Reformer Twist 2

Good morning, everybody and another installment of zesty reformer flows. Today, I'm gonna build on what we've done the last couple of sessions and put more in this short period of time so hopefully you're ready to go with me. I have a blue spring on right now and I'm going to ask you to start standing on the back edge of, or the front edge, depending on how you look at this but near the foot bar of your reformer. And this is where we're going to begin our workout today. So go ahead and settle in to your two feet and stand tall.

Open your heart, palms open, take a breath or two. It is really nice to be standing here to be able to look at the ocean. I'm gonna take my arms up, inhale, exhale, arms down, curl forward, send the carriage out, hold this stretch position round through your low back here, extend through your whole spine. So my feet are in a position that allows me to keep my thighs just gently resting up against the reformer bar, exhale, round your back in, just stretching through your back, relaxing your neck feeling a nice little stretch and then inhale, extending your back. Use this as an opportunity to warm up your low spine here, rounding through your low back, using your abdominals.

And then as you reach forward, we're extending, maybe wag your tail side to side, stretching a little bit through the backs of your legs. Let's do one more there, rounding in, just enjoying that cat cow feeling and extending forward and then round and roll all the way in, let the head relax, bring the carriage to the stopper. And then let's just come around to our reformer and adjust the Springs for your footwork, three reds and a blue is what I like to work on. You're welcome to adjust the spring so that it suits you. Have a seat first and then lie yourself down onto your back and settle in.

Do make sure you spend a couple moments so that your head is in position, it's evenly spaced between your two shoulder rests. With your feet on the bar, draw your abdominals inward, flex your spine, lift your hips up, pelvic curl. You can go as high as it feels good to you right here in the beginning and then lengthen your spine and lower down. And again, exhale, curling up, going as high as it feels good here in the beginning, full pelvic curl and exhale to peel down. And let's just do two more pelvic curls breathing and moving my friends, we're gonna try to get warm quickly here pushing the body, but also mindful of where we are in space with every push exhale to feel up here using your abs opening through the fronts of your hips here, feel those inner thighs take a breath and exhale to peel down.

You can hold that pegs by your ears or perhaps the frame of your shoulder, shoulders are a little more open, inhale, let the legs go to one side, exhale engage your abdominals and pull those legs back to center. And again, we're just going to inhale and twist and exhale dragging those legs back with your core. One more time, inhale to twist and exhale to pull back and last time inhale to twist and exhale to pull back. Let's heat up those abdominals, take your arms up to the ceiling for me. Put your heels so they're just on top of the bar and ground down using your hamstrings, inhale, exhale, lift the head and chest up nice and high, inhale, lower down repeat, exhale to lift, feel the grounding of your low back and lower down.

I like to think about grounding my low back. To find my abdominal curl, this time we're gonna lift and hold moving into single leg stretch, hold onto the right leg with two hands, slide the other leg out and we change and we change and we change. Don't be shy about using your leg against the foot bar to create a little bit of a hamstring engagement if that suits you. One more time, hands behind the head, crisscross change. Stay lifted as you pass through center and try very hard to allow the legs to graze past each other as you pass your center each time, one more each time here, two legs in hands to thighs, straighten the legs, lift just a little higher.

Hold on to one leg placing the other leg on the bar and we're gonna change and change and change. Find your breath, you can add the pulsing if you want, but I'm focusing on stretching my up leg while grounding my down leg. One more time here each side, and then we're gonna stay lifted with two legs, lift just a little higher, take one hand around to the opposite calf there, take the other leg down and reach. So we're gonna get a little bit more rotation using the arm and change reach. So I wanna use my hand to hold onto my legs somewhere to create more rotation and more stretch in this shape.

This time, hold the rotation, flex the up foot reaching a little deeper into the position and then change sides. Hold the rotation, flex the up foot, reach and do it one more time. Holding the rotation, flex and last one here, holding the rotation flex and gently come in, hug those knees into your chest, putting your head down. Set yourself on your reformer for your footwork. Feet are separated about hip width, center of the heel on the apex, apex of the bar please, open through your heart and when you're ready, press out.

