Reformer On The Mat

Hi guys, welcome to Pilates Anytime, with the Wall-to-Wall with me, Alexandra. I hope you enjoying, I hope you have done the first and the second class. It doesn't really matter if you have done it or not to join me today. So just go back and do them, I hope you'll make the time to do that. Today we gonna use the towel, just a simple towel, a hand towel, your face towel, and weights.

So that's all you need for today. We're gonna do the Reformer on the Mat, and, yeah, so, have fun. We are gonna start with the foot work, and you have the option of using the towel as we did for the first class or not. So you can either make sure you have a towel, nice and firm, and it's right underneath the base of your skull. You can bring your head up with the intention of moving your head from your center and not just moving the head by itself.

And you can stay there, first you do the foot work. Like I'm gonna be doing this, moving the legs out and in, or you can do with your hands. I'm gonna do with my hands. And my hands are gonna be one on top of each other, probably on the base of my skull. My elbows are open, and I'm gonna lift my head from my center.

So pop your head off the mat with the center, get your hips nice and heavy, sacrum heavy, I could stand on your tummy. And you press your legs out and bend them in. Try to keep you heels, sort of the same height. So I'm not lowering my heels and lifting, I'm going from my knees bending, to my knee straightening it, and my heels are in the same line. And I'm pressing out for 10.

So that's, this is five, I'm scooping my center to straightening my legs out. So the strength is coming from the powerhouse, not from my legs. And two more, nine and pointing my toes into a V, 10. Good, and I'm gonna go parallel, my knees are together, I'm gonna crow my toes, and I'm gonna press out to scooping, scooping to press out. This is two, and three.

Neck is long, elbows wide and five more. Crow the toes, knees together, pretend you're a holding a towel in between your knees, and stay nice and high with your shoulders off the mat. Two more and nine, last time, 10, good. Now get your toes back and push with your heels. And push, and scoop to push out.

This is the oppositional work of my legs going out and my powerhouses into the mat and up through my head. And out and in, push with your heels, legs are together, drawing together. And feel that your is doing everything for you. And two more, nine, let's do one more, 10. Now, try to stay up there and do your tendon stretch.

You're gonna press out, and flex and point your toes. Three, four. If you feel that's too much for you, you can do the same thing with your legs, nice and straight up. Your had can go down, out, out, in, in, out, out, out, in, in, in, out, out, out, hold the tummy and I could stand on your tummy. And six, seven, eight, nine, 10.

Bend your knees in, ah, take a moment. I'm gonna now grab my weights which is quite evil to do, right after the foot work then this position (laughs), 'cause it feels like you already did about 400, but now you're doing 100. So you're going to be pumping with your muscles in the back and your waist. You're gonna lift your abdominal, your head with your abdominal muscles. Press the legs out, and you can start, certainly start with your knees bend, and we pump.

Take a deep breath into the nose and pump your arms in the same time. And exhale 10. And in two, three, four, five, exhale, two, three, four, five, in with the air, (inhaling) out with the air, and four, breathe eight. And you're probably doing a little slower pump because you have the weights in your hands, which is fine. If you need to lift your legs a little high, please do.

Or if you wanna bring a little lower, you can. In with the air, out with the air. Lengthen the legs and lengthen the head, oppositional work. And I could be standing on your tummy. You're holding me from falling with your tummy nice and tight.

And into the nose with air, and out through the nose. And in two, three, four, five, and exhale, two, three, four, five. Pump with your back muscles. Pump with your shoulder muscles. And last time, breathe in for four, and exhale all your air after six five, four, three, two, one.

And bend your knees in. Very nice (exhales). Keep the arms out to the side. Think of chest suspension, lift the hips. So that's your massage there.

Or you can choose to do your roll over, so overhead. So you got to start with your arms up, then you're gonna press your arms down, let's break it down. Scoop those legs up to the ceiling press your arms into chest expansion, and go over with your legs. And come back. So just a little variation.

Come back to center, lower the legs and lift the arms. And again, press the arms, lift the legs bring the legs over the head. Keep looking up to the ceiling. So your neck is beautifully long. No weight on your neck.

