Trust the Unknown

Hi, my name is Regina and in today's intermediate reformer class, we're gonna focus on trusting the unknown. It's a skill that we can develop to build adaptability in the rest of our lives as well as in the studio, we're gonna hop on right on the reformer. I'm on three springs. We're gonna do our footwork and we're gonna do 10 repetitions as per usual. And at this point you wanna think about flowing already, right?

So you've been practicing your two-way stretch. You're finding your spinal alignment and you've built your balance. Now you can trust the center and just explore how far you can go. I want you to think about reaching those legs away and pulling the belly in, and let's go right onto our arches, breathing in and exhaling. One of my teachers likes to use the analogy of a bubble.

How much can you reach if you are inside a bubble? So I want you to think about that as we go through this workout today and explore this unknown. Use your imagination. Pretend you're in this bubble. And I want you to think about reaching as much of inside the bubble as you can.

I'm on my heels now. And we finish our 10th one here and we come back down and we do our tendon stretch. Keep reaching into the bubble and breathing, building that strong connection to your center. (breathes deeply) Really connect to that center here. Keep pulling the belly in as the heels go down.

All right, come on in. Let's do your hundred. Lower your foot bar down, hold onto the handles right away. And I can't find them. Let me find my handle.

(chuckles) We're gonna come back down. Reach your arms up. Squeeze the legs together. I trust the unknown there. I knew it was back there in the well somewhere.

All right, heels together. Turn your toes out. Let's jump right into the hundred. Pull the belly in, connect from your upper back and go. (breathes deeply) Breathing in. Spine stays long.

Can you reach your toes inside that bubble, right? Can you imagine that bubble? Even energy goes out through the top of your head towards the bubble. Breathing in. Exhaling. (exhales sharply) We've got a few more to go.

Keep your body long. Keep that spine and long. Keep deepening the stomach and really connect to that center. (breathes deeply) And then release back. Both handles in the hand, swivel up to sit, drop your one spring down so you're on two springs, and we're gonna go right into the overhead.

And today I want you to think of the rhythm and just go for it, okay? So the arms are up. Legs are straight out. Pull the belly in and then go over and up. Reach for the bubble. Keep reaching those toes as you lower down with control.

Two more and over and up, yes. Find that rhythm. Pull the belly in, keep reaching, reaching, reaching those toes and let's do one more. Balancing, controlling, connecting, and then bend your elbows. Come right into coordination. Press out.

We're flowing now. Bend the knees, bend your elbows. Push. Let's do one more. That was a set of four.

And back. All right, let's come up to sit. Let's do your back rowing. Drop one spring down so you are on one spring, palms-distance away from the front of the carriage, holding onto the handles. Round your spine.

Reach for the bubble with your toes. Now reach your arms out for the bubble. Come forward, arms back and up, up, up, even reach to the top of the bubble here with those fingers and then come up from there and pull the belly in and push out. Hold it, round forward, lift up, up, up, and then reach. Let's do one more of those.

And round. Push out. How far can you go from the stomach? And up, up, up, open out, come back home. Greater than 90 degrees with your elbows, lean back. Use those legs, reach up and then come forward.

We finish the same way. Belly in, up, up, up, open up your back. We'll do two more of those. (breathes deeply) Breathe. And up.

And down. Keep reaching. Can you feel that bubble around you, right? Trusting that you can expand your awareness and expand your energy and know what's happening all around you in 360 degrees. And then come up from there.

Now you're gonna turn around for your front rowing. Bring your hands from the chest up and down. Energy goes out to the top of your head. Keep reaching your fingers to the bubble, open your arms out and bend. Two more.

And down. Lengthen. Know where your body is in space, right? And how important is that? Because it's not like we're walking around with a mirror with us all the time.

So we really need to know how we're carrying ourselves in space. Now, from the hips, flex your feet, round and stretch, reach for your toes and pull the belly in, reach for the bubble, open out, and then come back. We are flowing in our front rowing and rounding and up. That was a cool rhyme. Up, up, up, up, open up the chest.