I always like to hold my legs straight for just a couple moments and get everything organized before I pick up the pace. So feel your inner thighs, feel the idea of growing taller against the spring, feel your chest open and your neck relaxed gently come in, exhale out, inhale in, work at a faster pace if it suits you today, if it doesn't suit you, feel free to go nice and slow and methodical. I'm picking up the pace though a little bit here, trying to get some energy. Little pulses, soft and gentle here in at the stopper, feel the backs of the legs, feel the abdominals, exhale all the way out to straight, gently come on in, shift to your traditional toe position so the heels are lifted, the balls of the feet on the bar. We press out two feet working equally, we press in.

Two feet I said, but really it's the legs. And also try to feel that you're creating a length through your core specifically as you come in. Notice I do linger at the top a little longer and then control in versus lingering at the bottom. So for me, that gives this sensation of lengthening a little more. Good, one more time here, and then some little pulses.

Now, when you do this pulsing, think less about the going out and more of the controlling in and in and in. They can start to grow, whoops, a little bit bigger if you'd like I whoopsed because I bumped the stopper one time, hopefully I don't do it again, but it happens and we deal. All the way out to straight, come all the way in, slide those heels together for your small V, feel the rotation from your hips first, inner thighs engaged, out we go. Again finding the pace that suits you here, slowly picking it up and moving a little faster if it works or staying nice and methodical if that's better. I am moving a little faster, breathing quickly and efficiently three here and two and one more time, little pulses once again, down and down, find a long breath with the pulsing rather than breathing for each pulse.

Don't want you to hyperventilate today and exhale all the way out to straight. We come to open V from the heels on the bar wide position on the heels, feel an openness through your inner thighs but more importantly, a rotation at your hip joints. Exhale to press out, finding your pace, finding your position and picking it up when it makes sense. Do think about the controlling when you come in and the lengthening through your spine throughout. Exhaling and inhaling when it makes sense perhaps you're using an exhale to straighten and an inhale to come in but you can change it as you see fit.

And then let's do some little pulses close in at the stopper try to feel that you're pulsing from your hips here. Deep in the hip joints, backs of the legs engaged, back of the hip joint engaged, both feet working equally all the way to straight all the way in. Bring your feet close together so you feel centered and grounded. Put your toes on the bar and separate a little bit. Use your legs first, press your feet down and up, bend your knees in, repeat down and up two times with the feet please.

Try to feel the control down and up three times with the feet. So we're counting up here. Do try to feel the control on the way down four, three, and two and one. Now, if you find yourself needing to go at a slightly slower pace, that's fine. Now I'm on five.

Find your breath and we'll do one more time. About six downs and ups if you will, or calf raises. Think about reaching down, not just dumping down and then here, go ahead and hold the stretch on one side. So adjust your foot so that it feels like a good stretch for you, driving the heel under the bar, softening the foot over the bar, wiggle room, be patient, and curious here and see if you can find some little adjustments that will allow you to feel more stretch. That's what I mean by wiggle room, change the legs.

So what I'll do here is I'll drive the heel under the bar, I sort of soften the foot around the bar, I'll press my pelvis a little bit to one side or play with tucking of the pelvis a little bit. I play with the placement of the foot on the bar and wiggle around a little so I can feel more tissue stretching; with two feet, supporting your two legs, supporting you, bend the legs in and give your legs a quick little hug here. Now I'm going to keep the spring the same for my single legs, you may sit up and change it if you need to. We're just going to do one position from the heel, I'm going to start with my left foot on the bar. My other foot is going to end up down on the wood frame.

So if you can find that right now, great, press out. Holding here for a couple moments, my right heel is on the wood frame and I'm pushing into the heel, but I'm staying weighted on my other legs so there's a little bit of a split here which is really nice for grounding the pelvis. Gently come in, press out and hold for a moment and gently come in. Now, I always like to hold that first one for a little bit of time, so I can really feel this idea of opening across the front of my other leg even though the focus is on the leg that's pushing out and in. We'll do it just a handful more here.

One more time please, keep the legs straight for just a moment, feel both ankles flexed, feel that bottom leg so that's my right leg here open. What do I mean by open? Open across the front of the hip pressing down through the hamstring feels really nice to me but let's change legs here actually, put the right foot on the bar find the placement for the left foot and feel that position and gently bend in. Make sure you feel safe, your chest is open exhale to press out and hold for a moment. Again, I like this idea of really sitting here and feeling a little bit of an openness through my hip flexor, it feels really good to me, gently come on in, good.

