Whole-Body Wunda Chair

Hi, I'm Mariska and we are going to be doing a almost nothing classical chair class. So I have a chair. It has one spring on it, currently. And it's one spring on a three. And we're just going to start with a little bit of a shoulder back warm-up.

So I'm going to go ahead and have a seat, and I'm just going to let my feet straddle the chair. I'm gonna hold onto the pedal. I'm going to sit up reasonably tall. And if you need to have your knees bent to sit up reasonably tall, you can do that. Sometimes I do. Sometimes I don't, depends on the day.

So I'm going to start by drawing my abs in. I'm gonna round back a little bit. I have a little pressure down on the pedal, not much at all, but when I sit up, I'm going to try to press down a little bit more. As I round, I let the pedal begin to lift up. It doesn't necessarily go all the way up, especially if you have one that the pedal goes higher than this, and then you'll press down.

It's cute. I always think I extend my spine here, but it's like really not. It's just less rounded. Round back and lift up. And maybe I will put a bend in my knees, see if I can get a little bit more of that sense of a lift, even if I don't get an actual visual interpretation of a lift, it might not look like a lift, but it feels like one. Lift up and round back.

A couple more times. Lift up and round back. And last one, lift up and round back. I'm just going to go ahead and kind of hug the side of the chair with my legs, as I slowly lower down bone by bone, I think this is actually going to be a decent position. I want to be able to extend one leg above the foot bar, and one leg blow the foot bar, which I can.

So I'm just going to have my knees bent in towards me. I'm going to reach my arms up, sort of like a double leg stretch, except one leg is going above the bar, and one leg's going below. So reach and in. And reach and in, and reach, and in, reach and in. Just two more.

We're just doing a little mini ab thing here. And then from there, I'm going to let my feet find the foot bar, and I'll lower myself down. I'm not super close. I'm not super far. I feel like, happy with where I am.

I'm not going to push down with the pedal. I'm just going to push into the pedal. So the pedal is ideally not going to move much, and I'll lift my hips up into a little bridge, and then slowly lower down bone by bone. Again, pressing down, lifting up. And then slowly lower.

And I'll just do three more. Push down, lift up. Slowly down, push down, lift up. And slowly down just one more time. Push down, lift, and slowly down.

I'll go ahead and extend my legs back to sort of where they started. Arms lift up towards the ceiling, chin towards my chest, roll myself up. And I'm just going to let my legs swing around so that I can come to a kneeling position. I think that this spring weight is still going to be a happy spring weight for me. So I want to sit back and let my arms kind of reach overhead to where I am pushing the pedal down a little bit.

Now, I'm just going to do a little tilt to my pelvis, drawing my abs in, pushing down into the pedal, but really feeling like I'm pushing. It's like sort of serratus lats. So it's sort of like you're pulling your armpit down towards your hip more. So it's a tilt of your pelvis. Get that sensation of your armpits pulling down as you press down and then extend your spine.

Tilt your pelvis, press with your arms, and reach away. Tilt your pelvis, press with your arms, and reach away. Just do a couple more like this. Press down, and reach away. Press down, and reach away.

Now in this one, let's press down, we're just kind of hold it down, round up a little bit more, and we're just gonna do a little arm presses for eight. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. Come forward a little bit so that the pedal can come towards the top. You can bring your legs back some where you like sort of a thread the needle, we're going to reach through with one arm. And then we'll make our way back up, and then same deal on the other side, kind of reach through.

And then slowly make your way back up. You can come up to a standing position from there, and then we're going to do sort of short, very non-traditional footwork series. So we're going to start with whatever your footwork setting is. I like two on two, when I'm feeling a little bit tired, and I'm feeling a little bit tired, so I'm going to be two on two. And then I'm gonna have a seat on the chair, and I'm going to bring my feet onto the pedal.

So I'm going to start in sort of a Pilates V, but I'm going to make it between a Pilates V, and a wider position. So I'm going to start with my arms out to a T, I'm just going to push down and lift up, push down and lift up, push down and lift up. Now, when I push down, when I lift up my arms, we're going to come forward, press down, arms open. Knees lift, arms open. Knees lift, arms open.

Knees lift, arms open. Four more like this. Two, three, and four. Bring your hands behind your head. We're going to do a little bit of a side bend.

As your knees come up, you're going to touch your elbow to your knee, and then you press down and we'll do the other side. Twist elbow to knee. And down. So it's a sort of a side bend and a little bit of a twist. Think your opposite elbow is reaching towards the ceiling.

