Quick Reformer Refresher

Well, hello. My name's Adrianne, I'm gonna teaching an intermediate class to Coleen here who's gonna be my student. So let's go ahead and begin. I'm gonna have her sit down properly. Ideally with one hands crossed to sit all the way down.

She's going to go into her foot work. So toes are on the bar, heels together, toes apart. You can either start at three springs or four, depending on your strength. She's in a Pilates stance, heels together, turned out. And unless you have any knee issues, that's the right position.

Go ahead and extend all the way out and in. So you're gonna do 10 of these. The idea is you're getting really long through the spine, getting that back to lengthen, the waist to lengthen and lift so it's flattening. Five, six. And you are in control of the spring.

So you want to make sure that you're not just being pulled in by those springs. Is that nine, 10, okay. And then she changes to her arches and does another 10. So we've changed the foot position, which changes the length and the positioning of the back. So even though the back stays where it is, you'll feel a little more deepness in the middle back.

Six. Is that seven? Yeah. Eight. Okay, I'm counting, nine.

You should be counting too, 10. Now she changes once again to her heels, which more is the lower back. Would you get more... Cause the feet are a little bit higher, you'd have more ability to get into that lower spine. Three, four, five.

Get a nice wrap with those outer thighs, get those inner thighs engaged. Seven, eight. Again, getting that waist to lift. Nine and 10. Once again, transitioning the feet now to the toes for a tendon stretch.

Three counts down. One, two, three, down. One, two, three, up. And as you're moving, the tendency is for those hips to start wobbling up and down. So again, pull that navel in, pull up and get your backs to length and getting that pelvis long, not curled.

Good, and not arched. 10 of these. I think that was 10. Now this is the tricky part. You got to drop your bar without looking.

So she takes her one foot under the bar, the other foot under the other bar and grabs her straps at the same time. She's dropped her headrest to prepare for her short spine after this. So now she's gonna stretch out into her hunter position. Arms are gonna start up here above the hips. Now her legs are pretty low.

Go ahead and begin breathing. You just have to decide if that's too low. You're feeling this in you back, you want to get those legs up higher. Two, four, five. Two, three or four, five.

She's strong enough to be able to lower those legs, but really deep into that powerhouse of curl into yourself. Seven, eight. In, two, three, four, five. Out, two, three, four, five. In, two, three, four.

Out, two, three, four, five. Now I've lost count. You should be close to a hundred at this point, maybe two more and out. In, two, three, four, five. Out, two, three, four, five.

Bring yourselves back in. Now you're gonna take those straps in one hand and drop to two springs. So you take one spring off in the middle. We are on the Gratz Reformer, so we have four springs to work with. And then she adjusts the strap so that the leather goes through the handles.

She lifts her bottom to put the straps on, not pulls the straps to put the feet in the straps. Go right into it, out. Lift the leg, stretch the arms. The arms are actively stretching. And quickly rolls down, stretching the back, stretching the legs and right again, out, up and over, bend your knees.

Good control, I'm not hearing the carriage slamming. And lower, lower, lower. Two more, out, hips up. Trying to get the hips up with the legs, relax those toes and rolls down, getting the whole spine. This is the hardest part right here.

We're gonna pull in, pull in, pull in. Stretch that lower back all the way articulating that spine. One more time, out. Up with the hips and legs, bend, and lower lower, lower. Come all the way down.

And then she's gonna take those straps off of her feet by grabbing the handles and the leather sliding down for her coordination. So heels together, toes apart. She's gonna stretch the arms, legs out. Good. Open, closed legs, knees come in, arms come up.

Breathing in, stretch away, open, close, knees in, arms up. Go into beat. So she's here, she's curling the sternum forward. Seven, eight beats, comes back in, arms up. One more time.

Inhale, stretch, keep those elbows on the mat, two. So the arms stay down, seven, eight, knees into the ears, arms up. Good, that's enough. Let's go ahead and get, put your straps on the hooks. She's gonna stay.

Let's drop to one spring, cause she's gonna set up for her pulling straps. So you will need the box here. I'll let you do that because you should be enabling yourself and knowing the springs and the transitions of the boxes. And she can put the bar underneath the box for now, the long box position, so the box is in front of the shoulder pads. And then she just lie down normally.

So you're gonna lie on your stomach, shoulders on the box. And then she has to walk up that leather until it's tight enough. There's tension on the leather underneath. She gets herself position nice and centered. Looks good.

And she begins by reaching down, trying to get those arms up high. Roll those shoulders back, so it's a chest expansion lying down and come right back down. Two more. Reached down, lift the arms up and now hold, one, two, three counts and come back down. Last one.