And gently come on in. So I'm focusing on the right leg propelling the movement but I'm mindful of what's happening across the top of the front hip and working to feel a little opening across the front of the hip quite grounded through the pelvis. Good, we'll do two more here. And just one more time please, bring the left foot up on the foot bar bend the knees all the way in and then just roll yourself to your side and come on up to a sitting position. Let's move into our reverse knee stretch and I've got a little twist for you today on that.

So a blue spring for that is what I like to use; a light spring. You'll come onto your knees for me. And I like to do this one with my knees together so you can give that a go. Your hands are gonna be on the frame so they're underneath your shoulders. Squeeze those thighs together round through your low back, pull yourself into that tight ball shape check in and make sure that your chest is a little bit forward of your hands.

And you're focusing on rounding through your spine here. Check in and press into the feet a little more, lighten the knees. Pull the carriage in a little more, inhale to go back, pulling in and back. Option two, you can actually hover the knees just a bit, really grounding down to the through the feet and hover those knees as you come in. Two more like that, one more, gently come into rest.

Adding a twist, we'll go to the left part of the frame, so my opposite hand will be holding the frame. So that's my right hand, okay? The other arm is just gonna start first on the frame as I bring my knees up against the shoulder rest and I want to really lift up and feel that beautiful rotation. If you feel comfortable here, you'll lift that left arm up and create this feeling of rotation through your chest. You can start with it just touching something until you're sure you feel comfortable.

Lean into the arm round through the back here, keep the idea of lifting up and creating rotation and we pull in and we pull out. So in this arrangement, my right hand and my left knee are driving the move. My other hands can be touching or you can lift the arm up toward the ceiling, to keep a little bit more rotation through that upper back one more time and we'll gently rest there. Let's give it a go on the other side. So I'm gonna take my hand across so I'm on the other side.

My left hand is my standing arm, my right leg is my primary moving leg. I'm gonna lean into the arm, pull the carriage in and stay there. Now this other hand can find its place. Where does it need to be for you? Moving the leg out and pulling in, moving the legs out, keeping that rotation of your spine, you can take the arm up to the ceiling if that suits you, let's do a handful more here.

And we gently come to rest there. So scoop back so your feet are right at the edge of your carriage and sit here comfortably, reach forward and hold the ropes all the way up above the buckles. Sitting comfortably on your two heels, pull your arms behind you. Just a couple of chest expansion here. Remember to keep your gaze up and to perhaps add a little bit of extension to your upper thoracic spine as you pull those arms behind you.

Just two more here, and one more here. Adding rotation now lead with your left arm and rotate around, lead with your right arm and rotate around. So you wanna really feel yourself changing your gaze, check out what's around you. Wow, the ocean is so glassy, it's so beautiful today. People walking, it's kind of nice to see.

One more time on each side please and last one here, good. We gently rest that. Let's put the straps away here and set up for hip work. A red and a blue is ideal for that for me. So a red and a blue, or a light and a heavy spring, one and a half springs, depending on your reformer.

Settle in, put your feet in your straps and let's do some simple hip work here. Nothing too fancy. Do settle in and make sure that your legs are working equally to stretch the spring. Your chest is open, inhale the legs in and exhale the legs out for frogs. So try to work on keeping the ankles flexed here so that the energy to press out is through the heels with the feet pulling back.

Active through the feet. And then don't be shy about checking in and seeing if both legs are in fact contributing equally. Maybe you'll try doing one with one leg and then the other leg and then even it out. Point the feet here, take the legs up to your high point, keeping your pelvis still, take the legs down through center and we circle, nice fluid circles. Start working on the idea if you're ready for it, of creating a little bit bigger circle within your box of comfort.

Exhale, to press down and inhale around to that top position and down and from the top, let's reverse the circles, we open and we pull those legs together and we open and then we pull those feet together. Staying engaged in your core the whole time. Be mindful maybe of your feet for a moment and I, while I have a pointed foot, I'm not curling my toes. I'm lengthening through my foot. Stay here, open the legs as wide as you feel comfortable and we pull back together.