Push down and twist. Push down and twist, a couple more. Push down and twist. And push down and twist. We'll go ahead and come to where our legs are parallel.

We're going to sit a little bit further on the chair. if you were a little bit far back, and you're going to press down until your knees are in line with your hips. And then you're just going to flex your feet and point your toes. So we're trying not to really let our knees move in space. And this chair makes a lot of noise when I'm doing this, because it has the pedals that separate, which is also me knowing that my ankles are not moving exactly evenly, because if they were, then I wouldn't be hearing the noise of them, kind of hitting that little dowel that connects the two pedals together.

We'll do another four like this. Two, three, and then we're going to end with your feet in plantar flexion, reach your arms forward. Now, as your knees begin to lift, you're going to think about reaching one arm forward, and reaching the other arm back. But it's really about a twist that's happening, that you're kind of creating your own tension. Imagine you're pushing with your right arm, and pulling with your left, and then you come back to center, and you get that sensation of push, pull, and center.

And push, pull, and center, push, pull, and center, push, pull, and center, push pull, and center, we'll do a couple more like this, push, pull, and push, pull. And I can't remember which side we started on. So we'll just do one more round. I think we started on that side. And then we'll push, pull.

We're gonna come back to center, and I'm going to scoot super far to the left, to where my left foot can actually be on the floor. If you're shorter, you know who you are, you can get the- like the reformer box out, so you can get a little bit more height. So my left leg is parallel. My right leg is in a turnout, and I'm going to lean a little bit towards the right. And I'm just going to push down, maybe not as far, eight times.

Two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. I'm going to let my left arm go, so that I can take it into a side bend. So when my left arm begins to lift overhead, I'm going to bend my right elbow, and then lift back up. And I'll do this four times. Two, three, and four.

And then one to transition. I'm just gonna go over with my arm bent, and I'm gonna take my outside leg, and I'm just gonna lift it up eight times. Two- and it's not coming very high, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight, foot down, arm presses. And I lift all the way back up. And now I just need to scoot over to the other side.

So my left foot is going to be on, it's in a turnout position. My right foot is in a parallel position. My left hand is down, and then I'm going to start with pressing this like eight times. One, two, three, and it's not going very far, four, five, six, seven, and eight. I'm going to reach my right arm out. So now I'm going to side reach over.

So I'm bending my left elbow and lift up. I'm doing this four times. Two, three, and four, and then one transition, I'm going over and I can kind of just hold it there with my arm up, lift my outside leg. And I'm kind of running into the wall. So I'm going to lean onto my hip a little bit, lift my leg up for eight.

Two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight, I'll lower my leg, and then lift myself all the way back up from there. So here, I'm going to make it a teensy bit heavier. So you could do three on, or two on three. I'm going to do one on two and one on three, because I think that will probably be like the right amount. And what I want to do first, is I want to figure out where the pedal is behind me if I come into a squat.

Because essentially, that's where we're going to want to end up. It should be heavy enough that it can kind of support your weight. And you're not going to just sink right down, but it should be light enough that you can move it. So I have a lot of tightness in my left ankle. I don't have great range there.

So my left heel might lift up. I'm going to be fine with that. I'm going to lean forward. I'm going to have to walk my feet back, a smidge, lean forward, and then come up to standing. So now I'm gonna squat down to the pedal, lean my weight back, lean my weight forward, stand up.

Reach my butt back, so it's a hip hinge, kind of unhinge my hips, lean forward, and stand up. Got a couple more like this, leaning it back, and then we'll stand it up. And last one, like this, lean it back, lift up a little bit higher, lean it forward and stand up. So now this next time we would come down, we're going to be there for a second. So you're gonna lean your butt back, shift your weight so it's more upright.

You can bring your hands on your hips. You can bring your hands on the pedal. If that feels more secure to you. We're just gonna lower the pedal down a little bit, and lift. Lower down and lift. And this is really where my left ankle's lack of dorsal flexion kind of gets in my way.

So I'm going to lower down and I'm going to lift my left heel up, and then I'll lift my right heel up. So it's like a little prance. It should feel pretty intense on your quads. Lower and lift. Lower and lift.

Couple more. My quads are really speaking to me, but I've done several other quad exercises in a very recent period of time. So if yours are talking to you too, just know that I am currently in pain at the same time as you are. Now, I'm going to do- essentially to come out of it, I'll do what I did before. So I'll come all the way up to standing.

