beautiful well-deserved stretch in that right calf, calf. Take your left toe, tuck your toe under the bar if you feel your leg needs a deeper stretch, holding it, holding it, holding it. Press the toe into the bar, press into that left foot, then make the right knee come up. Check that your pelvis is still square.

Hook the right toes under the bar if you need a deeper stretch. And we hold it, and hold it, and hold it. Bring the toe back on the bar, go into your full plantarflexion, rise up, bend your knees, and come back all the way. We're going to move into your prehensiles. So come and place the base of your metatarsals on your footbar.

I want you to feel like there's mud on your balls of the feet and you're pulling down so you get your extensors to activate. And then literally wrap your toes around the bar and let's work the deeper parts of our feet. You're going to inhale for the preparation. Exhale, press your heels under the bar. The goal is to dorsiflex those ankles.

And we come back, inhale, keep the heels as low as what you can all the time. Exhale, press those heels down, down, down. Wrap the toes over and inhale, inhale, four more. And exhale, so yeah, we really love, we wear a lot of flip-flops. So this is a great exercise to get those feet to move in a deeper range.

Three more, exhale, press the heels, press the heels. Wrap your toes, like birds' claws, and back. Two more, exhale, exhale, and inhale back. And one more, exhale, press, check the pelvis is neutral, you guys, and come back all the way. You should feel that your feet are nice and warm.

Extend your legs up and out over your footbar, please. We're going to transition into a roll-up to change the spring. So extend your arms up towards your ceiling, breathing in, lift your head and chest, reach your arms forward, and then just gracefully roll up. Swing your legs to the side and let's change the spring for our single leg. So I'm going to remove my one spring so I'm more towards a medium resistance.

Come back into your supine position. Feel with your hands that you're lying in the center of your carriage and place your right heel on the bar. Lift your left leg up. We're going to do six repetitions of each movement. Breathing in, use your hamstring and then only extend your leg away, inhale back.

(softly exhaling) And inhale. Keeping the pelvis neutral, let your leg just move with you as the little passenger on the left side. Three more, full range of motion, come back to your stopper. And two more, and back. (softly exhaling) Come back all the way, change your foot position while the carriage is on the stopper for safety. Left heel on the bar, inhale, activate that left hamstring and we extend, and back.

And exhale, reach out of the hip. I really want everyone to make sure there is no flexion in that pelvis. And three more, lengthen that femur out of the hip joint. And two. And one.

And back, place the right ball of the foot on the bar. Bring the left leg bent up off the bar. We inhale and exhale, press out, full ankle flexion from here. Keep the stability and come back. Exhale, five more, reach.

Inhale, bend. Navel to spine using the breath to stabilize the torso. Two more. And exhale, exhale, and back, left ball of the foot on the bar, last set. Exhale, extend, control your carriage.

Exhale, reach out. Inhale, resist back. And four more, this is my weaker side. I have to focus a little bit more, three more, exhale on those hip extensors, and two more, and back, and exhale, one more. And come back all the way.

Great work, you guys. Extend your legs back over your bar. Reach the arms up to your ceiling. I want you to use the same transition movement. Lifting your head and chest, inhale.

Then exhale, roll yourself up. Swing those legs down and we're going to set up for some abdominal work and I'm going to work on a light spring. So to give you an idea, we're going to do a hundred sweep and then we're going to go into the hundreds. I want you to make sure your neck stays safe. So don't overload on your own springs.

You know your body best. I trust that you're making a good choice. Let's come back into a supine position. Again, check that you're lying in the center of your carriage, very important. Reach your hands across over into your straps.

And then I'd like you to shift down so that you can just fit one, slide one hand in between your shoulder and your shoulder rests. Find your shoulder stabilizers. So really activate into your lats and serratus. As you lift your right leg bent off the bar, the carriage doesn't move, inhale. Bring your left leg off the bar.

The carriage doesn't move. You're going to keep your head down for now. Inhale for the preparation. Only the arms move forward into extension, exhale, exhale, exhale. Inhale, lift the arms back without your carriage crashing.

Exhale, press down, press down, press down. And inhale to lift, three more here. (softly exhaling) Press through your arms. Don't let the equipment do the work for you. Let your body move your equipment, guys.

Exhale, two more. And lift. And one more, exhale. This time, bring the arms up. We're gonna lift the chest forward into flexion.

So this is your same chest lift position with resistance. Inhale to lower back, and pause, three more. Exhale, lift up. Lift up, lift up. I'm going to give you a heads up, two more, then into the hundreds.