One more here and round and stretch. Lengthen the spine, open out, and then come on back with control. Flip your fingers through the handles. Open your arms out for shaving. Can you get your hands behind your head?

Can you keep pressing the index fingers and the thumbs together to find that connection? Let's do one more. Hold it. Stretch your arms out. Switch the crosses of your legs and then hug a tree. (breathes deeply) Let the work come from your center and then come on in.

Next up, long box. Let's add your second spring so you're on two springs now. Get the box, place it on top of the carriage. We're doing our full swan without the straps, 'cause we're gonna trust that we're gonna ground into the legs. So right away, mount on the frame, heels together.

Turn your toes out. Push the carriage out. Find your sweet spot. You've been practicing. Round forward over the box.

Take a deep, deep breath in, open up your heart, touch the bubble with your fingers. Round your spine, open and then reach. Pull the belly in, lift the upper body up, round over and then come on down. Two more that way. Open and flow and round.

Connect to your back body, connect to your front body and all the way around in 360 degrees. And round. Let's do one more Trust that you know what you're doing and open and stretch. Two-way stretch here. Spine is long and round and come on in, push up, lift your hips up.

Take that spring off. You're only on one spring now. Come down for your pull straps and your T. Weave your hands through the handles. Walk your hands up.

Thumbs are on top of the straps. Four, pull straps, reach (breathes deeply). Open up your heart and come down. Keep reaching those legs back. Come down with control. Let's take one more.

Come down with control. Now, T pull. Slide your arms out and pull back. Open and reach for the bubble with your knuckles. Expand your wings one more time.

Out and down. Replace the handles down. Step on off. Add your second spring for back rowing. Holding onto the handles, place your hands on the box.

Get as far forward as you can on the box to lie down, bend your elbows and your knees, curl the head and the shoulders up. Arms and legs up, big circle out and reach and pull yourself in. Two more that way. Reach. Let's go the other way, Press, open out and up, and in.

And two, open out and up. Last one, open out and up. Come on in. Teaser up to sit and then lower your feet down. Or you can keep your legs up.

It's really up to you where your body is today. Lie down on your back. Even as I'm switching my hands around and changing my equipment, I'm trusting that I know my relationship with my apparatus. Rolling up. Just move the arms, pull the belly in.

Now reach. (breathes deeply) Some of you might even be able to go farther than I do with my arms, right? As long as it comes from the center of your body, you can go as far as you can. Arms over and roll up. (inhales sharply) Now let's draw those circles. Again, you can bring your arms up a little higher if you'd like.

You're welcome to as long as it comes from the right place. Hold it there, lower it down. (exhales deeply) Last one. We're gonna circle the arms and then the legs. Hold the arms up and now circle the legs. Hold it, reach.

And then everything goes down with control. And then replace your handles back. Let's come up to sit. We're gonna do hamstring curls and horseback. So drop one spring down because it's really important to know what's going back, what's going on behind you, okay?

So bring your straps through the handles. You're gonna cross the straps. You're gonna take your right foot on the left strap, your left foot on the right strap. Turn over with control. Now, place your hands behind your back and then make sure you actually have a spring (laughs) and then open up your chest.

So you're on one spring here with your hamstring curls. Pull the belly in. Again. I love hamstring curls. It really helps us connect to the back of our body, right? When we're sitting all the time, right, we tighten up the front of our body.

So we wanna build balance and then get that back of the body just as strong and be as aware of what's going on back there. And then the bonus is it actually looks pretty good, okay? Two more. All right. Swing your arms. Lower your legs out.

Place your hands on the box for horseback. Reach down. Now you're gonna squeeze into the box. Straighten your legs, flex your feet. And now round your spine. Reach.