Come back, bring the legs to the ceiling, lower them down as you bring your arms up. So you pick your variation. Now see if we can do it together. Press the arms as you bring the legs over the head, same time, and then control coming back and bring the arms up. Let's do one more.

Press the arms down in the legs over the head. Push that imaginary wall away from your feet and come back down one bone at a time, and bring the arms up. Very nice, now let's coordination. So bring it out was by your waist, bend your knees. Press up together, press the arms down and reach them for further and open and close the legs.

Bend your knees, so you head can between, keep your tailbone down. Bend the elbows and again, press out, open and draw the legs together from your waist. Bend your knees as you keep reaching, reaching, reaching, reaching reaching. And when you bend your elbows, you come up saying hi to your knees. Again, press out and open and close, draw together from your waist.

Bend your knees and reach further with your arms. Then bend your elbows and can come up a little higher and let's beat, press out, open the legs, one go on top, the other one in the bottom for eight, four, three, two, one, bend your knees, come up higher bend your elbows. Again, beat, press out, open and eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one, bend in and bend the elbows and rest. Oh, so you can lift your arms up, roll up, remember the transition is very minimal movement. So we're gonna keep a lot of space between your chest and the hand.

This was not really close, it's kind of a little far. So we let's just break it down this one too. So you're gonna scoop in and up into yourself. Go back, talk to you at the beginning of your lower back on the mat and come back up. Let's do that again.

So I want you to round but left with your waist. So left and scoop back, draw those legs together and come back up drawing you heels together. Now let's add, let's go back and one, stay there forever, all day. Press the arms and open that door. And now simultaneously try to press the arms as your body go up to the ceiling and forward, and your hands go say hi to the springs here.

Now lift the arms as you lift your waist, like the reverse push through on the Cadillac. Now bring your arms around nice and high and feel like you're gonna dive and go through the wall. And then back into that first position again, with the little oval shape. And go back lower back on the mat, press the arms open, lengthen the head up and over. Touch the tailbone, lift the arms, push into those handles and bring it over.

And last time, we only stretch on the third one. Again, back, lower back touching the mat, push the arms open, come up out of the water. Bring your hands to the tailbone. Lift the arms strong with your waist and your back with those shoulder muscles. Bring it around and now you can stretch, it's your reward.

Now, 90 degrees, elbows in line with your shoulders, back flat. As you come up, you reach to the ceiling and let's do that again? 90 degrees, draw those legs together, scooping them up. And go flat, flat, flat, flat, flat, flat. Now come up, say hi to the ceiling.

And now let's do the whole thing. Go back flat, now reach the arms to the ceiling and in front of the wall, push the water away to the tailbone, lift the waist and circle the arms up, up, up, up, up and over. Again, 90 degrees flat, flat, flat, flat you go back, come up and reach the ceiling, reach the wall. Skim the floor, touch the tailbone, lift the arms together, then you bring them apart and circle them around, dive, dive, dive. And last one 90 degrees, go back flat, the legs are drawing together.

Lift up and over, skim and push the water behind you, and lift the arms with your waist, and bring it around your neck is long in line with your arms, and now stretch. Very nice. Now from there, let's start from your chest. So bring your shoulders a bit in front of your hips. And we're gonna go, press out one, lower two.

Lift the arms to the ceiling, but your shoulders should stay by your waist. Lift up, think of a corkscrew, lift, lift the body, touch the ceiling with the crown of your head as your arms are coming down, and pushing and resisting down. And again, press out, inhale, exhale, lower the arms. Inhale, go for a little bit more with your body to add some more resistance, meet your resistance, and press the arms long away from you, long now. Press the ceiling with the crown of your head.

Lift your waist, lift, lift is not over yet. And last time, inhale forward, exhale down, inhale, reach the wall, reached the ceiling, arms long coming from your waist and press down. Ears are lifting, Waist ribs away from your hips, and rest. Now let's flex your feet, hands by your hips. Scooping go over your legs, so I'm not active, I'm active, I'm not falling.