Exhale, deep flexion, lifting and reaching, and reaching, and reaching. And come back, one more prep, you guys. Exhale, lift up, establish a good position, eye line is forward, and the next one, inhale. You extend your legs. You exhale, lift, hover and hold, inhale, pause.

And we pump the arms, exhale two, three, four, five, inhale. And exhale, two, great work. Inhale. And three, two, three, keep that carriage still. And four, (softly exhaling) exhale, five, two, three, four, five, inhale.

And exhale, can you flex a little bit higher, guys? (softly exhaling) And two more, two, three, four, five, inhale. And one more, exhale, two, three, four, five, inhale. Pause here and lower your body back down all the way. I've just added half a spring.

So I'm going to be on a light to medium spring for my hip work. Come and lie yourself down supine and we are going to make sure we get into this very safe. Take your straps in your hands, everyone. Extend your legs first, fully extend your legs, lift your right foot up, place your right foot in the strap. Great, put tension on your strap like you did your single leg lifts and then bring your left leg up without the carriage moving underneath you.

And from here, I'd like you to externally rotate your hips and bring your legs in your frog position. You're going to inhale from here. Really activate those hip extensors and press your legs away with the dorsiflexed ankle, inhale to bend. And exhale to press away. Draw those adductors together and resist the bend.

Exhale, exhale, exhale. My legs are shaking. I don't know if it's the nerves or if I'm just really working hard. (softly laughing) Exhale, press away and inhale, bend, three more. Exhale, maintaining neutral pelvis throughout and inhale to bend.

Two more, exhale, press and hold. And inhale to bend, one more, you guys. Exhale, press and hold it here. Go into your plantarflexion of your feet. So point your toes for me, lift your legs to 90 degrees if you can, keep that tailbone anchored.

You exhale, press your legs down, circle out and around, and together. Exhale, press down, out, up, and together. Let's go, four more, exhale. And around in together. Exhale, three more.

Pelvis is neutral, place your hands on your pelvis to just get a reference that the pelvis is not moving all over the show. One more, exhale, and circle up together, ready for the reverse. We abduct the legs. Exhale, circle down and together, and lift. Inhale, exhale, circle, and together.

Four more, inhale and exhale. Think of the shape of that hip joint and you get to move that femur in that ball-and-socket joint nice and big. Two more, inhale, exhale. Last one, please, you guys, exhale, hold it here, use your adductors. Come on, squeeze your legs a little bit more.

On the inhale, move your legs out into the abduction. Enjoy the stretch but now find the strength to pull the legs together, relying on your adductors, not on your quads. Inhale, open up, moving the legs on the same level, everyone. Exhale, reach and draw together. Last little bit of adduction, inhale, nice and controlled, smooth movements.

Always moving with integrity and let's do one more, inhale, inhale, inhale, and we exhale, draw the legs together. So let's open your legs here. Can you bend your knees and hold it here? For those who feel they need a deeper stretch, grab hold of your straps and be gentle as you just allow your hips to stretch here, inhale, and enjoy the stretch. You don't need to pull a face here.

It should feel rather delicious. One more inhale, and breathe out. (softly exhaling) Bring your hands back next to your body, guys, inhale. You don't have to stretch your knees again. You're just going to adduct your legs back into your starting position. And we're going to prep for your short spine.

So go into your hip abduction. Draw those heels together. Dorsiflex your ankles, be intentional. Already here, your body is strong and stable. Inhale for your press.

Exhale, press through your heels as you send your legs away from your pelvis. Start plantarflexing your feet, as you inhale, move your legs up and over your chest all the way till your carriage hits home. On the exhale, articulate that spine, now rolling up. Without the carriage, moving, rolling up, rolling up. Rolling up, rolling up.

Inhale, bend your knees. Keep the height of your pelvis. Then exhale, move that spine towards your carriage. Keep your feet together, till you feel you can't move anymore. Then plantarflex your ankles, press your pelvis back to the neutral starting position.

Exhale, press through those heels. Plantarflex the feet, inhale, move the thighs over. Disassociate your pelvis from your thighs. Exhale, articulate. Think of a pelvic curl with your legs up in the air.

Inhale to bend your knees, hover and hold here. Exhale to roll down, roll down, roll down. Flex your ankles and press your feet back, two more. Exhale, press through your legs, point your toes. Inhale over, spinal articulation is like my favorite part of the body to move.