If you feel the need to like massage out your thighs, now it'd be a great time to do that. I'm going to have one spring on a three, I think will be like a happy spring weight. And then I'm going to come behind the chair, and actually, let me start. I'm going to do this first. I'm going to sit on the chair.

So we're going to just keep the quad stuff going right now. Let your legs come forward. And then you're just gonna kind of think about lifting away from the chair, and then you can do a little tricep bend, and lift away. So this should not be very hard. This is like our break before we go back into doing some quad stuff.

Lower and lift. Lower and lift. Now we're going to take one leg, I think is going to be easiest for me to get into it this way. So I'm going to take one foot on the pedal, push the pedal down to the ground. I'm gonna step the other foot forward.

If you want to, if your chair's really narrow, you can widen your hands, lift your chest. You're going to bend your knee, and then push. Now, when your knee bends to this extreme of an angle, it really works into your VMO, which is great because that's a quad muscle that is really important for how your knee works, and it's weak on a lot of people. So do a couple more like this. Bend, push.

Bend, push. Bend, push. Bend, push. Last two. That's probably not a couple, but I've never met a Pilates teacher who could actually count.

And then we'll go ahead and sit it back, and we'll switch which foot is on. So now my left foot is on. I'm gonna step my right foot forward, same position, shoulders back, hips forward, bend my left knee, and push. Bend and push. So my couple, I think was roughly, eight total.

So I'll do four more. One, two, three, and four. I'm gonna see if I can just let it lift all the way to the top, which I can, because I have the chair that has such a low pedal. I'm going to lift my chest up and just bring one knee in, and down. Other knee in, and down.

So it's like leg pole, except not as terrible. One leg in and down. Do one more each side. And last one. And then I can go ahead and just sit back, shake your hands out. Okay.

So we're going to stay on this spring. So I'm one on three. You could also be one on two, one on two would be a little bit harder. So I think I'm going to actually be one on two. 'Cause this is an exercise that I like a lot when it's a little bit harder.

So I'm behind the chair, I'm just going to start in kind of my regular swan position. So I want to have my hands underneath my shoulders, and then my shoulders, not up by my ears, so my shoulders are just kind of relaxed. And I'm just going to start with kind of getting a sense of where I am. So I'm going to lift up and make sure that that feels reasonably good. Lift up.

And then when you're reaching out, think that you're trying to grow longer away from your feet. So when you're lifting up, you're still trying to grow longer away from your feet. And then lower down. Now, we're going to change it up a little bit. So as we lift up, we're going to bend the knee.

So I'm going to bend my right knee as I lift, and then extend my right leg. Left knee bends as I lift, and reach away. Right knee bends, and reach away. Left knee bends, and reach away. Right, and left.

And we'll do a couple more, right, and left. Now, I want to take it into the swan dive where your legs lift up, which means I'm going to have to be a little bit more forward. And I want to kind of figure out where I'm going to be. So if I'm bending my elbows, I'm like kind of like my hipbones right there. I'm like right at my hip bone at the edge, but I want to do this a little bit different.

So I'm going to bring my legs into sort of a diamond position. So I'm going to start with a lift up, and then I'm going to dive down with my legs in this diamond shape, my elbows bend at the bottom, I lift up. Lowering down, and lifting up. Lowering down, and lifting up. We'll do a couple more, lower and lift.

And lower, and lift. On this next one, we're going to stay down, so lower down. We're going to take the shape of your legs in just little lifts for eight. Two- you should feel your glutes. Three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. Try to keep that lift of your legs as you lift your chest up.

You can extend your legs all the way from there, and then just go ahead and press the pedal down. We're just going to let the pedal lift, and you're going to stand behind the chair. Now, this is a classical exercise. And I always think it's super funny, because this doesn't seem like it should be that hard, and I always feel like I'm going to fall. So we're going to try not to touch your thighs to the chair, but your feet are all the way kind of back up towards chair.

I'm going to start by letting your arms lift up, and then you're going to fold forward, reaching towards the pedal, and then think about sending your chest forward and your butt back. So you're coming into what feels to me, like a nice hamstring stretch, especially after that last exercise. And then you're just going to round to bring the pedal back towards the top. And this is literally the top over my pedal goes. And you're going to extend out and round, pull back.

Extend out, and round, pull back, Do a couple more. Extend out, and round, pull back. Extend out. Let's just stay here. While we're here, just go wide with your elbows for eight presses. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight.