Skim the floor as you go back with your waist.. Waist is going back as your arms are going forward, and roll into that imaginary wall, like spine stretch forward. Your arms in front of your shoulders, then you lift up and then you come down with the same inner that you came earlier, reaching the arms and pressing them down with your waist. And again, from the hips, head down, push the arms, your waist is going back to your belly button is touching the back wall. Lift your waist, stack one bone at a time.

Look forward, lift the arms, smile with your eyes and press the arms down with your fingers, reaching, reaching, reaching, reaching, reaching, lift your waist and exhale. Last one, inhale, reach four ways back. Exhale, come back, up to the ceiling. Inhale, reach the arms, exhale, push the walls away. Reach, lift, scoop, ribs in, legs together, and rest.

Hopefully felt your back, your waste, all that. Cross your legs. So a nice little transition. Think of your teaser. Bring your arms flowing in front of you, and flow them up to the ceiling and then bring your hands behind your neck.

And we get to go scoop to bring your arms up and down. So you're nice and tall. My glutes are helping me to keep my knees down so I can feel my gluteus, my legs, scope to reach your arms up, long waist. Your back is moving because your arms are moving, through we let's do two more, scoop to reach, one more, and then bring the arms out to the side, peripheral vision, and swap your legs, so the other leg go in, goes in. Keep your elbows lifted.

Inhale to bring your arms forward, exhale, push the walls. Inhale, hug, Ramona used to be behind her arms, and say, "Push me away," and nobody could push her. So imagine I'm standing right there, I'm saying, "Push me away with your arms." So add resistance. So I have one kilo or two pounds, and I'm making it feel like I have 10 pounds. So I'm adding resistance with my body.

One more, inhale exhale. Now swap your breath. Inhale, to go forward. Exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale, go forward, forward, forward, forward, forward, inhale. And then exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale as you close your arms.

One more, inhale, lift those elbows, long neck, shoulders down, exhale, exhale, exhale, and rest. So hopefully you're feeling that, right. We're gonna turn around to do a variation of your swan suit. Now we're gonna use your towel. If you have a slippery floor, maybe don't need it.

So you're gonna turn around and you wanna pull your tummy off the floor, make sure your arms, I'm gonna go back a little bit because I want my arms to be able to slide. So the first thing is, keep your neck long. Draw the shoulders into the waist, scoop your belly in, so your lower back is long, and then slide your towel and look forward. So I'm connected from my back, and I'm gonna come down again, my legs are drawing together. Shoulders away from the ears, into my back, into my waist.

Draw my belly button in. Now push and slide the towel as you come up, up, up. Now, stay here for a moment. See if you can press your left hand into the mat, connected with your back and your waist, and the other one's gonna come up and down, now swap. Now my right hand is connected to my waist and I lift the other one.

One more time, reach and lift and down, reach and lift, and down and scoop your tummy and back down. Very nice. Sit back on your heels and just give yourself a little round position. So go back and feel like a little ball, round your lower back, pull your tummy in and then go back forward again. So we don't need the towel anymore.

We can take the weights to do the pulling straps. So that's why I wanted to you to get a nice opening of your chest extension. So you can do your pulling straps. So keep your neck long, your arms are gonna pull and slide on the mat. Bring the arms up and come up beautifully, looking forward with the back of your head pushing the ceiling away and come back down.

So I don't want to just move my skull, I wanna move my neck together as a unit. Pull the arms back, skimming the mat, come up and push the back of your head. And come up up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up lift the arms and down. Let's do one more, and skim, Pull the arms back and lift you're still scooping, you're still drawing the legs together and now stay there. Bend the elbows and straight the elbows, bend and straight, two and straight.

One more and up high and come down. Ooh, well done. Now let's do the T, we're number two. Now T time like England, but T the letter T. Reach the arms, shoulders down, almost bringing your thumbs up a little bit higher towards the ceiling.

So you externally rotating your shoulders. Fancy way to just saying open your shoulders, pull the arms by your hips and hold. Enjoy and come back. And again, reach and go back. Open, the back of the head is pushing the ceiling away, and home.