Exhale, articulate your spine and roll up. Roll up, roll up, roll up. Extend up, maintain the height of the pelvis. Bend your knees, inhale, exhale, make sure your hands are not pressing into your carriage. You are extending your arms.

Flex your ankles and bring the pelvis to neutral. Last one, please, everyone, exhale, press away. Point your feet, inhale, bring your legs up and over. Drop that pelvis, drop that pelvis, drop that pelvis. Exhale, can you draw your adductors together even more?

Even more, even more. Lift the pelvis, inhale to bend your knees, and we exhale, nice and easy. Deep with control. Bring the pelvis back to your neutral. Draw your legs together, everyone.

We removed the right foot from the strap. Place your foot on the bar, secure yourself there so left foot comes in and place your straps down back where they belong, great. We're going to stretch our legs out again. Lift your head and chest up, inhale, roll up, exhale all the way and come and sit up. Awesome, you guys.

So let's take that extra half a spring off and we move into a stretch. I'm going to get you to stand up to the side of your carriage. I'm going to be on my left leg with my right foot up on the shoulder rest. And I'm going to place my hands on the bar and I'm going to try really hard to come out of this lordosis that I have. I promise you, I'm trying my best, okay?

Bend your front knee, hands on the bar. We're stretching out the right hip joint. So you're going to hold it for three breaths, inhale, and breathe out, posterior tilt, inhale, and exhale. One more breath, inhale. Don't forget about your posture.

On this next exhale, press your pelvis anteriorly. Dorsiflex your front ankle and stretch into your left hamstring. You still have straight arms. You still have a straight back. And we hold it, inhale.

And we breathe out, exhale, exhale, exhale. Two more breaths (softly exhaling) One more. And exhale, bend your front knee. Pull the carriage back, finishing with that upright posture, and come in. Let's move over to the other side.

Place your hands on the bar, then the foot, make sure those toes are flexed under. Make sure you press your heel up into the shoulder rest. Hands in line with your shoulders and come into your lunge. Lift your chest up, lift your heart up. And we hold it, inhale, and breathe out, exhale.

So it's in these quiet moments that we need to focus a little bit more on our technique and our placement. So don't let your mind leave your body. One more inhale. On the exhale, dorsiflex the ankle, press away. Reach out, stretch, and hold, inhale, and exhale, is your back strong in this position?

Inhale. (softly exhaling) One more, exhale, exhale, bend the front knee, lift your chest, and complete the stretch here. Beautiful work, you guys. We're going to move into our full body integration. So I'm going to ask you to join me in your kneeling position with both your feet pressing back into your shoulder rests. Your knees are in line with your hips.

Your hands are going to be in line with your shoulders. And we're going to lift the pelvis an inch, not an inch, that's a lie. You're going to lift your pelvis like the size of our hand off the back of that heel. We're going to move the lumbar spine into flexion. We're going to maintain the flexion of the lumbar spine.

As you inhale, press your carriage away. Exhale, draw it in. Inhale, and this is quite a dynamic movement if the quality stays the same. So we inhale, and (softly exhaling) Shoulders are strong and stable, three more. (softly exhaling) and two, and one, hold it here.

Move your spine into your neutral, into your flat back. Readjust your shoulder stability if you need to. Keep the neutral spine, we move the thighs into extension and flexion, inhale and (softly exhaling) Setting us up for our up stretches that are coming soon. Exhale, move the thighs and move forward. (softly exhaling) And two, and one.

Hold it here. Great stuff. From here, I'm going to just get you, for safety, to stand on the floor. To get up into your abs stretch, place your hands, then can you step up on your carriage? Make sure it doesn't slide back, of course.

Heels go against your shoulder rest. I know you want to hyperextend and stretch here, but it's not yet time for it. Maintain the stability in your shoulders, in your spine, and press those heels into the floor. Keep your head in line with your spine. We move into the elephant, as we inhale, extend back.

Exhale, draw forward. Inhale, inhale, and exhale. And inhale, once your quality of movement and stability is perfect, we can speed it up. (softly exhaling) Dynamic movement, always with integrity. Three, (softly exhaling) and two.

Hold the carriage all the way to the stopper. Rise your heels up into your shoulder rest. There's not a lot of shifting happening. Up straight, one, inhale back, exhale forward. Inhale and exhale.

Keep those abdominals close to your spine, guys. (softly exhaling) And four, exhale three, all the way in full range, two. And one, from here, let's do the up stretch too. Inhale, pivot at the shoulders and the hips, strike your pose for me, lift your abdominals, and exhale, draw the carriage in. Inhale, inhale, lift that chest.