Reach down, lift and hold. Two, three, and lower. Now she slides her hands down to the end of the leather, arms are up high. So lots of tension on the straps. Reaches and hold for three and then comes back in.

So here's where you want to make sure those arms stay up high. They don't drop down. Pull, two, three. Same as you come in, don't let those arms drop, keep them up high. The last one, so three sets of three.

Two, three, and end. She takes her handles on one hand. I want you to reach for your toes when you step off and add one spring. So she has to add that spring and then adjust the straps behind your back. And then she's gonna put her foot on the black bar.

Sit right on the edge, setting up for her back stroke. So now her hands are above her head, knees are in, arms, legs follow each other up. Open, right away, reach for those toes. Now right here is where you work extra hard to stretch, stretch, stretch, and then come back in. And up, open, quickly together.

Hold one, two counts and come back in and up, up, and right away together. Good, hold. Now can you reach, reach, reach, and come back in. Good. She's gonna grab the straps on one hand, sit up in a teaser position, drop to one spring.

So that takes control. Lies back down. She's moved back a little bit to support her lower back. And now she's gonna curl up into a teaser hold. Up to the ears, down to the hips three times.

One, we'll count that as one. Keep your backs tall. Two, those legs are active. Three, bring yourself straight down, toe rest. And then she's gonna come up circling there.

Stay tall. One, big dynamic arms, two, but remember you're controlling the springs. And then she's come up and come down, reversing the circle. Make sure when you come up you don't just whip up that you articulate. I think that was three, and then you're gonna come down.

So she's done three circles and then down. All right, so she's gonna rid of the strap, she's gonna set up for her short box series. So she adds a spring. She'll need the pad and pole here. Remember she had the pole underneath the box, so she's already got that ready.

She needs to strap the boxes over the shoulder pad in the short box position. Get yourself centered on the box right into a hug. So the idea in your intermediate level is to keep the flow going and still moving. That's the whole idea of you transitioning and you adjusting the springs and your boxes and your pads, you should know all of that. And inhale, back.

Go ahead and let your heads go back if you've done this before, not if you haven't. So do one more without your head going back. Good. Let's go table top and then curl forward, forward, forward. Now one more with the head going back.

So if you choose to go all the way back and you've done this, you want to make sure she stretches. She opens up her chest, that she curls or chin to the chest, and now use your bottom, squeeze and scoop. So she has to round to come back up so you don't hurt yourself. All right, take the bar, arms come up into your flat back position. Just about three to five.

I'll have you just do three. Hinging back. And Coleen, sit a little on your right hip. There you go. And two, and as you can see, she has a beautiful tall spine and she's stretching, coming up, and then rest the arms between, lift the arms.

Lean a little forward, legs are relaxed, even though they're long, you're trying not to tense those knees. And you're just stretching, and lift. And stretching, get those ribs then. And one more to the left. And that was it, she finished there.

Now she's gonna twist, arms come up. She's gonna do maybe two sets, ribs together. Shift to the side. So both sides are long and she's lengthening them to come back to center. So get those ribs in.

There we go. And now twist to the left. Long side. Think of lifting up to the ceiling and going back to center, one more set. Twist, hips stay on the mat as she hinges, out.

Lengthens her back as she comes back up. Last one to the left, and she's got the hips down, beautiful. Up and center. Now she's gonna prepare for her tree. So she'll take one leg out of the strap, holding her thigh.

She gets herself centered. Can you lift here? So you wanna start with a tall back and then you do your stretches, then you find your C, and here's where you may have to adjust. Hop this hip forward a little bit. Good.

All right. So now she's in a nice squared off position. She plants her tree at 90 degrees, walks down, staying squared off and come right back up. Good. And then you're gonna lift your back.

So I should feel this part, good. I should feel this part of the spine. You should feel that stretching. And two more. So three, the shoulders down.

Soft shoulders, soft fingers, long beautiful legs. Stop, and come right back up. forward, forward, forward, and stretch. So sit up tall. Push that right hip forward just a little.

There you go. And one more time. Head down, shoulders down. Now because she did the arch earlier, you can do this here. Again, only if you've done it before.

She goes back and arches. Otherwise just go to that table top position and round, round, rounds, walks forward, finish with a quick stretch, up, tall, flex and point. Keep lifting this part of your back. Two, three and rest. Good.

All right, she's ready for the other leg. Taking the left leg out. She gets herself squared off. Shoulders and hips are lined. Three stretches, two.