Nice energy here, inhale and exhale. Feel free to add a flexed ankle for a little bit more stretch if you'd like, continuation there of the stretch or you could just keep your feet relaxed and focus on your inner thighs two more. Breathing and moving my friends, one more time. Good, bend the knees in, take a quick pause here, allowing your low back to relax. Perhaps moving a little bit away from your shoulder rest in preparation for the short spine.

Now remember if you're not comfortable with the full short spine, you'll go back to that prep we've worked on. The rest of us, will press the legs out to straight pointing the feet, fold at the hips until you find your way at the stopper, you'll roll yourself up onto your shoulder blade, bend your knees and then roll down with control, enjoying the stretches and the pieces here out to straight folding, use the breath to roll up, bending in and rolling down. I do want us to go to short, a long spine next so we'll do just one more here. If you happen to know that long spine isn't in the cards for you, you can feel free to do a few more short spines or preparations your choice and roll down here. And you bring those legs through and out to straight, keeping the legs in external rotation, find about 90 degrees at your hips, inner thighs are quite engaged.

Decide if you can float your pelvis up and down a couple times here, and if you can do that, then there's a good chance you can move on. Press the legs down, let's reset. Long spine happens now we come to 90 degrees about at the hips, we use an exhale to roll up finding that high point, both legs contributing equally, we open the two legs and then we roll down with control abdominals and backs of the legs quite engaged. Bring those legs together inhale to 90 degrees, exhale to roll up. Inhale open the legs wide, not wide shoulder width, exhale to roll down.

One more long spine please, inhale, exhale, rolling up, inhale, open feel those glutes hamstrings, exhale roll down and bring those legs together. Bend the knees in, take one foot out. Find the foot bar, take the other foot out. Put your straps away, take at least a breath or so before you come upright and then make yourself, make your way up to a standing position here or an upright position. I'm going to take the blue spring off and work just with a red spring now for our up stretch or the pyramid position.

So with your hands on the bar, you'll step up, heels are lifted up against the shoulder rest like we've worked on, try to feel that the arms are engaged here, they're involved, you're sort of pulling those arms toward one another as you slide the carriage back and you slide the carriage in. Inhale back and exhale in. Adding on here, we come to plank position. We inhale to our plank and we exhale to the pyramid. We inhale to the plank, the chest is open, the abdominals quite active and we exhale to the pyramid.

One more time, we come to that plank position and we're gonna hold here keeping that openness through the back of the heart as you go as far forward as you're able to and as far back as you please. The key here is making sure that you keep your breath and you keep your abdominals quite active. We'll do three more here, going back nice and far using those core muscles. And again, hopefully getting all the way to the stopper my friends, that's our goal here, chest is open and this time hold the carriage at the stopper, hollow your belly inward as you lift those hips up and then lower your feet flat for your elephant position. Holding yourself with flat feet for a moment, slide the carriage out and in, that's the option one, adding a twist for those of us who would like to, pull the carriage in.

Move both hands over to your left so that you're centered over your left foot. Try to keep your pelvis squares, you take your other foot just somewhere on the reformer so you can kind of feel this shape. Bend that knee, the lifted leg or the foot that's not weighted. And now we're going to move our pelvis, so I want you to think of opening the pelvis as you lift the leg, really opening through the hips there and then lower the leg down. Lead this movement like a figure eight from the pelvis opening and then down.

And check in with your chest and try to make sure that your chest is minimize minimally rotating, hopefully not really at all. And this time we're gonna add on, so we can find that position again, where we're up and then square the pelvis, send that leg straight back. So we're looking for a parallel with the horizon, slide the carriage back, pull the carriage in and exhale in and exhale in, and one more time, exhale in bring your foot down to the reformer and let's change sides. So we move the arms over to center the right foot, put the other foot on the frame and get organized trying to feel that your pelvis is square. Bend the knee, now we're going to rotate open.

So the pelvis lifts but the chest stays where it is and the leg comes down. Beautiful little hip swirl for me, says more about what's happening in my hips than anywhere else. My standing leg too, up and down. One more time, we're gonna go up into that figure eight position square the pelvis, send the leg back, I'm flexing my ankle cause it's easier for me. And then we're gonna slide the carriage out and pull it in.