Push through your arms, and we exhale, initiate the movement with your abdominals. Inhale, inhale, hold it, hold it. Check your own posture. Align your body even better. Exhale to lift up, four more.

Inhale, inhale, inhale, and exhale to lift up. Three more, inhale, and push your chest away from the bar. Exhale up, two more. Inhale, inhale, and exhale. The last one, I'm going to challenge you to hold it here 'cause my favorite quote when I teach is that our true strength lies in the stability of our movement.

So holding it in your perfect front support position, breathe in, press out of your rests. One more breath. Then engage your abdominals and pull the carriage back in. Step your feet down, and lift up. Excellent work, you guys, amazing.

Right, are you ready for some arm work? Let's lower the footbar. Actually, no you don't need to lower your footbar. You just need to change your spring for your arms kneeling. I'm going to do this on a light spring so that I can get through the series with good technique, good quality of movement.

You're going to bring your body to kneel facing the back of your carriage, please, guys. And for me, the safest way to get into this is to reach and hold onto the straps, thread the hands through, holding on to the rope, and then don't just jerk your body up. You want to do a little pelvic core and press yourself up to arrive in your upright kneeling position. Inhale, extend the arms out. On the exhale, chest expansion, press the arms back, back, back, back, and inhale.

And exhale, I always have to remind myself when I do this kneeling arm series to use my adductors so that I don't sit in that lumbar lordosis that I've been placed with. And four more, exhale, exhale, inhale, and three more, keeping your head on top of your pelvis, or on top of your spine, moving only the arms. Two more, exhale, can you press down with your thumbs, everyone? Feel the triceps, feel the triceps, and forward, and exhale, last one. Press, press, press, and come forward and sit back.

Place your straps down to then pivot your body around to the other side. Dorsiflex your ankles. Same setup, making sure it's safe. Reach back, hold onto your straps with your palms facing forward. Inhale, and with control, press your pelvis up off your heels.

Your hands is just in front of your body. We're going to inhale. As you exhale, commit to deep abdominal work as you stabilize, moving the arms overhead. Inhale, move the arms out to the side and down and we exhale. Get rid of all the stale air in your body, guys.

Breathe out, then inhale, open, open, open. And exhale, lift up, three more. Rotate in the shoulder, open wide, and lower, two more, exhale, and enjoy the movement. Circle wide. Last one in this direction, exhale, lift up, rotate, and circle for the reverse.

We exhale, press up, press up, and inhale, lower down. And we exhale, reach the arms wide. Keep that scapula close to your ribcage, and lower down with your palms to the ceiling, three more. Exhale up, up, up. And lower down.

Your abdominals are working with you. Two more, exhale, exhale, and inhale, I've got a little sweat going on here. One more, exhale. Hold it here. We're going to move into our tricep.

Make a diamond shape with your thumbs on the crown of your head, and we extend up, exhale. Inhale, bend. and press up, stability in the torso. If you can, make sure you're not leaning forward, then that would make me very happy, exhale, exhale, and inhale, three more, full extension, full extension, don't cut the corners, and two more. And one, press and hold.

Circle the arms, lower down. Let's finish the series with the bicep. I know the spring feels light, but you've got great body awareness. So you can just engage your muscles a little bit more. And extend back full extension, exhale, flexing in the elbow.

Keep the humerus nice and high, three more. (softly exhaling) And back. And two more, exhale. And out, and one more, flex, flex, and extend, finish here, and lower back down. Great work, you guys, amazing.

From here, you guys, we're going to move into the long stretch. So we are going to ramp it up. I'm adding my light to medium spring on. You're going to come and sit yourself up on your footbar, and we're going to prepare for the long stretch. So first of all, you're going to need great shoulder stability and strength.

As you extend your legs forward, dorsiflex your ankles on to the shoulder rests. Find your neutral spine, let's bend the elbows. Keep your carriage still. Exhale, articulate that spine as you press your pelvis up, up, up, up, then curl yourself back, pushing out in a way away from your shoulders and back to your neutral eye line forward. Inhale, flexing at the elbow.

Exhale, press away, lift, lift, lift. Strike a pose, push back, pull back. Curl, curl, curl, and neutral. Can we do two more? Yes, inhale, exhale, articulate, curl up, curl up, hold it.

Your true strength lies where? In the stability of your movement. And we curl, and curl, and curl. Finish the exercise into the neutral, one more time. Inhale to bend.

