Outdoor Jump Board Flow

Hi! It's a beautiful day in Santa Barbara today. A beautiful day to do some jumpboard. So here we go. I have set up on my reformer. I've set up for footwork.

So I have three reds and one blue spring. That's my preferred choice of spring. You choose what you want to do for a footwork, and that's how we'll start today. So without further ado, let's go. Coming down onto our back.

And what I want us to do is I want us to take the feet just to the top of the jumpboard. And I want us to reach the toes around to the top of the jumpboard. So wrapping around the top of the jumpboard like a prehensile shape in the feet. And then we're just gonna pause here for a moment while we get ready to move, and inhale. And as you exhale, just feel your body settle into your reformer, letting the spine be long on the carriage, and just start to bring yourself into this movement space, this movement experience.

So breathing in to prepare. We feel the arms pressing down as we push down into the feet and begin articulating up through the spine. So lifting the pelvis, keeping the carriage still. Inhale, and exhale, rolling down. So if you feel like you're too tight into the jumpboard, and it's making your hamstrings feel like cramping, what you could do is you could push out a little bit so you'd give yourself a little space, and then keep the carriage still as you articulate through your spine, feeling the arms reaching for the jumpboard, getting the hips up nice and high, inhale and exhale.

Start dropping through the chest, softening through the mid back, softening through the lower back, and returning all the way down into a neutral pelvis and inhale. We'll do three more like this. Lifting the pelvis, rolling up through the spine, reaching the arms, inhale, and articulating down through the spine, rounding, rounding, rounding, and dropping all the way into neutral. Two more. Inhale, and lifting up, keeping the heels reaching down.

So they might move away from the jumpboard a little bit. That's okay. But keep trying to find that prehensile shape with the feet, that reaching over the top of the jumpboard with the toes, keeping the legs lined up with the hips, the knees, the feet, the hips are all in alignment. Last time, exhale to lift. Inhale to pause.

And articulating done. So just warming up here. Warming up. We will do some jumping, but we're also gonna just utilize the jumpboard in a variety of different ways. Take your hands either to the pegs, or what I like to do is I like to hold the frame of the reformer.

So you can decide what feels better on your shoulders, lifting the legs off the jumpboard for the spine twist. We'll go to one side on the inhale, keeping the opposite shoulder down. And exhale, center. And inhale off to the other side, off one hip onto the other, and exhale. So just in an attempt to get the body nice and warm, inhale, rotating the spine, shoulders are still, scapula are wide, exhale to center, and inhale, reaching across, and exhale deepening to come back to center.

We'll do two more to each side, inhale, and exhale. Nice rotation of the spine, inhale, supported from the front of the body, and exhale. Last one, inhale, and exhale, and across, inhale, and exhale back to center. We're gonna rest the feet back down onto the jumpboard and reach around the shoulder blocks to bring your hands behind your head. Inhaling here, exhaling as you curl up into the chest lift, coming up, so that the lower spine flattens into the carriage.

Inhale there. and exhale, lengthen the body down, and inhale, and exhale as we curl the head and chest, up, up, up, up, up, keeping the head heavy in the hands, and inhale, and exhale as we elongate. So working the abdominals in both directions. There's a bee on me. I'm gonna just pretend it doesn't bother me, and hope it goes away.

Exhale to lift. There it goes. And inhale, and exhale, as we lengthen down. Bees are our friends, except for when they're stingy. Last two.

Lifting up, deepen, deepen, deepen, deepen, and inhale, and exhale as we lay back down. And one more, lifting up, deepen, deepen, deepen, deepen and pause. Take your hands to your thighs. Just reinforce that shape, getting your best connection possible, hands come back behind the head, keep the feet on the jumpboard as you reach into the chest, lift with rotation so it's nice and center, about having the feet connected to the jumpboard as you can get a little bit of feedback from that jumpboard if you feel your feet shifting, if you feel, see the pelvis moving from side to side, lifting up and across, and center, and up and across, and center. Let's do two more to each side.

Up and over, and center, and up and over, and center. And last one. Ringing out the spine, keeping the pelvis still, Meredith, and center, and lifting up and across, and center, and all the way down. So I personally like to be able to see my feet when I'm, have my feet on the jumpboard. So I'm gonna lift my headrest up. We're gonna put the feet on the jumpboard and press out.

So taking just a minute to get situated here, bringing the heels just a little bit higher than the sitting bones. And we're gonna bend the knees. And I only want you to bend in as far as you can, without lifting your heels. So that's about it for me, and push, and inhale, bend, and push. So warming up the larger muscles in the body, warming up the legs.