Last time, reach out and get your waist to pull you back in with your arms. Hold, a little fun game, you're gonna clap with your heels on your hips. Clap, four, five and return. Oh, rest and smile around your body and sit back and stretch into that little ball again. But Joseph Pilates was very clever because he brought the backstroke right after.

So you rounding a body from that nice chest opening or your extension. So you're gonna come round for your backstroke. And I want you to think of your double-leg stretch. So we have the single leg, right, and we have the double. The backstroke resembles this one.

So when you reaching for your backstroke, think of your double leg stretch. And we go. Hands, the handles or the weights, are right in front of you in your forehead, tailbone down, hold the tummy in, inhale, reach the arms up and open exhale. Inhale, circle the arms forward. Now can you come up a little high with you body, up, up, up, up, up, up, towards your knees, and then bend everything in.

Reach the arms into a double leg stretch. So reach the arms up high. Then you open everything and bring it around. Reach, scoop your core back behind your ribs, up we go and bend. Last time, inhale up, exhale, open, inhale circle around, scoop, it's like the 100 we just did.

And bending, clever job, nice. Let's do the teasers. So your arms are gonna go out to the side. You can choose to keep your legs 90 degrees, bend straight or all the way down. Yeah, lots of options.

So let's do with the knees bend, maybe for the first one. Pick your head with your center, scoop and come up, up, up, up, up, up, up, up reach with the arms one and lower down. Lift the arms two and down. Keep those heels together. Three, hold, now see if you can lower down with your legs straight or you bend, yeah, no Pilates police are gonna give you any tickets.

and again, lift up scooping, come up. It's you and the exercise. Lift the arms and circle the arms out. Do you remember I talked about the back muscles helping you so your arms can move with nice, graceful movement because your waist and your back is working so hard. That's the one more, reach forward, and reaching to those handles and roll down.

Reach to go back, reach to go back, reach to go back, reach to go back and down. And one more time, come back up and reverse your circle. So down around and come up with your waist going back, down around and again, draw those heels together so you can feel more center, last time and hold. And reach to the side with the legs and the arms, the other side and reverse. We used to give this to the older gentlemen at Dragos, reach and they could do it at 80, so you can do it too.

Again, reach and twist and reach in twist. Now forward smile and go back with your waist as you reach into your weights. Reach, reach, reach to go down. I think that's enough teaser. So imagine you still on the long box, and he's there are two bins and you can be it's actually.

So I'm gonna give you an easier version and then I'll go to the crazy version. You're gonna sit in your heels, my knees are a little wider than shoulders. My arms are by my side. I'm thinking of a cartoon and I'm thinking of a punch in my tummy and my tummy's going back. So I lift my body with my scoop and my seeker that's shots from my lower back, not my hips, from my lower back.

I reached my arms forward, reach that way. And my waist is going back. Stay up, up, up, up, and come down. And again, scoop and lift, waist is back. You probably give fix me cause I can't see my body, but I can feel that I'm trying to do my best with my seeker and down.

Last time, lift up, hold. And now you can struggle your arms around, so you can use your weights or you can add resistance from your body and stay and come down. Let's do one more time like this, reaching come up, long neck and circle around and hold one, and circle around and hold two. Waist is going back. C-curve, pull in, and come down.

So we can practice them. Now the crazy version, you get to bring the legs out to the side. I can face the camera in a minute to show you the other version. I like making a fist. You can bring your hands flat, flat down, fist.

You're gonna make a fist, and I'm gonna use the first two knuckles, the strongest of my hand, to keep my wrist straight. I'm gonna push down. I'm gonna think of my C-curve and then I'm gonna lift my legs. And down, so I'm thinking my legs are going up into me, into me, into my ribs. Push, pull those legs in and up.

And release. So you can pick your version. It's this way, press down and lift the legs in and up, scoop and down. Not easy, even though it looks easy, it's not easy. So well done for trying.

So hug your waist. Keep your feet in parallel, lift up and round to go down. Keep your knees slightly bent, touch your lower back and then come back rounded. And again, so feel like your feet are on the straps and their legs pushing away from each other. And you rounding into yourself.