So a lot of work in that standing leg, lot of work in your core, two more please and pull the carriage in, bring the foot down, walk your two feet forward, just an inch or so see if you can reach around and hold on to the frame and then sit back in that deep squat yummy position head relaxed. Take a breath, use your hands to assist if needed, rolling forward so that your knees are down stretching your feet here. If you're comfortable, you can come upright and roll side to side a little bit, stretching the feet a little bit more solidly. Good, release that position and let's move into our down stretch. So put your feet up against the shoulder rest and spend a little bit of time really getting those feet wedged up against the shoulder rest.

I find that when my feet are well connected, I can really use my hamstrings better and this is a better exercise for me. So feel that stretch through the feet and ankles first. Hollow, the belly inward as you come upright. Undulate forward so your chest is open, your pelvis is forward. We slide the carriage down and we slide the carriage up trying to lift up so much with your abs and your upper back that you're barely using the arms especially cause I intend to add a flare here, one more time and then we add some rotation to this.

Well, here we are in the up position, find your right hand, see if you can lift it and put it on your heart. Open your heart and extend your arm if you're able to, come back, hand down other side, so we go down first, we come back up, hold it, use your hamstrings, use your abs, left-hand to the heart, open, extend, come back, two hands down and we go again. And we lift and we rotate. If it feels like a good idea, you can just entertain the idea of simply lifting a hand for a moment to feel where your imbalances are. Last one to the left.

Just a couple of those goes a long way. One more time with both arms and both legs, and we come up. Good, sit back on your feet, untuck your toes, take a breath through or two here stretching through your low back. I like to roll side to side and enjoy that little release. Beautiful, so we'll still be on a red spring for a little bit of arm work.

I'm gonna recommend actually for the biceps that you take the bar down. Cause I'm going to give you the option to roll back and use your biceps a little bit more. So we'll sit, with your bottom right at the very back edge, reach forward and hold on to the ropes up above the buckles there and sit nice and tall, a little variation here. You're going to first pull both arms back, bending the elbows and look up a little. So it's a little bit of a low row, hold back, open the heart, and now one arm at a time, trying to find more twist, more rotation as you do this opening through the heart.

And again, so I'm bending one arm, but I'm really thinking about moving from my scapula and my rotation first, that's where the focus is. Pulling back and opening one more time on each side, yeah. That feels so nice and I love looking around here, makes me happy. So I'm going to have you put the straps on your wrists, okay? And then you can just kind of hook around with your hands.

And then we do a couple of chest expansion here, right? Sitting tall. Now this next one is gonna be challenging for many of us but I want you to give it a try, take the arms forward, lead with the backs of your wrists and try to open, good, now go into chest expansion down, and then it's wide chest expansion open look up and down. Yeah, good, now you modify as needed, the spring is a little heavy but I am looking for a zesty flow for the arms here. Picking up the pace a little bit.

One more time, please. I do like to look around, I encourage you to you do so, changing your gaze here and there, nice. Scoot your bottom forward just a little so you have enough room to roll back should you decide to hold on to the straps with your hands and let's bend the elbows first for your biceps. Now, if you feel like you want a little more bicep work, curl your pelvis underneath you, roll back as far as you feel comfortable. And then you're going to straighten your arms and bend your elbows.

If you'd rather just, if you'd rather stay sitting upright, that's okay. Let's really work on firing up both biceps, breathing using your core and moving. Also having a little bit of fun, right? I hope good, let's just do two more here. Feel the abdominal engagement.

Feel the bicep curl. Good, keep the arms bent, roll yourself back up, stretch the arms to straight, put the straps away. So we're still on a red spring which is where I'll keep you for your hip and hamstring stretch. But you're going to want your bar back up. I'm just moving my spring to a different relationship.

So I'm going to take my foot up against that shoulder rest, my other foot up near the foot of the reformer. Extend that back leg back and stand tall here. Feel the openness first before you go into the stretch and then bend that front knee, putting the knee down and kind of think about aiming the knee toward midline, the back one, aiming the pelvis a little bit toward the middle of the reformer. So knee toward middle of your body, pelvis toward middle of the reformer. And then as you breathe, try to sink a little deeper, let your eyes dance around.

