Spinal Alignment

Hi, my name is Regina, and today's intermediate reformer workout is focusing on spinal alignment, because just as Joe Pilates has mentioned, you're only as young as your spine. So let's get our spines nice and youthful. First, I'd like actually for you to start standing up. You wanna think about opening up your chest and standing down and rooting down into your legs and into your feet. Just hold here for a moment and take a deep breath.

On the inhale, lengthen the spine. And then on the exhale, lengthen the spine even more as you pull your waist in. You can even place your hands around your waist as well. We'll do two more breaths together. Inhaling, lift the spine, nice and tall, (inhales deeply) and then exhale.

Pull the waist in away from your hands as you settle into your great posture. And we'll do one more breath here together. Inhaling, (inhales deeply) lengthen your spine, and then exhaling, pulling the waist in, (exhales deeply), as you keep your posture. So now I want you to take that to the reformer. I'm on three swings from my footwork.

You're welcome to do four or two. It depends on how you're feeling that day. Heels together, turn your toes out for your toes. 10 repetitions here, breathing here. Now feel that waist pulling in and feel your spine getting nice and long as you resist the carriage, when you come in, right?

You really wanna think about that two-way stretch here. Keeping your back long. And keeping your chest open and feeling that waist pulling in. Now let's go to arches, 10 repetitions here, breathing into your body, settling into this nice- What some people call neutral spine. So there's a little bit of space in your lower back.

It's just honoring the natural curve of your lower back, and you're really activating the muscles that pull your waist in on that exhale in particular. And now let's go to our heels, stretching your toes back again. Keep breathing into your body and feeling how the reformer really helps you align your body and your spine, right? Your shoulder blocks are pressing your shoulders down and you've got something to press your heels against. And the resistance really helps you kind of put everything back in line.

Now let's go onto our toes for our tendon stretch again and keep those heels together. And then now lower the heels, lift your heels. Now here, you really wanna be deliberate about pulling your stomach in and up as the heels go down. This is so much more than just lowering, lifting the heels. This is about learning how we can keep our spine long by focusing on the movement coming from the center, keep breathing, (breathes) and let's do two more here.

Lift your heels, come on in and then lower your foot bar down with your feet and grab your handles. You wanna connect already here, find your back connection, holding onto the handles, squeeze your legs together. Now curl the head and the shoulders up as the legs lift up and keeping your back nice and long, let's do our pumps in, in for five, exhale for five, Keep going, we have nine more sets of those. I want you to reach your hands into the handles and feel how that feedback helps you keep your back nice and long, breathing in (inhales deeply). Your two-way stretch is happening with the legs, your stomach is pulling in.

(exhales deeply) My arm pumps might look a little smaller than others, but for me, this works to connect to my back and it helps me Keep my back nice and long as well. We're more than halfway there, thankfully. Deep in the stomach let's do two more rounds. Last one, and exhale feel the waist pulling in as you resist coming back down. Okay, let's do our overhead prep.

So we're gonna come up to sit, drop down one spring so you're on two Springs. Also lower your headrest down. We're just gonna roll today. So keep your arms up, reaching to the ceiling. Squeeze your heels together.

Now from your stomach, bring the arms down and bring the legs overhead. Just balance in between the shoulder blades from here, reach into the handles and roll your spine down, opening up your back. Oh, that feels great. And again, pull the belly in and then bring the legs over. Hold it, just practice that.

Reach into the handles. Roll your spine down one bone at a time, we have 27 vertebrae, see how much you can get. Let's do one more overhead here. Hold, reach, roll through your spine. You should feel the whole back body stretching.

Now come on in, stay connected to your center. All you have to do is lift your head and your shoulders up for your coordination, press down. So keep that head and that shoulders up like you do your hundred and press, open, close, the legs come in towards the midline to remind us of that axis that our spine creates for us. We'll do one more here, bend and then rest. Let's come up to sit.

Let's drop down one more spring for your back-rowing. This is the first time we're gonna really move our spine and it's gonna feel really good. So again, you measure yourself by placing one hand in front of the carriage and that's how far you're gonna be away from the front of your carriage. So back-rowing one, elbows are out, squeeze your legs together. Now you're gonna round your spine, again, feel the openness of the back body.