Try not to collapse when you stretch and then get into the C and go ahead and begin to go back, walk down into your table top. So right there is considered tabletop and then rounds back up, falls forward, and then it's all about your back. You'll feel it in your leg, but it's really about your back getting tall. And two more, drop your head, drop those shoulders, and back. Planted that leg at 90, stop.

Come right back up. Forward, forward, forward, stretch. Lifting the back, she's adjusting her hips, I saw her. That's good. If you feel it, that's what you want to do, get them squared off.

And now she did this earlier, so she's on our third one. She's gonna go and stretch back. Deep breath in and grabs the thigh. Now this is the hardest part is to curl. Forward, forward, forward.

And now lift your back, stretch. Relax this toes. Flex and point, keep lifting your back. We'll want to kind of want to drop down, but keep stretching. Three.

And she's grabbing on for an added stretch. Okay. Get rid of your box and pull. She's gonna set up for her long stretch series. So she's done her long box, then short box, and now she's ready to do the long stretch series.

So this one you have to get right into position, hand, foot, hand, foot. And your heel should be up. You're right a long position, in a pushup position. Your heels don't drop. Inhale, back, exhale, forward.

Now she's going pretty far up. So you have to be conscious about how far you go. Do one more. That you don't compromise your shoulder strength. And come back in, that's good.

So don't go too far in the beginning. Make sure you get that strength and control first. Hips forward. And now she's gonna push out. Nice deep breath in.

This feels good, it's a stretch. You're gonna open up the chest when you come in. So pause a little bit longer on that end and roll the shoulders back. And one more time. Maybe three of these in, and only walk the tips of the fingers.

Keep the fingers on and let your head back and roll those shoulders back. Beautiful. And scoop. And now she's ready to stand up on the carriage on her toes for up stretch. So head is down.

She's got a nice C curve going. So from the head to the tailbone, she's rounded and lifted. She's gonna use her legs, not her arms to push out. A lot of times I see people push out with their arms on this. So don't push from here, push from the hips.

Out, out, out. Then she has to plank, open up the chest. More. Yes. And then she comes in.

That's what I want to see, that's what you want to feel. Push out, plank, And in. Okay, that's enough. Go to a flat foot for elephants. And she's once again in that beautiful C curve.

She's pulling up into the waist and getting the back of the legs stretching. Three counts in. One, two, three. Lift the toes, two, three. Last one, maybe five to six of these.

And that's it. She comes and stays in and steps off. She's ready to add the same spring she started with, which she started with three, so she'll go back to her three. And she's gonna sit down on the carriage preparing for that stomach massage. She's in her Pilates stance.

Knees are no wider than the hips or the shoulders. She's got once again a C from the top of the head to the tailbone and she's ready to go. Out, lower lift, and in 10 times. Two. So you can easily just go in and out.

But the idea is while you're moving, especially as you go out and come in is you want to continually lift and stretch forward. Up and in. So lifting through here and rounding. So a big capital C. And nine and 10.

Okay, that's fine. Arms go back. She stays because she's on three, she's gonna stay on three springs. If you are on four, you would drop one spring, so you're then on three springs. Five, six.

Put a little effort in that right hip forward. Seven and tall. Nine, last one here to actively growing taller, 10. Now she's ready to drop her spring, pushes out and comes in and grows taller. Out, in.

She makes this look really easy. These are not as easy as she's making them a look. Two more. In, and stretch, stretch, stretch. One more time.

Out and in and stretch. Now she's preparing to twist. Out and in. Keep your heels even, don't let them shift. Try to relax the shoulders as you turn.

Center and out and in, beautiful. And now she's ready to step off preparing for her kneeling knee stretch series. So you get rid of the pad there. You're on the right springs already, you get right into your C curve. Your arms are just holding you still, you got that beautiful rounded back.

Now she's gonna use her legs and hips and powerhouse abdominals. Incoming, two, three. Now she should sit back a little bit more. Four, and in, five, and in, six. Curl the hip, seven, eight.

Transitioning into an arch back without stopping. Two, three. So she did eight rounded, now she's doing eight arch or yeah, seven. And is that eight? Okay, and now she rounds into a C curve and she went right into it.

There's a couple ways to do that, but at this level you can, you can go right into it. Get the hips have curl, no more than 10 of these. Hard part is keeping that lower back around it. And then she steps off, goes back to her original three springs. Lies back down because now she's going to cool down into her walking or running position.

So a little more parallel feet together. This time it can be slightly turned out if you like. But you're just, now you've woken up all those muscles, everything's alive and energized. You're gonna pull up into that waist and get your spines long, cooling down. Breathing through these.