Straight arms, tilt your pelvis under. This is where it always feels like you could lose it, lift yourself up, lift your arms up, and then you can go ahead and lower your arms all the way back down. Now, I'm going to turn around and do a little teaser variation. So if you're doing teaser on a chair, I always say, sit so far to the other side of the pedal, that you feel like you're going to fall off the chair. Because when we go back, we want to have as much space as possible.

So arm position could be thumbs out. It could be thumbs in. I'm a fan of the thumbs out position. So I'm just going to first reach back, find the pedal. Then from there, I'm going to lift my legs up and I'm just gonna get a sense of what that feels like, to push the pedal away from me, and then lift to come up.

So now when I come up, I'm going to extend my legs as I come up. Bend my knees, as I lower down. Extend my legs as I lift, bend my knees as I lower down. So I'm gonna stay in this lower down position, making sure that I don't feel like I'm going to fall. I'm going to lower one leg down as I pull the other knee in more.

And then trying to keep the pedal still, I switch. And switch. And switch, and switch. For four. Two, three, and four.

Both legs in, extend your legs, and then you'll bend your knees as you come all the way in, just lower your feet down to the floor, and make your way all the way up. I always say, people always worry about falling from teaser and the people I know who have fallen from teaser on the chair, always teachers. It's always the teachers who are the ones who end up falling. So I'm going to sit. Actually, I going to come into a full side position.

So I'm going to come onto my side. So this is pretty light for this exercise. I don't want to do the side bends, 'cause I don't really like them, but I do really like the one where you push your leg back, and then you turn towards the pedal, and you do that sort of twisted swan. This exercise is the best if you have somebody spotting you in it, and they're standing kind of like right between your legs, and then you can squeeze them with your legs, 'cause then it feels, you get the extra twisty, but it also feels really stable. That kind of feels awesome.

But if you don't have that, it's still a great twisty exercise. Now I'm gonna bring my right hand, so it's more towards the middle. I'm going to have my left arm reach up. And then as I come up, I'm going to tap my left knee, and then I'll reach out. Tap my left knee, and reach out.

I'll just do three more. One, two, and three. And then just take this into really big stretch. So your legs are reaching away from you. Your arm is reaching up.

You can bring your hand to the seat, bend your knees, and then come all the way up to the top. And we'll turn around to do the other side. So starting on my left hip, kind of going out like I was doing side bends, but like I said, I don't really like them, so I'm not going to do them. So when I bring my right leg back, and I'll twist towards the pedal, and then I'll lift up. And this side is way harder for me, like, way more tightness in my right oblique for whatever reason.

Lift up, could be Mercury in retrograde, could be that I slept funny. We'll do three more. One, two, and three. Now bring my left hand so it's more towards the center. Now as I lift up, I'm going to tap my right knee, and I'll reach away. We'll do five of these.

Two, three, four, and five. On this last one, we're just going to find a big stretch, and then you can bring your hands to the chair, and we'll go ahead and let the pedal come all the way up. So we'll make this a little bit heavier. So I think I'm going to go- I have one on two. So I think I'm gonna go two on two.

So I'm just gonna add another spring at the same height. And then when I come to a kneeling position, now this would be a great time for my pedal to be way higher than it is, but this is the chair that I have. So what I'm going to do, is I'm gonna bring my hands to the pedal, and then I'm gonna send my chest forward, but back's very similar to what we did standing. And then think about rounding to pull in. Extend out, and this is really heavy, and feels kind of stable, which is good, because this is also going to become a single leg exercise here in a second.

Reach out, pull to come in. Reach out, pull to come in. Now I'm going to bring my right knee. It's just a little bit more to the center. So when I push out, I can extend my left leg out.

I'm going to let the pedal lift up, but not so much that it's not still that I don't solve some tension in it. So my leg is really lifting up, and I'm just going to do little circles. So I'll do, let's see, eight more. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. Now I'm going to bend my elbows a little bit as I lower my leg, lift my leg, push my arms. Bend, lower my leg, lift, push.

Bend, lower, lift, push. So I'll do a couple more like this. Bend, lower. Lift, push. Bend, lower.

Lift, push. Knee, back down. I'm gonna lift myself up just to get myself a teensy bit of a break. It does get a little heavy on your shoulders, especially if you have it heavy enough that it doesn't feel like you're going to face plant. So we'll come back in to do the other side.