As you push your arms out. Now, come forward, round over the legs, hold onto the hands and then lift your arms up from the stomach. Keep reaching the arms out as you stay rounded over your legs, and then come back. We'll do that two more times. Round and really open up your back from your stomach.

Push your arms out, come forward, hands back, pull the belly in as the arms go up, open out, the head follows the rest of the spine. as you come up to sit, one more, rounding, pulling the belly in, push out, reach forward, hands back, lift up up up. You might get even deeper on that third repetition. Now we're gonna go into a flat back, the arms go greater than 90 degrees. You hinge back with a flat back as far as you can go maintaining control from the center, reach your arms up, come forward and down, hands back, pull the belly in, bring the arms up, open out.

We finish the same way and we'll do two more of those. Feels great, up and reach and breathe and bring your hands back, pull the belly in and up, open out, last one and lean. Maybe get a little further back and feel life returning into your body. And then come up to sit for front-rowing, swivel around, you're staying on one spring and you bring your legs together. Bring your hands by the chest forward from the chest, press your arms out, keeping your spine nice and long.

Now root down into your legs as the arms reach over. Energy's still going out through the top of your head as you bring your hands back to home, we'll do two more of those. Lift, lift, lift, breathe all the way down into your seat. (exhales deeply) That's where your pelvic floor is. One more inhale here, on the exhale, the pelvic floor narrows, right?

So it really helps you connect to your center and then bring your hands back, flex your feet from the hips, rounding and stretching, oh yes, another round. And then coming up, opening up the back, reaching up, up, up, get even taller if you can and bring your hands back. Two more of those rounding and stretching, exhaling, again, all the way to your pelvic floor. Your pelvic floor is the lower part of your core and round and reach. And in Pilate's terms, that core is your center.

And then bring your hands back to the hips. Now cross your legs, open your arms out, for shaving. Thumbs and the next fingers together. You can either go behind your head, like I'm doing so, or you can bring 'em right on top of the head. It depends on where your shoulders are today, but you wanna think energy's still going out through the top of your head as you root down into your seat.

Change, open up legs, for hug a tree. Again, belly pulls in, rooting down on your exhale, into your seat. As you keep spine nice and long, your two-way stretch continues. Last one, and then bring your hands back. Place your handles down, let's do some long box.

So take your long box, you're gonna add one spring. So you're now on two springs, We're gonna do a basic version of the Swan. So my teacher has taught us to place our feet in the straps. And then from here, you swivel around, trying to keep at least one heel in the strap. It'll help you kind of stabilize your lower body, As you see, I've pushed myself out a little bit from the carriage, my hands are on top of the box.

My knees are slightly bent. My sweet spot is like right here in my mid thigh. Some people go a little higher, but my sweet spot is my mid thigh. You know, lay down over the box, Now you gonna pull the belly in and it's just the upper body first. Inhale, breathe into an extension of your upper body.

Now from there, shoot your legs straight, straight body. Now just the upper back. The upper body is extending, lifting up, up, up, up, up, and then you round. And we'll do two more of those, inhaling, breathing, reaching, and stretching, lengthening, up and round, one more. And stretching, deepen your stomach, lengthening your spine.

Can you reach, reach, reach even more and then round to come in, hands back on the box, take your heels out of the straps. Press yourself up. Drop one spring. So now you're on one spring for your pull straps and T. For our purposes today, you're gonna place your hands through the handles and then place your thumbs on the screws.

Again, now you feel the spine nice and long here, reaching your legs away, pulling the belly in, inhaling, exhaling, open up your heart and then come down with control. Two more of those. And lower, those legs are reaching back. Your spine is nice and long, your belly is pulling in. There is no arch in your lower back.

The arch happens in your upper back. Slide your hands to the outside or to the edge for your T pull, belly pulls in, lifting the chest, open up your heart, reach your arms out and come down. And two more of those inhaling, open up your heart. That's your heart chakra, right? If you follow yoga, open out, it's the center of your physical and spiritual self.

Again, inhale up, open up your heart, reach and exhale and come on down. If you do follow yoga, their energy centers in your body are called chakras and they follow the (mumbles) of your spine. So if you do practice yoga, Pilates might be good for you too. Okay, so we're gonna come, hold on to this and you're gonna lay down all the way. So I've added my second spring for my backstroke.