Bring your arms down. Pull the belly in (breathes deeply). Squeeze into the box as much as you can, hold it, lower everything down with control. Again, coming from the center of your body and rounding. Circles. (breathes deeply) You can reach as far as you can, as long as it comes from the right place.

Hold it. And then come down with control. We're gonna do one more set and round and stretch. Belly pulls into the back. 'Cause there is the wall of that bubble behind you.

Hold it and then come down with control. It's time for the long stretch, my friends. You're gonna place the box off to the side. The whole series of the long stretch. Get your pad, lift your headrest up.

Add your second spring. Lift the foot bar up. Let's mount right away. Right hand, left foot, left hand, right foot. Trust that your spine is nice and aligned.

Push back and come forward. Two more. And come forward. Last one, hold it stay, as far forward as you can, now bend your knees. Come down, arch your upper back.

(breathes deeply) And up. Exhale. And up. Last one here. Hold it. Now push off. Reach your arms up. Open your heart here and enjoy that stretch.

Place your hands on the foot bar. Lift your hips up. Rolling back. Coming forward. Two more of this version. Come forward.

(breathes deeply) Now we go into that combo. Drop your hips, open, push out, round to come in. Again. Drop your hips, open, push out. Last one, drop your hips and out.

And then come on in. Step off with control, flowing right into your long back stretch. Heels on the shoulder blocks and hands on the foot bar. And we go for it. Hold, reach.

And then come on back, flowing through your long back stretch. Lift your hips up and one more this way. And then come on in. Let's reverse it. And down.

Keep your chest open, keep reaching. And down. I can do better. I know I can, and I'm gonna do better here. And then we lower and then we come up and we step on off.

So, you know, even for us, it's a struggle sometimes, right? So have a seat for stomach massage. Toes on the foot bar, holding onto the front of the carriage, lift your heels up. And we flow. Exhale.

Look into your belly and keep pulling your back to the back. And breathe (exhales sharply) and breathe. We do 10 repetitions of this. And I want you to do is immediately put your hands back as we go into a flat back after your 10th repetition. Okay?

So go right into your hands back. Trust that you know where those shoulder blocks are. Deep breath, lengthen your spine. 10 repetitions here. Keep working from the right place.

Feels good. You hear me breathing because that's kind of my secret to getting through this flow, is really working my breath. But we'll talk about that another time, okay? Last one, reach down, drop your spring and go right into the next. So you know where your equipment is, right?

You've been practicing and now trust that. We'll do two more. So that was five reps. And now we do three reps of the twist. Reach back, reach for the back seat of your car.

Maybe somebody's back there. You wanna hand 'em something. You're on a road trip. Gonna give 'em a little trail mix or something while you keep one hand on the wheel, right? It's a good skill to have.

All right, come on off. It's tendon stretch time. So I've got a fun variation for you. We're gonna do three regular tendon stretches. We're gonna explore one-leg tendon stretch, and then we're gonna get to the side and then we might try it behind us.

So stand on up. Arches are at the edge. Push out three times. Keep reaching your heels down into the well. Hold it.

Let's do the right leg out to the side. Keep that big toe pointing up. Now hold it, take that leg back. Get that leg up behind you. Hold it.

Switch. Left leg out. Keep that big toe reaching out to the side, to that bubble. And then take that left leg back. Get that leg up there.

Use it. One more. (groans) Woo! And then come on down with control. I kind of love that one. All right, next up, we're gonna do short box.

So drop your foot bar down. Keep your pad there. We've gotta get our handles down in the well, And then you're gonna find your dowel. Place it in front of the box. Reach down for the straps.

Feet go through, pulling against the straps. Do your best to not make noise. One of my teachers says, "Try not to make noise when you're moving around." So that'll tell you if you've got a good, secure lower body. So wrap your arms around your waist. Let's go for that extension already, okay?

Rounding, trusting that you're connected to the center. Open up your heart, pull the chin in. Use your box to come up and pull the belly in. Two more. How much are you reaching with those legs?