And what you can notice here is as you start warming up, you'll look at, or for me anyway, I get a little deeper into my ankle flexion each time, into that dorsiflexion, and bend feeling the jumpboard, using the jumpboard as a tactile, some tactile feedback, to feel the arch of the foot lifting, to feel that there's pressure throughout the foot. We're doing one more, bend, and press. Now from here, we're gonna lift the heels. No, not very high. And we're gonna bend the knees, keeping the heels absolutely still, and push, and inhale, bend, and press, and bend.

So now what you'll see, that I'll get a little deeper in towards the stopper because I'm not having to navigate the tightness in my calves anymore. Bend, and press. Let's do four, and press, long arms, heavy spine, three, and stretch, back of the rib cage on the reformer, and press, and two, and press, equality of weight over the feet, and press, pausing with your straight legs, externally rotating the hips and keeping the heels just there as you bend, and straighten, and inhale, and stretch, and pull in, and press away, and pull in, and wrap from the back of the body, and bend, and straighten, and inhale, and exhale, drawing into the center of the body with each breath. Last three, and back, and two, and back, and one, and out, return to parallel alignment, and roll through the feet, and roll through the feet. So you're doing a little calf work.

We're gonna do this five times, down, and then lift, and down, and then lift. Two more like this, down, and lift, and down, and lift. Now we're gonna practice our jumping mechanics. We're gonna go down, and bend, and lift the feet, and push. And the heels come down, and the knees bend, and we articulate the feet, and push, and go down, and bend, and articulate the feet, and press, last two, down with the feet, and knees bent, and roll through the feet, and press, and last one, down, and bend, and roll through the feet, and pause.

Now, bend one knee and push into those toes, lift both and change. So it's not as satisfying, this prancing, as it is, stretch-wise, when you have a foot bar, but you can get a lot of work through the feet here, press down with the foot on the jumpboard, press into the bent knee toes, and change. We'll do two more to each side. And two, and one, and one. Both heels lift, both heels come down, knees bend, and we're gonna come all the way in.

So we're just gonna sit up and change our spring. So I'm gonna go down to one red spring. And what I'm gonna do too, is just remove the straps from the hooks so that you're not gonna hear them clanging around as we're jumping. We'll collect them again later. So coming back down.

Onto the jumpboard. Go a little bit away from the shoulder blocks, and stretch out the legs. Bring your hands behind your head, lifting up into spinal flexion, and then bending the knees. Lifting, lifting, lifting the spine. And from here, we'll push, and land, and push, and land.

And what I want us to do is roll through the foot, so toe ball heel. And every time I come in, I get that heel connection to stick. So that really limits how far I can go in to the jumpboard. So that really limits how far I can go in to the jumpboard. But that's okay.

I just find the range where I can find my proper foot pattern. One more time. Now, pause here. We're gonna take the right knee in the hands. We're gonna jump with the left leg, and change, meet in the middle, and meet in the middle.

Each time the legs come through center, I'm using my hands on my bent knee to help navigate my curl position. And jump, and jump, and jump, and jump. Articulating through the feet. And jump, and jump, and jump, and jump, and jump, and jump, and jump, and land on both feet. Bring the hands behind the head, lift to the right knee.

We're gonna rotate towards that right leg as we jump, and change, rotate, meet in the middle, and change, meet in the middle, and change, meet in the middle, and change, and change. So crisscross, staying lifted up off the shoulders, keeping the pelvis connected, keeping the elbows wide, keeping that foot articulation process in your mind. And we go, and we go, and we go, and we go, one more, no, one more, and now, jump and land on both feet. Coming back to the center. Whew! We're gonna turn to our side again, come up, collect the straps, put a blue spring on, in addition to the red, and come back down.

So reaching back to bring the feet into the straps, bringing the heels together, toes apart, ribs soften, take the legs out, and bend, and reach, and in, and out, coming right through the center of the body, as the legs press up, pull in and up through the waist, and bend, and four, and bend, and three, and bend, and two, and inhale, and press out, and down, out, around, together, and down, out, around, together. Feeling that nice long spine against the carriage. And down, out, around, together, and down, out, around, together, and three more. Stabilizing through the pelvis. And two more.

Reaching around in together. And last time, around and together to pause at the top, we're going open, down, together and up. Open, down, together, and inhale. And feel the backs of the legs engaging before you start pushing into the feet. So we feel the hamstrings.