You touch the lower back few of the sacrum, the lower back, scoop and come back up. Keep those shoulders down. And again, last one. So we do three, soften the knees, push the legs away, scoop and lengthen your waist the whole time and rest. Flat back.

So you can take your weights again, or you more than welcome to do them with your hands behind your head. Yeah, so by the way, the hair, it's because every time we trained with Ramona and she would want us to do two braids on the side, so you wouldn't have anything in your back stopping you or pushing you any point. So that's what I did today. Anyway, especially for the reform of work. So keep the arms long, push those legs away and go flat, flat, flat, flat, flat, and come back up.

You won't go very far. Efficiency, quality is better than how big your movement is, or how many times you do your movement. Let's do one more time with your flat back scoop ribs in, go back and center. Nice, Let's do your side to side and now face this way. Reach forward.

You're gonna lean to the right a little bit or whatever side you wanna do first. And you're going up and over the rainbow, and then back to the center. So I'm going forward in from to my hips a little back, out, up over the rainbow. And then I can do a side bend and come back up. But try that to do your side bend before you go up, up, up, up and then you slide over to that side.

Again, lift go up, up, up, and over and center. Now we're gonna add the arms, lift, lean, touch the arm on the floor one and come back up. So is diagonally two and up and three and up to the side. On other side, I'm moving from my waist from my back from my shoulder muscles. One more and center, well done.

Now, once again, you can do your twist with your hands behind your head. I'm gonna choose to do with the crazy weights. So we're gonna twist to the side. I won't go very far. You gonna lean that way and I'm gonna come back up and twist.

Go back a little and come up. Now, go back a little and go fishing. So you're gonna go back incline, and let that arm that arm closer to the floor touch the floor, get that fish, very heavy fish, and then come back up. So knees to be together. Twist left or the other side, lean that way.

Arm is going to get that fish and go fishing, reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, and come up. That was really fun. Let's do it again. My definition of fun, twist, reach, and go fishing, and up in one unit. Twist, reach, and go fishing, reach that fish, long to come back up, and rest.

Let's put this down for now. And if you need to bend the other knee, please do that. Or if you need to do with space, be nice with your body, so you can have it and without injury, and hold a little higher. Now, think of going over your toes. So your whole waist is coming up and you get a nice beautiful space in between your vertebrae and go back all of them and go down with control.

I'm just letting you do whatever you want with your arms. And I'm gonna let you do whatever you want with your arms again, when you come up, to give yourself a little stretch. And I'll go over your toes with your long waist. Now I'm gonna ask you to keep your arms straight. So you're going to, keep your arms straight.

Lift the legs up to, the right leg up to the ceiling, and go down with your arms completely straight, so your elbows are not helping you to go down. And climb up, scoop, arms straight, arms straight, arms straight and stretch. Last one, legs just reaching to the ceiling. This one is reaching to the wall, and you're scoping into yourself to go down, with your arms, nice and straight. So you pulling your waist back and come up nice and honest with your body and your challenges and stretch.

Good, you can flex you foot or Dorsey flex, and same thing and bring it down. Nice, you can give yourself a stretch, You're gonna bend one knee, bring the other one over, hands behind, and beautifully lengthen to stretch the hip, and switch legs. So find what works for you to do your little pre-stretch and stay up there. Hug your ankle, lift over the leg over the toes. So the elbows are bend on this one, we're doing three, the same as number three and walk down.

It's almost like by the third one you should be dying and come back up. So it's about efficiency and quality of movement and stretch. Now let's keep the arms straight, toes to the ceiling. The other leg is reaching to the wall, keep it straight and go back, pulling into yourself. And climb back up the tree, keeping your arms straight.

And you're gonna notice how much you were using your arms and stretch. Let's do it one more time. Back, keep your arms straight and control to go there. Keep it straight, both legs reaching to diff and waist up to the ceiling, to the wall. And you climb up with those arms nice and straight.