And then how much are you reaching for that bubble? Opening up your heart And then coming in and then come up from there Reach for your dowel. Bring your arms overhead, pull against the dowel to find that upper back connection. Lean back (inhales sharply) as far as you can, connecting and staying with your double leg stretch. You can go as far back as you can.

Let's take one more here. (exhales sharply) Side to side. How long can you get your spine? How much control can you have from the center of your body? Now we're gonna twist.

And twist. You know what? We're so good at twist our now, we're just gonna take it around the world. Twist to the right, go around the world. Come up, come back.

Let's go to the left and go around the world. Keep reaching out and bring yourself back home. Now you're gonna take right leg out. Straighten, then bend the leg three times for your tree. Hold it. Walk your hand up to your ankle.

Round down. Get the nose down as far as you can, maybe take the leg with you. Now adjust if you need to, hopefully you don't too much. Walk your hands down and back. Lay back.

Can you touch the floor? Roll up. Come on up. Belly in. Can you touch the frame? Hold onto it.

Find that connection. Roll up. Now, can you go back to the floor? You're gonna keep your hands on the floor. Press your hands down into the floor. Let's do three leg circles.

You're not looking at your legs. You know you're coming from the center of your body. Go the other way. Hold it. Walk up. Ah, felt good to open up, right?

Switch. Hands behind the leg. Straighten and bend three times. Hold it, walk up. And then round forward.

Come up, take the leg with you. Walk your hands down. Let's touch the floor. Pull the belly in, come up from there. Walk back, touch the frame.

Reach and then walk up. You see me pulling against that frame. It really helps me connect a little deeper. Walk back. Let's get to the floor again.

Hold onto the floor, press into the floor to circle your legs. Three times towards the right and let's go the other way. Reaching for that bubble. You can't even see it, but you know you're lengthening your legs. You know that you're lengthening your spine.

(sighs) And then you finish and you step off for your short spine. Dowel goes down, pad goes down, box goes off. Handles come back, but you're gonna take your leather through, you're gonna hook 'em. As you do. You're on two springs, still.

Lie down on your back. See, the system's really a build, right? So each exercise builds us from one to the other, right? Pushing out. You probably see the shape that I'm making here from my overhead and my rowing.

And then I'm bending and I'm rolling my spine. That's your stomach massage. And lift. So you're really applying all of what you learned previously to the next exercise. Now you're gonna keep the hips up.

We're gonna do our high frog. Press and bend. We're gonna do four more of these. Last one. Hold it. Reach your legs up.

Bend your knees, roll your spine down with control. Take your feet out carefully and then gently lower the handles down into the well. Come up to sit and we're gonna do semi-circle. Foot bar is up. We're balancing.

We're trusting that we can really get our full range of motion here. So lift your body up as much as you can, right? And then you're gonna come towards the foot bar. Push your hands into the shoulder blocks. Keep those heels together.

Rolling down. Get your butt down into the well, hold it. Push out only halfway and then roll up. The ribs are the last thing to come up. Come on in. Two more.

And honestly, I can do this all day. Feels so good on the back. Okay, one more. Press and then come up, come in, push out. There's nothing like this.

It's called the closed chain connection when you're pushing your hands and your feet into something. For me, it really helps me connect to my center, which really helps me control my movement from my center. And lift up and come on in. If you want, you can give yourself a nice little stretch here too, okay? (exhales deeply) All right. Come on off.

And it's time for chest expansion. Now you're staying on two springs. You've gotta grab your handles. Place them back to where you can hold onto them. And we're gonna do our chest expansion with the balance.

So the toes are not hooked on or against the shoulder blocks. Holding onto your straps, lifting the chest, pressing down into the legs, rooting down, lean back, or pull the arms back, I should say, don't lean back. Twist right. Left. Center.

Pull. Turning left and right. Center. Stay tall. Energy's going out through the top of your head.

Right, left, center. Keep the tension in the straps, okay? You saw me lose the tension there. I got a little distracted, right? But you wanna maintain the tension in the straps to stay connected to the apparatus.