Curl your head in the shoulders up, knees are bent, press your arms and the legs up to the ceiling. Big circle around and reach for your toes. Just like the hundred, okay? So the arms and the legs are different in a way, but your spine stays in line. Just like you did your hundred.

Your back stays long, but you're curling your head and the shoulder's up. And then we reverse it. Press down, open up and reach, two more of those, push. Last one, bend your knees. And then now, come on to sit.

You can lower your feet down to drop a spring for your teaser. So we'll do three versions of our teaser today. First we do the arm pumps, squeeze your legs together, open up your chest. Now take a deep breath and on the exhale, come back up. Now just pump the arms down and up.

Hold the arms there, reach into the handles and then lower it down with control. Feel your back on that box. Use the box to articulate your spine. Really use the box to curl up. How much of those 27 vertebrae can you feel on the box.

Now, circle the arms, keeping your back nice and long. Keeping your center engaged. Hold it, reach your arms out. Lower your legs down with control. One bone at a time.

Back on the box. We are in the last version, our third version of our teaser. And now you're gonna use the box to feel the spine. So use the box to get that feedback, really helps you, right? Really articulate the spine.

The third version, we circle the arms from the tummy (exhales deeply). Hold it, now circle the legs from the tummy. Keep your spine long, press your hands into the handles, hold everything up, lower everything down with control using the box to feel that spine, okay, place your handles back on the carriage and then come up to sit, place your box away. And then we're gonna go into our long stretch series. So take your pad, place it on the headrest in the carriage, and then add your second spring.

Lift the foot bar up, you step on to the carriage, your left foot and your right hand, and then your right hand and your left foot go together. Now you're already aligned. So that was a very efficient way to get into your long stretch series. So remember energies rooting through the legs and then it's also going out through the top of your head, right? Find your two-way stretch here.

We'll do two more of those, inhaling, exhale keep their heels reaching back to Keep it back long. Okay, one more, I'm gonna fix my neck and then exhale, straight line from your head to your heels. Come onto your knees, lifting the chest, upper back is nice and extended. Pushing down into your heels, rooting down to your legs. Exhale, open up the chest, open up that heart again.

Inhale, exhale. Open up the chest, open up your heart. We'll do one more here. Inhale, exhale. Open up the chest, open up your heart.

And then now we're gonna go into our up-stretch. Lift the hips up, keep your heels against the shoulder blocks. Pull the belly in, now work your spine. Push the legs out, come forward over and then round your spine to come in. Two more of those, push out, over and then round to come in.

One more and then come forward and then come in. Now we're gonna do a little combo, okay? So you're gonna push out. Hold the carriage out, drop your hips, open up your heart. Pull yourself in, push out.

Keep your heart open, round your spine to come in. Nice combo. Right? One more of those, push out, drop your hips, open up the chest. Keep reaching through the heels. Again the arch comes from the upper back and then you round to come back in.

Okay, try that, it's so nice. Try it responsibly from your center, right? So now from here, we're gonna do our elephant, round, your spine. Find that roundness that you found when you were doing your rowing series, now pull and push. Continuing your two-way stretch to deepen the stretch in your back body and open up your spine.

We just do 10 repetitions here. Belly pulls in, and then come on down. Next is your long back stretch. So you're gonna mount again. Your right hand is gonna go on the foot bar, right heel on the shoulder block, left hand on the foot bar, left heel on the shoulder block.

Spine stays nice and long. You're gonna lower down. Push yourself out. Now, get your back really long as you lift your hips up, lift your hips up, don't move the carriage. Come back in, come back home.

Let's try one more of those. We lower down, push out, push your heels into the shoulder box. Lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, get your back really long. Use your butt and then come on in. Now let's try the reverse, right?

You're gonna push your legs out, hold it here, keep the carriage out, keep it back long. Lower it down with control. Pull yourself in and push out one more. Push out, hold belly in and then lower. There's always a push and pull in Pilates and then come on home.

Okay next, stomach massage. This one's so good to really open up that back and really move with your spine. So you add your third spring. So you're on three Springs now, you slide your foot bar up. What's this called? It's called your pad.