Now go ahead and give yourself a stretch. Flex Dorsey, flex your foot, same thing and then bring that leg over to stretch the hip. So, hopefully, you feel about tie there because you using a gluteus to keep yourself into that Pilates stance or that Pilates V, or the legs together. Oh, now side sit ups will be very, very humble, very, very generous. So you're gonna keep it nice and small, reaching this leg out, almost like you're doing sidekicks.

Hands behind, lengthen and go down. So that lag is just as important as you going down, and come back up, and again, long, and come up. Fun, smile, long neck reach the leg to help you to come up with your waist. Beautiful, go ahead and switch to the other side and do the same thing. So keep that knee in line with your hip.

You can bend both knees. You can use your hands. You can make it less crazy, but using the elbow, so there are different options there reach the leg out. And we go down, down, down, down, down, to reach your head into your hands and come up and again, reach the legs, scoop, go down, press your head into your hands, energy through the ceiling. When you come up, last time, down, scoop deeper, ribs are in, head into the hand and come up.

Oh, very nice. Good, so then we will put the box away, and you're gonna turn around to do your long stretch. So that's when I get the towel now. So all you can do with your socks, if you have wooden floor. So once again, let's talk about that back connection.

So even before you come into your long, we start doing a long stretch, push the floor to feel the muscles underneath you. So I'm pushing to connect with this. I don't want any neck or upper shoulder here to work. I want the lower fibers of the traps. I want you to push your serratus, if you know what that is, those are ribs, the muscles around your ribs, boxers use to punch.

So you're gonna push the hand into the mat use the back muscles, scoop your tummy in, soften your elbows, a little tiny bag, and you're gonna slide back and forward. I'm making my life a lot harder doing it on the mat. 'Cause it's a lot easier on the wood floor. So you can do that please. The hand, if you wanna make a fist, you can do that.

Let's do two more, out and forward out and forward. And those muscles are returning you back in. Very nice. Sit back on your heels, around into a little ball. Good, and I'm gonna be humble.

I'm gonna go to the floor and you're gonna do the sort of the same thing, is the upper stretch, up stretch. So you're gonna start on that like a little sort of like downward facing dog but your heels up. You press your carriage out, push the legs back, scoop, draw it in. And then start coming up to the ceiling with your head behind the shoulders, the waist and the hips. Press out, come back in, scoop and come up.

Around unto yourself. Last time out, scoop and in, and rest. Now you're gonna do your elephant so you can use your toes, it's more possible. My back muscles are still pushing the floor away, and I can draw the towel in. So think of your dabble straight leg now, and you're moving your legs from your lower abdominal muscles pull in, (breathing deeply) or they're harder with your heels.

Your toes are about off the floor, and you're pulling harder, try not to lose the form. And pull in, last time, pull in. Well done. Good work. And then we will turn around, I'm gonna stay here on the floor. You would turn around and do your long back stretch.

So your heels are gonna go on the towel, you lift up your hips, and you trying to keep your elbows nice and engaged you don't wanna hyper extend your elbows or overstretch your elbows. Same thing with your knees. soften your knees a little bit, otherwise it's just sitting in your joints, which I can do really easily, but it's not healthy. Go down, give me a tricep dip, really, and up. If this is enough for you, stay there.

You can do the same thing with your knees bend. You can hold on, hold on to your sofa or something and just do it that way. Now I'm gonna add, I'm gonna go out, down and in, so I'm moving the carriage out, then I'm bringing it back in, and in. So I'm gonna go out, down and up, out, down and up. I'm really cleaning my floor, reverse.

Down, out and up, down, out and up. Down, out and up and rest. Bend your knees a little bit, please stretch, 'cause it's probably screaming and cramping, which is a good thing. Spasm, cramping, all of those things are really welcoming. And then go ahead and switch on the other side.

So hopefully you feel that, nice and safe. And then we're gonna go into your stomach massage. So I'm gonna pop back on the mat, and I'm gonna go into that little rolling like a ball position because the rolling like ball and the stomach massage their cousins from the same family. lift up, their brothers and sisters. And then I'm gonna bring my arms forward.