I'll always encourage you to be curious and patient in a position. If you don't really feel much stretch, if you, if you breathe into it, you'll find more. Furthermore, if you're feeling sticky if you send your breath to where you feel the resistance, you'll find that your pieces will let go. One more breath here. We're going just a little deeper.

Good, now we're going to press the front leg to straight, aiming back, flexing the foot. So you're aiming your pelvis back, trying to square the pelvis here. You can stay with this more traditional position here or you can take your hand to the frame, taking a little bit of the weight out of the front leg to see if you can go just a little deeper into that stretch. I know I have some sticky points. So if I take the weight out of it, I can go a little deeper, which is really nice.

And we gently come on in all the way up and let's go to the other side. So the foot standing foot is near the foot of the reformer, the other foot up against the shoulder rest, we press back, we find that stretch. The knee aims to midline of the body. The pelvis aims to middle of the reformer maybe. Maybe that doesn't suit you, make sure your doing you, you're listening to your body.

Find the resistance, maybe you touch it with your fingers and you breathe into it a little more. I'm more interested in the sensation than I am the exact picture so it should feel like a good idea. Breathing in and breathing out. We'll stay here for one more breath. And then look down at your front leg, press that front leg out to straight, aiming back through the pelvis, flexing the ankle perhaps.

And again, if you want to put your hand down on the frame take the weight a little bit out of the foot in order to find something different, feel free too. You can also keep your hands on the bar or you can take your hands away. Work on balance a little bit. Hold this for one more moment please and then we come in and you know it, we're going to do the tendon stretch again. I do have my spring on the outside so there's room for my heels to come underneath.

Two hands on the bar, push the carriage out, you sort of drive those heels underneath. The placement of my foot on the frame is right about the middle of my foot. Again, you're going to round through that low back, press up a bit, try to keep that rotation as you push forward through the feet first and pull up. Forward through the feet, I am physically in my mind reaching through my heels while I curl my pelvis as I reach forward. But just a couple more here.

So you're doing the preparation if that's better for you whoopsies, it happens one more time, it happens to all of us, a little too much energy there. There we go, my back is looser than I thought. Have a seat on the bar and let's move on. I would like to have you change your spring to a blue spring and we're going to return to the position we started with. So I'm on a blue spring, which is light, I want my feet to be kind of I'm close to the reformer but not fully up against it right now.

And just stand tall for a moment and roll yourself forward one vertebrae at a time take your two hands on the edge of the reformer, slide the carriage out and find that same position where you're in like a downward dog shape. I want you to bring your attention to your pelvis. We're gonna think of this as hip leg work here, okay? Extending through the body, strong, aim your tailbone back, bend your knees a little bit and notice where your legs are in relationship to reformer and try to keep the legs from swirling around too much as you round in a couple times and you reach forward. So that's the option one, that's what we did earlier, it should feel a little bit looser.

I'm purposefully keeping my knees just a little bit bent here, but you can keep yours fully straight if you'd like. Hold with a long back, shift your attention to your left foot, take your other foot out of the equation, you can just move the foot behind you a little bit lengthen your leg as much as you're able to and stay connected, round yourself in and reach forward, option one, option two remove your left arm, take it straight out to the side round yourself in and reach forward. Option three, look up as you round yourself in and reach forward. Look up as you round yourself in and reach forward. One more time, looking up and we're reaching forward, change legs.

So I've got two arms energized two feet connected, first round in and out a couple of times, feel that kind of ironing out. I actually feel quite a lot of sensation in my legs and my hips when I do this. Hold the arms strong, bring your attention to your right foot, take your other foot out of the equation. So I've just moved my foot back a little keep your pelvis square round yourself in and reach forward. Try to really feel the pelvis movement.

Then the option two, you take the right arm straight out to the side as you round in. And the option three is you look up as you round in. So you're adding just a little bit of rotation look down, look up as you round in and reach down. And one more time looking up, and reach down. Two hands on the bar, two feet connected, round yourself all the way into the stopper and let's move on to the mermaid.