Then we move the legs, and up. And four, and lift, and three, and lift, and two, and lift, and one, and hold, taking the legs out, and in, and inhale to reach, and pull back, and inhale to reach, and pull back, drawing in and out through the waist inhaling to open, exhaling to close, inhaling to open, nice and wide, exhaling to close. Let's do four more, making sure the pelvis stays level on the mat, keeping those heels reaching straight across from one another, and in, and three, finding the stretch, and connecting from the stretch to come center, and two, and back in, and one, and back in, and bend your knees. Take your feet out of the straps. Come all the way in.

Roll to your side. Help yourself up. I'm gonna leave my straps down on the floor, on the ground, and we're gonna remove the blue spring. So now we just have a red spring. Come back down, and what we're gonna do for our spinal articulation is we're gonna straighten out, or push out, come up out into straight arms, we're doing the semi-circle, lifting the pelvis up.

And now we're gonna press out. And we're gonna roll down. As the pelvis comes down, the feet can drop into the jumpboard. We go all the way through into extension, bend the knees. And as we roll the pelvis up, the heels lift up off the jumpboard just a little.

And we press out, not all the way, and roll down, dropping the heels down, dropping the spine through into the well, and bend, and roll up. Let's do that one more time in this direction, press up nice and high, push out, roll down, allow the feet to change, I'm wrapping my toes over the top like we did before, and in. Now, reverse, push out, stay low, roll through the spine, keep the heels low, but allow them to lift off the jumpboard just a little, and bend. And as you round, your pelvis comes back down into that frame, the feet drop down into the jumpboard, we get that extension, and push out, and roll through the spine to come up, and bend in, one more time, go down, let the feet come down, take the spine through, press out, lift up, and bend. Now as you come in, take your hands away from the shoulder blocks and hold on to the frame and just pull forward.

Yeah, so I'm using my hands to pull the reformer forward so I can press up into that stretch. Feels amazing. And then we're gonna take the hands back to the shoulder blocks, wiggle back down onto the reformer, roll to your side and come up. The next thing that we're gonna do is we're gonna put the left foot against the shoulder block, and we're gonna step into the reformer with the right leg. So I've got my left leg on the carriage, and I'm gonna bend my right knee to about a 90-degree angle.

And from here, what we're doing is just pressing the arms into the jumpboard and we're lifting the spine up in space. And we're just gonna pause here, and have a couple of breaths. Inhale, and exhale. And inhale, and exhale. And you could imagine, as you do one more breath, that you are also outside on the beach in Santa Barbara, with the breeze flowing through your hair.

And now we're gonna stretch both legs long. Holding, three, two, when my foot on the floor is lifted into dorsiflexion, we're gonna bend, put that foot down, drop the back knee back, and now come back through that hip flexor stretch. Use the back of the leg that's on the carriage to maximize the stretch through the front of the hip. And one more time, press out with both legs, and take that leg straight, breathing in and breathing out, keeping the head in line with the spine, and bend, dropping the foot, dropping the back knee, and coming all the way back in. Yep. And then we'll just change.

So the left leg comes down. I'm just keeping the, I'm using my leg to hold the reformer away from the stopper, so I'll have room to do that. Right foot comes up against the shoulder block, take ourself down into that hip flexor stretch, use the arms to press the spine up and back, and breathe. Inhale, ocean air, and exhale. And use the back of that leg that's getting us stretched to maximize this stretch.

And one more breath, inhale, and one more out, and now stretch both legs taking the body forward, coming into that hamstring stretch. Inhale, and exhale, supporting the spine with the front of the body. One more breath, and bend that front, avert drop the front leg, bend the back knee down, come up into that hip flexor stretch, inhaling and exhaling, lengthening the spine, pausing. And now both legs reach out straight again, back legs very actively pushing back into that shoulder block, breathing here, and then dropping the front foot, bending the back knee. I'm coming all the way in and then just step out, and off.

I'm gonna use a red spring and a blue spring for this next bit. So, we're gonna step up onto the carriage, bring the heels back against the shoulder blocks, and then press down with your spine. Finding a nice long spine. From there, lifting the heels. Sorry, lifting the toes.

So you've got weight into your heels. We'll take the carriage back, inhale, and exhale, and out, inhale, keeping that spine nice, long, low, and exhale, and inhale, and exhale, stretching the calves, there's more jumping coming. We'll need that stretch. Last two like this, and bend. Spine stays long.