So think of your stomach massage, lifting always with length, scoop and press out, and bring it in, press out, bring it in, press out, pull it in. Hopefully won't feel too much when you hip flexes you hopefully feeling in your deep powerhouse. Let's just do five and then bring your arms back. Lift up nice and proud, soften the elbow and press out. And and in, and in, three, that's a two more, two, one more, one, and rest.

Take your weights, reach forward. Press out and twist simultaneously, and in. Press out and twist, and in. Press out and arrive, arms and legs at the same time. One more time, last time, and in, wonderful.

Bring the weights down and then you would do your tendon stretch, and to go back to the floor, so you can slide a bit more. Your hands are gonna go on the mat, on the floor on the mat. Once again, you need that waist. Yeah, the waist, the back muscles, they blend into each other. You need your center.

You're going push your hands and use your back, pull, you're like in and up. And then you can slide the towel, back and up back and up, ribs in, belly button in, see who needs a reformer. And again, back, I need my reformer. And again, two more. Last time and rest.

Maybe not today, but you can do the same thing with one leg, to the front, to the side. Let's keep it less crazy. So hopefully you felt that, nice. You don't need this anymore. And good.

So then just go ahead and turn around and you're going do your chest expansion. So you can do with your weights are not, gonna pop this towel down because my knees would be happier that way. So make sure your knees are happy. This is cushion but it can be a little bit more for my knee. So make sure you take care of your body.

You're going to reach your arms forward and you're gonna press your hips forward in your body forward as you pressing your arms back, and return the arms. So the action of my hips are going forward. I'm using my legs and my thighs to go forward as my arms are going back. And then I can look over one shoulder, over the other shoulder, center, and bring my arms back up. Again, inhale, ribs in, press the hips, look over the left shoulder, the right shoulder, center and exhale.

Again, press, really look over that shoulder, get your muscles, eye muscles, neck muscles to work for you and rest. Good, keep the arms there. Chin and ribs and hips forward, that's what we were told, and then you can go into your thigh stretch. So chin in, ribs in, hips forward, keep the arms where they feel like they're helping you, feel like the straps are pulling you forward, back and pull everything in, chin in, you can go as far as you wish. And last time, let's do one more, rep those thighs, rep the seat and forward.

Very nice, you guys. Let's slide into a mermaid from here. So busy, busy, busy, right? Keep moving, keep your cardio, your lungs, your heart, your lymph system, cleaning everything, all of this waste out of your body. Reach the arm up over and then down.

Give yourself a little stretch. This hand is helping a little bit. And then you come back up. Now you swap. Keep that shoulder down, the hands gonna go in front of you a little bit.

And then you come back to the ceiling. So it's not just returning, you can go down to the elbow and up. So keep this arm really close to you the whole time. So you can bend your elbow, keep it straight. Feel the muscles the arm returning with these muscles here, down.

This arm is reaching, while the other arm on the floor is pulling into the body. Now hold the ankle, reach and stretch, So go up, before you go to the wall, always lengthening, bend the elbow and give yourself a little twist, and switch sides. So just pop the leg, legs the other side and then start with your little stretch. So go up and stretch over, lifting and go up, swap hands. The other one is your ear.

You can go down in front of the shoulder, a little bit down, by the elbow and come up. This hand doesn't leave the out the ear. Down, down to the elbow, always straight, and then pull yourself up. Down, and up, your match should be really clean after this. One more, down because you really want to push into the mat you go up, up, up, up, up, up, up.

Then stretch, up to the ceiling, so lift your waist coming with you and then bend the elbow in and twist a little bit, feels nice, ah, and come out of there. Very nice. Good, so then we will go into your corkscrew so the arms can go down, the legs are gonna go up. You scoop to come up, come down, and then a little circle from the right side to the left side and go up. So it's not back, you guys, is up.

If you can, if you can wanna go back, please do. If you wanna do a mini mini version where you just lifting the hips, just few inches off the floor, push the arm down, chest expansion, and then come down with control, from the right side to the left side, and up, push, lift, scoop, keep touching the ceiling when you come down with your feet. Last time, push, scoop, circle. You get each of the handle position, then out and up, and come down with control. Nice, arms out to the sides.