Bring it down this in the middle of the carriage and have a seat, toes are on the foot bar. Holding onto the front of the carriage. Pull the belly in towards your spine. Root down into your pelvic floor, pushing down. Think about your exhale as you squeeze the legs together.

Inhale, come in, exhale down. Remember that exhale really activates the lower part of your core as well as the upper part of your core, which is your diaphragm. That's why the breath is so important in Pilates, but we'll get to that in another class, We do 10 repetitions of the round spine. Now, we come up into a tall spine, hands back, lifting the chest up. This, you really gotta focus on, rooting down into your seat, so that you're nodding your hip flexors.

And you're really working the whole bottom of your seat. As the energy goes out through the top of your head, which happens to be where your higher self is. If you do follow yoga. (inhales and exhales) And who doesn't wanna follow their highest version of themselves, right? It's that self that responds with love and compassion and kindness and goodness in the world, one more.

And then now reach down. You're gonna drop that middle spring, reach your arms out, just straighten and bend your legs three times. Rooting down into your seat while the energy's going out through the top of your head. Now we add a twist, twist to the right and twist to the left, breathe up and down your spine. We'll take one more each way and then come on home.

Next step is the tendon stretch. So you keep yourself on two Springs. You bring your pad down to the edge of the carriage. Already put your feet in Pilate's position. Hands on the foot bar, your arches are at the edge.

You lift yourself up, you think about your rowing exercise, your front rowing exercise here, you pull the belly in and then you push out nice and easy. And then you pull yourself up, right? It's not so much about getting that carriage out in this class. It's about pulling your belly in and opening up your back here, right? Pull your belly in and open up your back.

We'll do one more. And then lift, lift, lift from here. Step on off with control. And now we're onto our short box. So lower your foot bar down.

Place your headrest down. Gently place your handles down into the well, keep your pad because you're gonna need it and take your box. Place it in the short box setting, right on the carriage and then place your pad on top. You're gonna take your dowel, in this class, we place a dowel in front. Some classes, they like to put the do inside the box, but I'm okay with this version.

So you hold onto the strap, place your feet underneath the strap. Pull against the strap here. Now you're gonna give yourself a nice hug then round your spine and let's do the first one. We just far back as you can, like you're rowing, okay? Pull the belly in, open up your back as you come forward.

Two more of those. Okay? Round, Maybe go a little deeper and then come in and up. Now in the third version, let's see if we can get into an extension, right? Push your legs out. And then now stay connected to the center.

Open up your chest, open up your heart into that extension. Stay connected to the center though. Pull the head in, get to that 27th vertebrae as you roll up one bone at a time, deepening your stomach to come up. Okay, feels good, doesn't it? We're gonna get like an inch taller at the end of this session.

At almost every end of Pilates sessions, right? So you're gonna hold onto your dowel, take the arms overhead now, keep your back nice and long. Now pull the belly in, lengthening, exhale. We do not let gravity have its way with us, with our spines in pilates. We lean and we keep ourselves nice and youthful.

We decompress our spine and reaching and then come up. Now we're gonna do side to side, reach to the right. I like to talk about this exercises when you're like organizing your closet or your pantry. and you're putting things up over, right? You wanna lengthen from your spine, not just your arms. Now we add the twist, we rotate.

We lean like you're reaching for the backseat of your car. Come to center, twist. We'll do two more each way. One more each way. Reach, reach, reach, keep your spine nice and long.

Keep rooting down into your legs and in your seat. And then come on home. Now we do our tree. Holding on to your right leg with both hands. Keep your spine nice and tall.

Hold it, walk up, now round over, find that nice rounded back and then keep your leg there. As you walk your hands down, keeping your belly in. Let's do just as far as we can here, keeping our spine rounded, walk up. Now maybe try go further back. Walk down, maybe go a little further back, this time using the box, right?

To find that center connection. Now in that third one, can you try an extension. Only if your body's saying yes to that, okay? You don't have to. Open your heart here and then pull the chin in and then walk up.