She's walking for 10 and then runs for 10. One, two, three, four. Keeping those hips from dancing, seven, eight, nine, and 10. Comes back in, she places her feet on her arches. Because of her flexibility she's able to go a little wider with the hips.

Do what feels good. Usually it's just the arch of about maybe shoulder width apart with the knees. And now the hips are off, but the ribs are down and you get the full stretch. They feel really good if you do these properly. So you're out here and then go a little bit further out.

Stretch, stretch, stretch, good, and come back in. So take advantage of those stretches. Really getting a long lean muscles. Two more. Out, in, and last one, out.

And that's enough. She's ready to bring herself down. So you do anywhere from five to eight of those. She's ready to step off. And let's go ahead and go to your side splits.

So we're going here. I'll let you set this up. She's gonna go. You can do this on two or one spring. She's been doing this, so she's gonna do it on one spring and she's strong enough.

If you do your one spring, you want to make sure you're not moving that carriage around much. Two springs gives you a little more control, especially if you're just starting the intermediate level. Pulling up. She's gonna push out and pull in the waist and grow tall. So you're not pulling with the legs, You're lifting your powerhouse, growing taller, and coming back in, two.

Now she's gonna stay out and go to a picking flower exercise. So notice the carriage not moving. She goes down, she picks the flowers. Then she's gonna present them to the gods. Finds her position, comes back in.

Now, once again, keeping the carriage still. Goes down, don't let that carriage move. Like I said, on one spring, it's very challenging. It's challenging already on two springs. She shimmies that foot in.

She steps on and she's ready to turn around. So, and now she's got her foot over there. She carefully moves the other one over. She gets herself into position. Waist is lifted, tailbone is down, long back.

Out, pull up into the waist, lift with that powerhouse. Feel that work. Out, and lift. This one is called your saw. You're gonna hold the carriage still.

Control it, don't go too fast. So go to where you can. You might not go all the way to the toe like her, but you can go a little bit down and then control it back in. Now, keep the carriage still. Again, slow controlled powerhouse movements.

Up and center. And then she shimmies that foot in, she steps on and she steps down. And let's finish with your front splits. I keep wanting to do this for you. All right, so she goes back to her two springs.

You'll use a pad, you don't have to. I use one, she likes to use two. It's just to prevent your foot from slipping underneath the shoulder mat. So you're gonna start actually with your right foot on the bar between the last two springs, so that your knee lines with your hip. You're shimmering the back foot back, it's slightly turned down and it's propped up against the shoulder pad, your hips are square.

And then she's gonna sit kind of like in a squat position where her knee lines with her hips. And she's gonna just push out with that right leg three times. Going into a nice stretch. And then when you come in, you want to think of sitting on the heel. And then you're gonna push out and in.

And one more, out, and in. Now this position, she's gonna have to shift her weight back to this back foot, so she has a good stance on that back foot. She rounds in her C curve, puts her hands behind her head, she's tall in the back Ribs are together. Hip is line with the knees. Now she gonna use that right leg once again to push out and bring it in three times.

You don't have to go quite as far out. I like to go a little bit and then come all the way in. So don't straighten the knee, do one more, go a little bit and all the way in. Yes, keep that heel up like she did. And then she rounds herself back down, pivots, and to kneel onto the knee safely.

Now she's in this position trying to keep those hips square again. She's once again gonna push out with that right leg into a nice stretch. When she comes in, she's gonna once again try to sit on her heel. So it's forward. And two more.

So you do that three times. Back and... I'm just checking that her knee lines with her ankle, she's got one more, which it does. Cause you always want to protect your knees. Come back in and stretch.

Good. Go ahead and switch legs. Don't forget that extra stretch. We'll do that another time. So you're not gonna start back here, you always start with this foot up.

Then you hop that foot back. By the way, as you can hurt your knee there. All right, so knee lines with the hip, foot is up. Three times, out and in. Out.

And then she's gonna come in and try to sit on that heel forward. Yes. Two more. Out, in, in, in, stretch. Last one, out.

She's got nice line from shoulder to shoulder. Now she's preparing to round up, hands behind your head, ribs together, out and in. Out. So the knee goes back and straight in. Now go a little bit back like you did the last time and all the way in.

Yes. So you could do, that's more ideal, it's not straightening the knee quite as much as she was. All right, so head is down, out and in three times, at least at this level. And come back in and sit towards the heel. Two more.

Back. These are nice stretches for the back of the legs as well as the thigh. Two and three. In. And that's it, she's ready to go.

She can stretch if you want, but you didn't do it on the other side. So we're gonna skip that today and go ahead and step off. Do a nice big circle with your arm. Take a deep breath in and you are done. Nicely done.

Yeah. Good job.