So we'll start by pressing down. My left knee's a little bit more towards the middle. My right leg is gonna reach up and back and then I'll do circles. So we'll do- I did a little bit more than eight. So we'll do eight from there.

Two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. We'll switch it. Last eight. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight. Then I'll bend my elbows, lower my leg, press my arms, lift my leg. Bend and push, bend and push, bend and push. We'll do two more.

Bend and push, and bend and push. And then I'll lower my knee. Go ahead and let the pedal lift up. Take a little break. I'm going to just kind of hang back off the back of the chair, just to give my shoulders, a little bit of a stretch.

Always be careful that you don't pull your chair over, if you're doing something like this. They always seem like they're steady until all of a sudden they're not nearly as steady as we think they are. So we're going to go ahead and come around. I want this to be a little bit heavier, because I want my life to be a little bit easier. So I'm going to take it to three on one of them.

I'll do three on both of them. Okay. So we're gonna do a little, kind of pike variation. So what I want you to do is have your feet come to the pedal and you can have your hands to the outside of the chair. That always feels most secure to me. You can have them to the front of the chair, that feels a little bit less secure.

I think I'll go to the front. I'm not actually coming up super high because what I want to do, is really work on feeling how much your abs have to help you here. So what I'm gonna do first, is shift forward so that my shoulders are basically over my knuckles. I'm going to start by lifting up to my tip toes, and lower back down. Now, when I'm lowering down, I'm thinking about pushing my hips slightly forward.

I'll lift up to my tip toes, drop my heels. Now lift up to my tip toes. I've got my lean forward. I'm going to let the pedal hover. So see, it's off the floor.

Hopefully you can see it's off the floor like an inch, maybe two inches. Now I'm going to try not to move the pedal, and do the same thing where I'm lowering my heels. And then coming back into that plantar flexion position. Lower your heels, and lift. And I know the pedal's moving, but in my mind, it isn't.

Lower down, and lift. And we'll do two more. My shoulders are screaming. Lower down, and lift. And last one like this, lower and lift.

And then I'll lower all the way down. Drop my heels, get a little stretch through the back of my legs. For this one, I am going to, to the outside. So my thumbs- My thumbs are kind of facing forward, my fingertips are to the outside. I'm going to have a leg- So one leg on, I'm going to lift up just a little bit, lower down, extend my leg.

Lift up, lower, reach my leg, lift up, lower, reach my leg. I'll do three more. One, and up. Two, and up. And three, and up.

Switching sides. I'm gonna start with my leg kind of hanging down. I'm gonna lift up, lower, lift my leg. And I am kind of leaning back a little bit as I lift my leg up. Lean forward a little bit to come into a little baby pike, lift my leg.

Lift, torso then leg. Three more, torso, then leg. Torso, then leg. Last one, torso, and then leg. And then I'm going to take a turn.

And I just- I always like to start this seated on the chair. So we're going to do sort of a little side pike variation. So I'm going to push the pedal down with my right foot in a turnout. And then my left foot also in a turnout. I have my right hand to the lower right corner.

My left hand is going to go to the lower left corner. So I'm twisted with my legs. I'm just gonna let the pedal lift up some, and I'm gonna bend my knees and push. Bend and push. Bend and push, bend and push, four more.

One, two, three, and four. And I'm just going to go ahead and turn everything around to face the other direction. So both feet are in a turnout, kind of lean in towards the chair, lift the pedal up a little bit, bend, push. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight, I'll turn to face. Whatever is the front is the direction I'm looking.

And then I'll lower my heels down. And again, get a little bit of a stretch. So from there, I'm gonna let the pedal lift up. I think I'm going to lighten it. No, I'm going to be gentle on myself and I'm gonna leave it two on three.

You could take it a little bit lighter. This is going to be easier, because it's going to be more supportive if you have it at a heavier spring weight. So I'm just going to start with my feet. I think they're going to be on- kind of on my heels. I'll bring my hands back behind me, and I'm just going to do a little tabletop.

Try not to move the pedal, and then lower back down. Here's where the small seat doesn't really do you any favors, because it'd be nice to have more space for your arms behind you. Lift up. It's like you need all the chairs, all the different brands and manufacturers, because each one offers something a little bit different, where one exercise is great on one chair, a little less great on another chair. Let's stay up. Hips are gonna stay high, push down.