And then maybe bring the leg in towards you a little bit more. And then come on back, switch, both hands behind the leg, straighten and bend. Hold it, walk up and then now round over, nose to the knee. Now keeping your back long, walk your hands down, round back, keep the roundness, find the box and then come on up. Pilates also teaches us how to use our bodies and find what we're using in space.

So we're using the box here to find our body. Okay, one more. See if you can get that extension and that upper back, open up your heart here, that physical and spiritual center of yours and then walk up (exhales deeply). And then get that nice little stretch. And then come on back in, all right, let's take the box away, put the dowel away.

And we're into our short spine, which is so divine for your back. It feels so good. This is like dessert for a lot of my clients. It's a nice little treat. So you placed your loops through the handles.

You lie back down on your reformer. You hold onto the leather and with control, lift your legs up, place your feet inside the straps, arms down by the sides. So you push out, your back stays long, and then you lift your legs up in the air, bending your knees, keeping that space, that we talked about at the beginning of class. Keep that space between the ribs and the hips as you roll down, push out, So this keeps your back long, lifting the legs up, right? You don't collapse here, you keep your back nice and long.

You keep your spine nice and open and you roll down with control. Let's do one more of those, pushing out, lifting up, pulling the stomach in to keep that length, bend. And then we come down with control. That was so good that felt really good to me. Now you're gonna gently drop your handles down into the well.

You come on up and then we're gonna do our chest expansion. So replace your handles. You're gonna stay on two Springs. Hook your toes in front of the carriage immediately as you come, you're gonna root down into your legs. So rooting down helps you stay grounded and balanced here.

Holding onto the straps at the edge as far as you can, with a little bit of tension in the straps, pull the arms back, open up your chest, turn your head to the right and left and center and reach again. Energy continues to go out through the top of your head. Left, right and center will do one more each way, Right, Left And center. And you pull keeping your back long and finding that energy aligning in your body. You sit back, add your third spring for thigh stretch.

So we have three Springs now. You walk your knees to the shoulder blocks. Now you place your thumbs on top of the screws and then you lift your chest. We do one version, just finding our place here, leaning back, arms stay connected from the tummy. Go as far back as you can.

But again, straight line from the head to your knees for that one. Now let's play with the little extension. We lean back, pull the belly in, keep your spine long. Now, open up your heart, lift your chin to the ceiling. Drop your head, pull the chin in, come up from there.

Why not try one more. Stay connected to the center, leaning, open up, open the chest and pull the belly in and then come up from there. Wow, that feels so nice to open up your body. Okay, handles go back down. Now we're gonna come down to our back.

Drop two Springs. So actually you're only on two Springs, you dropped one spring down and place your handles down. We're gonna do corkscrew. We did a little upper body rotation earlier. Now we're gonna do a lower body rotation.

Holding onto the metal part of your shoulder blocks, take your legs up in the air, stretch, stretch, stretch, anchor your upper body down. Now circle the legs to the right, pull the belly in, come through the middle and through the left and come to center and go to the left, circle down and around, pull the belly in. We'll do two more each way. Keep reaching the legs out and keep moving. (inhales and exhales) Keeping your body nice and long.

Keeping connected to that center. One more each way. And then come on back home, bend your knees. Now we're gonna introduce a little bit of a lift here with a lower body. As you see, I've slid down a little bit.

I'm gonna measure my arms over my head so that my arms can go right between my head and the shoulder blocks. Holding onto the top of the shoulder blocks. This is an introduction to the next exercise, which is control balance. The legs are stretched out and now all you're gonna do is lift the legs up. Hold that reach, reach, reach, keep your spine nice and long, lower it down with control and then come forward.

It's a little similar entry like the overhead, but this time you're lifting the legs straight up to the ceiling instead of getting them over your head, keep reaching, lowering with control and we'll do one more. Up, keep reaching and then lowering down with control. Bend your knees, place your feet on any part of the apparatus that you can find safely to sit up right. Okay, since this is a spinal alignment class, we have to do long spine. So you're gonna take your extender straps, place them through the loop and the handle at the same time, And then placing them on the shoulder blocks or right behind the shoulder blocks.

And you do that with both, you stay on two springs, it's called the long spine massage. So I want you to think about how you can articulate that spine and massage your spine out, one bone at a time, 27 of them. Okay? So pull the belly in to put your feet into the straps. Bring your arms down by the sides. Now push out now lift up just like you did prior.