I hope mine is as I'm instructing. It's hard to tell. Last one, out, and in. So what we're gonna do here is we're gonna take the left-hand just towards the center of the jumpboard. We're gonna take the left leg off the jumpboard, out to the side, around and back.

Now we have that nice, low spine. The left leg is in extension. We'd push out with the right, and lift the left leg as the right leg comes in, and out, and lifting up with that back leg, and out, and lifting up with that back leg, and two, and in, and one, and in, and now the left leg lifts up and around to come back to the jumpboard, the carriage. We shift the hands over to the outside and middle of the jumpboard, the right leg lifts, comes up around and back, get nice and low in that single-leg elephant, elephant with arabesque, and lift the leg as the left leg comes in. Pelvis should be squared.

Do your best to stay squared in your hips. Use your abdominals to bring that carriage, and inhale, and exhale. Two more, inhale, and exhale. One more, inhale, and exhale. Take the leg up and around, step back in, square yourself, press out three more times.

Just both arms, both legs down, maximizing that stretch, and inhale, and exhale, and inhale, and exhale. We're gonna take the heels halfway up. We're gonna take the body forward. Finding the front support, we're gonna pull forward, and push away, and pull forward. Legs are actively pressing back as the shoulders come over the hands.

If it's a little too wristy for your hands, I apologize. That's the one thing about this. It's just a little wristy. We're just gonna do one more, out, and back. We're gonna bend the knees, bring them together.

Press out with your legs, so you're in a long line of your spine. I've tucked my feet into the shoulder, headrest, to help me navigate that carriage's position and we're gonna bend, and push, and inhale, and push, and inhale, and push, and inhale, and push, last two, bend, and straighten, and bend, and straighten. Bring the carriage in, take the blue spring away, and I'm also gonna take just a minute to take that headrest down, because I want my feet to rest in that place. So we're gonna have the pelvis back towards the shoulder blocks. We're gonna take the hands on the jumpboard with the fingers facing slightly up and in.

We're gonna push out, and lengthen the body down over the thighs. And then we're gonna bend the elbows. And straighten. So now we get a little wrist stretch. And bend.

And as I'm bending, I'm thinking of widening my shoulder blades, and straighten. So it feels like the sensation that I'm thinking about is trying to stretch the fabric of the jumpboard, side to side, and stretch, and two more like this, wide shoulder blades. So don't push with your hands, pull from your back rather, and one more, pull from the back. And now, the exciting news is, we're gonna jump. So we jump, and jump, and jump, and jump, and jump, and jump, and four, and three, and two, and one, and come all the way in.

Fun. Okay, so now what we're gonna do is we're gonna come down onto our side. We're gonna put the forearm up against the shoulder blocks. I'm gonna take my top leg, and I'm gonna put it on the jumpboard. I still have a red spring, lining the body up straight.

I'm gonna change my arm position and reach through the shoulder blocks instead. So here we go, lifting up with that lower body, and we push, jump, and jump, good foot mechanics, and jump, and jump, and jump, now, jump and lift, and jump and lift, and jump and lift, and jump and lift, and jump and lift, and jump and lift. Now, jump to hip extension, and jump to hip extension, and jump to hip extension, and jump to hip extension, and jump to hip extension. And now jump and circle, and jump and circle, and lift the body from the underside, and two, and one. I'm laughing because it's hard.

Come all the way in. Sit up. Take that foot over the knee, and lean in. Give yourself a stretch. Breathing in and out, long spine.

And then, the good news is, is we get to do it all over again on the other side. So coming around, my pelvis is more towards the back of the carriage than the center. And then I have my foot lined up with my hip and my knee, bottom leg tucked under to stay out of the way, lift that underside rib cage area, and here we go, jump, and jump, rolling through the foot, active through the arms. So with the arm that's on the shoulder blocks, I'm pulling in. And with the arm that's on the, or with the arm that's from the back, I'm pulling in, and with the arm that's from the top, I'm pushing down.

Now, jump and lift, jump and lift, jump and lift, jump and lift, jump and lift. Here we go, hip extension. And hip extension. And stick that heel every time. And two, and one.

And jump and circle, and jump and circle, and jump and circle. Keep the body stable. Two, and one. And come all the way in. And I'm just gonna sit to this side now, sitting on the reformer, bringing the foot up over the knee, leaning in, catching our breath, taking a couple of breaths.

Okay. So what we're gonna do now is we're gonna keep that same red spring, and I'm gonna turn to face you first, and we're gonna come into the mermaid position. So the hand is gonna be on the jumpboard, so I've pushed my carriage out slightly. And we're gonna take the body down, bringing that opposite arm up. We're gonna take that arm around finding the jumpboard.