So a red spring for the mermaid is ideal, I believe you can choose whatever spring suits you and I'll begin facing you. So let's, you can feel free to do the more traditional position with the foot out to the side or bring the foot underneath your bottom, that's what feels better to me. The one thing I want you to think about is the idea of taking this front leg more straight out from the hip, less out to the side so we can get a little extra glute focus here. With your hand outside of your shoulder, your elbows straight, sit tall, try to feel that as best as possible, you're sitting on both sides of your pelvis equally. We're going to inhale to reach the carriage away, we're gonna exhale, press down through that front leg as you reach around so you're really creating an anchor to rotate from.

Inhale to open looking toward me, and exhale to sit tall, allow the spring to push you over a little bit, scratching an itch, maybe, inhale reach away adding on, exhale, rotate around, you have two hands on the bar, we're gonna bend the elbows slightly out with the elbows and press in. Bend the elbows and press one more time bend and press inhale toward me, exhale. Take it a little further one more time, adding extension this time, inhale, reach away, exhale. Two hands on the bar rather than bending the elbows. Let the arm sort of push you into a bigger back extension and then back into flexion and rotation.

So here we're in extension with rotation supporting with your abdominals and pushing back into flexion with rotation. One more time, really ringing out those spines, open toward me, come all the way in, take a quick reverse stretch, perhaps both hands on the shoulder rest, you can do a little push and pull here just to stretch through the shoulder through the back. And then we can make our way to the other side. I'm just gonna swivel to the other side and be efficient with my time here. Go ahead and curl that foot up underneath you, underneath the butt if you prefer, out to the side, if that's better for you.

The one thing to think about is the idea of the leg bone going more out from the hip here. Hand is on the bar outside of the shoulder not behind the shoulder and sit for a moment. I need to do more things facing this direction so I can enjoy the view with you all. Inhale to reach away, good as you exhale and come around, push down through that front leg feeling the stretch, breathe, inhale, unwind, exhale, sit tall. Remember let the spring push you over a little if you want scratching a little itch first, inhale reach away, exhale, two hands on the bar, we add an elbow, bend in and in and out one more time please, hold here.

Open, come in and feel free to scratch an itch here. Opening the heart, letting the head move a little, adding rotation or I'm sorry, adding extension so we inhale we reach away. We take two hands on the bar, keep the two hands on the bar the elbow straight, and you let the spring sort of push you to a deeper back extension and then you reach forward. And pushing you to a deeper back extension and reaching forward. And one more time please, feeling that big back extension and back into flexion, unwind.

Come in and then bring your hands around and enjoy just a moment of a reverse stretch. Whatever feels good, I sort of have a push and a pull thing I do so I can get that stretch across my right shoulder on this side but I welcome you to do whatever feels good. And we're going to finish with backward, I would like you to be on a lighter spring so if you have the ability to change it to like a light red spring, I would recommend that, otherwise you might prefer a blue here. The box is gonna go onto the reformer. And then once again we're going to use our feet on the bar so don't take your bar down.

I'm gonna have you lie on the box find your feet on the bar and push out. So you're gonna use your feet to just kind of help create a powerful anchor and make adjustments as needed. So I want your chest off a little bit, that's where we wanna maximize our back extension. Begin with your arms down and I'm actually finding myself slipping just a little bit here doing this. So be mindful.

I do want that heavier spring because we are gonna use the straps but hopefully you're not slipping, so I'm holding just a little bit, there it is. Finding the anchor, once I anchor through my pelvis, I don't slip so much so that's a good thing. And using the feet to sort of press up and find a little bit more hamstring on both legs, reach down and find your straps. And then you're gonna kind of keep this shape here in your back as you get set up, keep those legs powerful. And I want you to see I've wrapped my hands around.

I want you to find that position where there's just a little bit of tension and try to hold that position with your thoracic extension, untuck your toes and point them above the bar. And now we're gonna go all the way forward and we're gonna pull all the way up to extension. All the way forward and all the way up to extension. So basically you're just using the bar as a prop to help you get the extension. I find that sometimes a little tricky for me to get.

Two more here, opening through the hearts, good, one more time and use your feet to just support if you'd like or simply come all the way in, letting your legs be just above the bar put the straps away, bring yourself up to a child's pose, right on top of your box feet hanging off and take couple of breaths with your forehead, with your forehead, resting on the mat. Arms can hug, breathing in and breathing out. Remember to feel free to roll side to side a little bit, stretching any tissue that needs stretching, breathing in and breathing out. And then come upright and I thank you all so much for playing.