Now, open up your legs, reach through the legs and roll down, one bone at a time with control. Keep reaching, reaching, reaching, and then bring your legs together. It's hard to talk through that one. Lift the legs up, open, push and reach because that diaphragm is going in, my pelvic floor is working, my whole center and my whole core is working. We'll do one more of that direction, up open reach and massage your spine out.

Let's go the other way, out and up. Close the legs at the top, reach through the legs, lower with control. Two more, open out and up, and close and reach. Last one, lift up with control, reach through the legs. And lower down with control.

Bend your knees, lift the headrest up. We're just gonna do five frogs here to reset. Now, remember that waist is pulling in like at the beginning of class, right? Keeping that space nice and long between the ribs and the hips. Keeping that chest open and keep breathing into your center and from your center, lift the legs up to 90 and five circles here.

Nice little reset. Good way to enjoy what we've just accomplished. And then reverse the direction. The legs start from the belly. Our spine is a little bit longer.

We feel more aligned and we bring the legs together. We bend your knees, now you're gonna gently lower all of that stuff down in the well. We come up, we lift your foot bar up for your knee stretches, coming down to the knees, round your spine, find that roundness, sit back and just work your lower body. Close the carriage without crashing it, okay? Find that round spine.

10 repetitions, open up the chest for arching in just the upper back. Not the lower back. It may look like the lower back is the arching, but that's just the natural curve of your spine. You're arching the upper back. Now, round your spine for knees off.

You can go, let's do five today, okay? So lift the knees up as you round your spine and we push. (inhales and exhales) And then come on down, reset. Add your third spring. Cause that's what I had for my footwork, running in pelvic lift.

And breathe, it's a nice little moment here that you can enjoy, right? Of things that you accomplished. We've got a couple more things to finish with. It's usually 10 repetitions with each leg. Lift the heels up, come on in.

Now, bring your arches to the corners. Lift your hips up curl. Now you gotta keep your back long. This isn't a bridge. This is a pelvic lift, it's a little different.

Here you keep your spine nice and long. Press. Your abdominals are pulling in. Your abs are nice and strong and the legs start from the abs. And then come on home.

Okay, last bit. We're gonna do splits today. Drop two springs, you're dropping one spring down, lower your foot bar down. You're gonna need two pads. One pad is gonna go to the shoulder block towards you.

The other one is gonna go on the frame towards you. You stand in the middle. You're gonna place your right foot on the frame cause that's not moving. And then you can either step the other leg out or heel, toe it out, okay? So I'm on two Springs, open up your arms.

You can do two or one, but right now I'm on two. I maintained it at two. You push out, now you hold yourself out. Now keep your spine long, exhale, close the legs. Inhale, push out, rooting down into your feet, right?

And then exhale. Closing the pelvic floor, we'll do one more. We stay out here, hold it. Stay connected to your center. Round your spine, reach for the carriage, keep the carriage out, roll up one bone at a time, keep your arms up.

Extend your upper body up. Come back to home, open your arms out and then bring your legs together. Now we do that with the carriage in, round your spine, reach for the carriage, roll up, come into a straight spine, open up the chest, open up your heart, look up, come back to center, open your arms out and then step the carriage foot in, the frame foot in and we do that to the other side, but a little differently, okay. So move the pads so that they're closer towards you. And you're coming from the back.

Excuse my back. But it's always good to get a back view too, right? You step up on the carriage. You place the left foot on the carriage and then you either step the other foot out or heel, toe it out. You press your arms out, push out as far as you can, while maintaining the integrity of your straight neutral spine and then exhale, come in, two more, push out, hold, keep reaching through those legs.

Energy going out through the top of your head. Now this time the carriage stays out. Standing so, rounding over, left hand to the right foot. Try not to move the carriage, open your arms out and then right hand to left foot and then come up, open your arms, close the legs. We do that one more time with the carriage in, round your spine, come up with control and right hand to left foot and then come up with control.

Step off the carriage easily, effortlessly come on down. And I hope you feel nice and aligned. I hope you feel expanded and more youthful and vibrant and I'll see you next time.