We're gonna come back open, and we're gonna come in. And now, inhale out, and exhale through rotation, and come back around, and come in. And one more, out, and through rotation, and out of rotation, and in. Now, the next thing that we're gonna do is we're gonna go out one more time. We're gonna take that arm around, put it on the jumpboard, take the other arm to the outside of the jumpboard.

So now your shoulders are squared, and we're gonna come forward into extension with rotation, lifting up, and you'll feel that outside arm having to push, and you can pull with the arm that's close, and out, and lift. You'll know which pushes and which pulls because it just feels obvious, for a lack of a better explanation, and lift up, up and back, up and back, up and back, with the spine, and go down, and take that outside hand back to the center, unwind, come all the way in now, putting the arm that was just moving through space against the shoulder block, lifting the hand off of the jumpboard, and pull, bending over, and up, and bending over. Three times we're doing. Let's go in the opposite direction, and last one, bending over, I now go through rotation, taking that upper arm forward. And we're using the arm against the shoulder block to help you increase that rotation, come back out of rotation, and come all the way up.

And we'll just change sides here. So turning around. The shin is up against the shoulder block. The foot is up against the shoulder block. We have our hand on the jumpboard, and we're trying to square through the pelvis.

And here we go, inhale out. As you exhale, standing in that right hand, come around. Inhale, unwind, and exhale to come up, and inhale, reach out, and exhale, rotate through, and inhale, unwind, and exhale, come in, and inhale, reach out, and exhale around, and inhale to unwind, and exhale to lift up. Now, go out again, go back through your rotation, square your arms with your shoulders. So I'm on the outside of the jumpboard now.

And we come in, up and back. We'll use your abdominals to help to stabilize, and then press. And in, up and back, lifting the spine, reaching up, reaching up, reaching up, and back. One more, pulling through, reaching up and back, abdominals are supporting us, and press out, and come back to the center, unwind, lift up, come all the way in, put your hand against the shoulder block, lift the arm off the jumpboard, and side bend in this direction, and up. So I'm using the arm that's holding on to the shoulder block to help pull me into that stretch, trying to go a little deeper every time.

And up. And a little deeper every time. And now we stay there, take the spine into rotation, reaching out through that upper arm. Come back around, and come all the way up. And then the next thing that we're gonna do is we're gonna keep the same spring, so red spring.

I'm gonna bring the feet up against the shoulder blocks. We're gonna press the pelvis forwards, and we're gonna kick the carriage out, and lift up, finding the, what's this, down stretch. And out, and in, lifting, lifting, lifting, lifting, three more, out. As you're pulling in with your arms, press back into the shoulder blocks with your feet. So you can feel that there's support coming from the back of the legs.

Two more. Come in. I have a special, something special coming for you. Are you ready? Reach out, come in.

Now, holding yourself in, take the arm closest to me, we reach up, we reach back, we take that other arm off the jumpboard as we take the hand down to the shoulder block and press the pelvis forward. Now come up in rotation, swivel around, bring the hands back to the jumpboard, we do one down stretch. And come up. Now, we take the arm furthest away, go up, look back, land, that free arm reaches up and over. We come up in rotation, taking the arms back to the jumpboard.

Now, we're gonna take the arms off the jumpboard, bring them out to the side. So very similar, but a little different. We're going left arm up, pelvis forward, right hand back. Now that left arm is gonna come all the way around. So we're in our rocking shape, pressing the pelvis forward.

We're gonna take the right arm up. So we're rotated to the left. We're gonna lift up and bring the arms out to the side. You're welcome. Now take the right arm up.

Take the left arm back. Bring that right arm around. Use the back of your legs to support yourself here as you come through that extension of the spine, go back into the rotation to the opposite side, lift up, arms out to the side, knees and feet together, and sit back, and just rest your forearms on the jumpboard as you take yourself into that spinal stretch, and just inhale, and exhale, and inhale, and exhale. And one more breath, inhale, and roll up rounding deep, deep, deep, deep round through the spine. So we get a stretch as we come up, to sit down on the feet, to take the hands to the shins.

But those aren't shins, those are thighs, and then just press into your legs, and lift your spine just up and back. And then take your body to neutral, and round your spine. And come back, and take your spine into the thoracic extension, to little extension, and center, and go into flexion, and center. And that, my friends, is a wrap. I hope you had as much fun as I did.