This is heavy. So it's not going very far for me. Two, three, four, five, we're doing eight. Six, seven, and eight. And then we have a seat all the way down. Because I love a tricep dip, we're going to do tricep dips, but we're going to start all the way down.

Butt to the floor, So I'm gonna come into a Pilates V, scoot forward, lower down, and then actually, shift your weight more forward than you think. So I think a lot of times we end up where we kind of lean back to lift up, but I want to be head up towards the ceiling, elbows back and then try to lift from there. And I know I leaned back a little bit, but that's not my goal. So we'll just do six. Two, three, four, five, and last one, six. And then I can go ahead, have a seat on the chair.

Here's like where to be great time to take a little breath. We're going to shake it out. We're going to do a kind of crazy thing as our last challenge exercise. We're gonna do a couple of stretches. So in my last chair class, I did sort of a elephant to pushing the pedal all the way down to the floor. We're going to do something similar, but we're going to think about this more as a knee stretch exercise.

I think this spring weight, the two on three will be good. It's going to be on slightly heavy side. If it feels too heavy, I'll lighten it up a little bit. So what you do is kind of come into a short plank. So from your plank position, you're on your tip toes, you're going to bend your knees, push the pedal down, until you touch your knees to the floor, lift your knees up, as the pedal lifts up.

Bend your knees, tap your knees, lift up. Bend your knees, tap your knees. Lift up. Two more like this. Bend and lift. And bend and lift.

I'm going to just send my hips back. This is just me coming into a little bit of a break. Now, on this next one, we're gonna do the same basic concepts. So we're coming forward into a plank. Bend your knees.

Now, from there, you're going to round your spine, arch your back. Round your spine- The pedal might be down on the floor for you, it's so heavy that it's hovering for me. Round, and back. And then you're going to lift yourself up, and then shift your weight back. We'll do one more kind of variation of these, sort of forward into our plank.

Bend your knees, we are going down to hover, extend your butt back, let your pedal lift up. And then you come into a little bit of an arch. Bend your knees, lower down with it. Lift extend, and lower, lift extend, and lower, and last one, lift extend, and then shift your weight all the way back into your feet. I'm going to lower the weight down.

Kind of, I think one on three should be good. My shoulders are like, screaming at me right now. So shake them out a little bit. I spin around, and then we're going to do a hamstring stretch here. Now, I have kind of freakishly long arms, so I can reach back and grab the pedal.

Your pedal, if you have a different chair, might be a lot higher than mine. So the goal is just that you're going to reach back and grab the pedal with your hands as you fold forward. So you've got the pedal. You can lean your weight out some, holding onto the pedal, and then lift back up. Lean out, and lift back up.

Lean out, and back up is just basically putting your weight back into your heels, and not leaning so far out away that you're in your toes. Lean out, and lift back. Now we'll lean out. We'll see if we can push the pedal down. It's a little bit too heavy for me to get all the way to the floor from this position, but you're pushing down and up. Push down, and up. Couple more like this.

And then you can go ahead and just bring your hands down so that they're towards the floor. And then you can slowly roll yourself up bone by bone. So we're going to keep it on the one spring on three, we're gonna go behind the chair, and then we're gonna just come into a pigeon stretch. So, this is actually more of a glute stretch than it is a performance stretch. What with your performance being an external rotator, and you're putting your leg in external rotation, which is its own great mystery, why it feels like you're stretching something, but it's really, you're probably stretching your glute.

So you can go ahead and have your leg back, and you can just lift your heart up towards the ceiling. And then if you feel like you have the ability to lean yourself more forward, you can either just lean yourself more forward. You can also reach down towards the pedal, and press the pedal down. And lift up a couple of times. Down, and lift up.

And down, and lift up. I'm going to bring my hands back to the chair so I can get one more, kind of nice chest lift, and then I'll come off, and then I'll bring my other leg on. So this is my much less flexible leg for this particular stretch. This is also the leg I broke. So it actually took- I don't know, roughly three years for me to- It's been roughly three years.

So it took roughly three years for me to be able to do this exercise at all. But I'll have my hands on the chair, lifting my chest up, and then I'll see how it feels to go forward. Now, on this side, I might go to the pedal, but I'm probably not pushing it down that much. Down a little bit and up. Down a little bit and up.

Down a little bit and up, I'll bring my hands back to the chair. So I get that one last pleasant, little chest lift, and then you can come out of that. If there are any last stretches or any last exercises that you want to do, now it'd be a great time to do them. And I hope to see you in some of my other classes at PilatesAnytime.