Exhale, curling up. Lift and hold. Come on, show me your position, and thank you, exhale to curl, curl, curl, and neutral, press back. Great stuff, you guys, awesome. We're going to move into the lateral flexion block.

And for this session I've selected the mermaid, the old faithful mermaid 'cause it's such a feel-good exercise. And we are going to do live together for the next eight weeks, so we might as well pace ourselves. So place your hand in line with your shoulder on your footbar, reach the opposite hand away. Make sure you've got great shoulder stability. We're going to inhale.

Press your carriage away. On your exhale, rotate from your waist. Let your hand reach to the footbar. Inhale, rotate back through the shoulder, through the waist, and exhale to lift. And we go again, inhale, inhale, inhale.

Let this arm reach parallel to the floor, exhale. Flex and rotate around. Inhale, come back, and exhale to lift up, two more. Inhale to extend, exhale to rotate around, and around, and around. Inhale to come back and lift up, lift up, one more.

Inhale, extend, enjoy the movement, guys. Your body deserves it, exhale around. Inhale, come back to me and exhale to lift up. I've got a surprise for you. You're going to rest on your footbar with your forearm, take your leg closest to the head rest into extension.

And we're just going to do a little glute lift here. Exhale, one. Exhale, two, come on, it's all about the glutes, three. Don't forget about your upper-body stability, six, seven, eight, nine, and hold it. Remember, this is for the glutes, not for the lower back, hold it.

Hold it, commit more, come on, guys. Activate the muscle more, four, three, two, one and come down, awesome, you guys. Spin around, sorry for my back. Place your hand on your bar but I will cue you to the best of my ability. Find your good shoulder stability, and we press, inhale, press away, exhale, rotate around, around, around.

Inhale, come back and exhale to lift. And inhale, press away. Exhale nice, long and wide movements across. Inhale, back. Exhale to lift, two more.

Inhale, press away. Exhale around, around, around, inhale back. and lift up, one more please, you guys. Inhale, I hope my shoulder stability is good from where you are, exhale around. Inhale back, lift up all the way.

Rest that forearm on your bar. Feel like you're lifting your chest up. Move your thigh into extension behind you, and we exhale, lift, lower. Two, down. (softly exhaling) Four, and it's all in the glutes. And six, and seven, come on guys, you've got this, eight, and nine, and we're gonna hold it and we're gonna stabilize, then we're gonna activate and you're gonna smile and you're gonna lift your chest.

Four, three, two, and one. Well done, great work guys. Grab your long box for me. I'm going to stay on the same spring for this breaststroke exercise. I'm going to place the box, the long box right on my carriage.

And then from here, you're going to take your straps. This is our last exercise. I want you to finish strong with me, okay? Take your straps in your thumbs, everyone. You're going to lunge forward with the leg furtherest away from the carriage.

Grab the corners of your box and then bring your body to lie prone over your box. Wait, okay. Make sure your breastbone is on the edge of the box. Bring your elbows next to your body as if you were doing this one on the floor. And we're going to start the movement on your inhale.

Draw your abdominals up as you extend your arms forward. Lift your spine as the arms move into the T towards your glutes and then exhale to come back to the neutral. Inhale to extend, reach into the arms, stretch your arms more. Bring the arms into the T, the palms face to floor. Move your arms back to your glutes and exhale to lower down.

And inhale to extend, serratus extension, circle the arms. Keep the back of the neck long, long, long, and exhale, let's do two more. Inhale, extend, all the way, come on guys. We're almost there, we're on the home run. Arms in a T, arms to the glutes, and lower down, one more.

Inhale, extend, full extension of the arms. Circle the arms all the way back and exhale down, down, down. Grab the corners of your box. Slide yourself off on the same side that you started. Let your carriage slide back slowly and place your straps down.

Amazing, amazing, amazing, amazing. Come and stand up tall with me and just stand next to your carriage, wherever you feel you've got a bit of space, wherever you feel safe. And now I want you to close your eyes for two breaths. Take a beautiful inhale and just receive all the good work that your body has given you as you exhale. Take another inhale.

As you take this exhale, lower your chin, move and roll your body forward into the flexion, into the roll-down, allowing your body to just hang. Take a deep breath, inhale. On your exhale, lifting up, moving up. Every muscle fiber in your body has been given an opportunity to work. Arrive in your upright posture, and from me, thank you so much for joining me.

It was such a honor and such a privilege for me to be here with you and I hope that your body will stay free for the rest of the day.