You're gonna look one way, your legs are gonna go the other way. Tik-Tok and come up, look to the other way, the legs go to the opposite way. And up, one more. I'm looking left, my legs were going right? Scoop, keep the shoulders down.

The arms are active. Last time, look right, go left with the legs and come back up. And bend your knees, beautiful. Now pop up. You can stay on your mat or on the floor.

I'm gonna go to the floor. It's nicer to do on the floor and gonna go into my knee stretches from here. Yeah, once again, every time you using your hands, your back muscles and your waist should be working. So I'm gonna come up and do my knee stretches, pushing to scoop like we did on the wall. Push to pull into yourself, then you pull those legs up in the air and you tiny like tiny little ball.

And now you press the legs out, and you bring it in, out and in, out and in, out and in, your floor should be nice and clean. Out, in. two more. I was aiming for 10, last time, and in. rest for a second.

We're gonna do the same thing, but one leg is gonna go out. Yeah, do the same thing, break it down. Just scoop, lifting the knees. Now we go, lift both knees up. My right leg is pushing out, and my left leg is kicking back.

Kick and in, Kick and in, four and in, swap. One, two, three, one more for four, four, and in. Yay, lie on your back, get your towel to dry yourself off. Bend your knees and let's run. So bring your hands behind your neck.

Feel free to use the towel if you need to, press the legs out, only the feet are going to move, three, four, you're alternating, five, pull deeper, six, I could still stand in, an eight, nine, 10, bend in. Oh, beautiful. Now let's finish with the bridge here. You can press your arms down, so I don't give you much break, 'cause I want you to flow. Keep moving, it's strengthening and cardio.

So many things. You can do this with your hips just going up and down, breaking it down really nicely. Yeah, you can take your right leg up and kick it down and up, so let's do that. So right, like up hips are off the floor, and two, three, four, last time, five. Swap legs or just move the hips like you, if that works for you.

One, two, three, let's do two more. Now I'm gonna go into a full bridge. And if you want to, just do this set again. I'm gonna bring my hands by my shoulders, I'm not gonna touch my head on the mat. I'm pushing really strong with my hamstrings and pop up.

So my bum and my hamstrings are working just as hard as my back muscles are pushing from the floor and opening my chest. And then I come with my shoulders down, and I round everything else, and I bend my knees. So there's lots of exercises within the system that can get you there. Hopefully this is not the first time you're trying it. Now we're gonna go to the wall, to just finished few things.

As the theme of today hopefully, was to connect with your back muscles, I want you to, first of all, just stretching, your hands are gonna go on the wall. So feel like you open your feet a little bit and you just kind of stretching your chest. So that's one thing you can do to start working on your extension for your bridge, as you can stay there. But I want you to think of pushing the wall away. So the more I push, the more I connect, so I can do that, I can push the wall and connect with my whole chain here.

My triceps blending into my back, blending into my waist. I swap the other hand. Ribs are in, belly is in, everything is connected to the side. Good, and then walk to the wall. Now you're gonna need that because I'm gonna make you do it on the floor now.

So you're gonna bring your hands on the floor and you need to find how far you are from the wall. But once again, I want you to push the floor to feel connected with your back. So the more I push the floor, the more I pull into my center, into my back, into my whole body. Pulling, push to pull, push to pull and I'll come down (breathing deeply). And you can walk your feet all the way to your hands.

Ramona used to make us walk like this. It's a nice way to stretch everything, and then you can walk back. Feels funny, it looks funny, but it feels nice. and then you're gonna bend your knees and round your head and shoulders the last one, to come up. So hopefully you felt that idea of pushing to pull into the wall, to use it as a feedback on the wall, to use it as a feedback on the floor.

So hopefully, that all made sense, I hope you've enjoyed, have fun, sweat, red cheeks, messy hair, that's what we like. So thank you again for joining me on the mat, with the Pilates Anytime family, and hope to see you next week.