Now, both straps go in one hand. Sit back. You're gonna add your third spring for your thigh stretch, okay? Walk up, stay grounded into the legs. Pull the belly in and lean.

And come up. If you feel good, go for that extension. (exhales sharply) Let's do one more. Open up the front of your body by connecting to the back body. Place your handles down.

We're gonna test that trust now. Drop one spring and remain on two springs. Lift the foot bar up. If you've been practicing the extensions, you're welcome to try this. Sometimes it's better to have a spot, a friend or a teacher, but if you've been practicing for a while and you're a little fearless, like I am, you're welcome to do this back bend, okay?

So you take the arms up. What helps me is ground down into my legs. I pull the belly in and I focus, reaching the arms up and I trace an imaginary line and I find the foot bar. And then I ground down into my legs to come up and then I try to go a little deeper, leaning up. Trusting my center.

Trusting my connection. And then last one. (inhales deeply) Reaching. Connecting to my whole body. If you want, you can give yourself a little counter stretch, an active stretch. Come down to your forehead, pulling the belly in to your back.

It's good. It's like when you feel that connection to yourself, you really trust yourself and you can navigate through your life a lot happier and a lot better. Okay! Now we're gonna come down. We're gonna do our snake. So let's drop one spring.

There's nothing like trusting the balance here and trusting our connection. My right foot is on an angle against the foot bar. Left hand is on the shoulder block. I make a fist with my hand. Now I use my legs to press up and connect to my center.

From here, breathing in, I open up my heart. I reach my heart for the bubble. And then I come in. Now we go halfway to the twist. Press and you look over your shoulder, if you can.

Don't move the carriage and then come in. Now let's try pushing out in that twist, opening up, trusting our connection. Look over, come up, dip your hip a little bit. Lift, place your hands back on the carriage And feel accomplished. Next side, left foot on the foot bar.

Right hand on the shoulder block. Fist on the carriage. Pull the belly in. Lift and then push out. Exhale. Open up.

Enjoy this beautiful day and round. Halfway out, drop, twist. Look over your shoulder and then come back. Last one, test it, reach it. Find the bubble, reach for the back.

Up, dip, lift. Come on back home. Feels great, right? Okay. Now let's add your second spring for your corkscrew.

We're just gonna do two times each direction. Open up the chest. Legs are up. If you wanna go for the lift, go for the lift, right? Bring your legs forward.

Lift up, hold it, roll down. And do your best to keep your elbows open, okay? So for me, one of the things that I'm working on is really keeping my elbows here open, right? So again, we are all works in progress. We all have things to work on.

And then lower down with control. Now we slide on down for our controlled balance. Measure over your head, holding onto the shoulder blocks, straighten your legs. You're gonna lift the legs up from the stomach. Shoot 'em up like you did your overhead.

Reach. Right foot. Left foot. Find the frame, find the frame with your right. Slide on down and use the frame.

Come up, open up your heart, come down, stay connected to the center as you remount. And then we're gonna do that to the other side. Lift up, hold it, touch the frame and touch. Use your proprioception. That means what can you do to feel your body in space without looking at it, Rounding.

Remounting and then coming off. Long spine, keeping yourself on two springs. Gives me a time to catch my breath here. We bring the straps through the loops in the handles. Clip 'em.

And then you're gonna lie down on your back. Maybe dab yourself off a little because you're glistening so much. Make sure that headrest is down. Put your feet in the straps without moving them and pressing out. We're gonna do two repetitions each direction.

Open out and reach. (exhales deeply) One more this way. Up. Reaching out, out, out, stretching your spine, and then we're gonna reverse it. Lifting up. Close and reach. Come on down. One more.

And up. And reach. And then bend your knees. Now, if you're feeling pretty groovy and sassy and a little fearless, like I am, I'm gonna teach you something. It might not be in the classical work, but it's something that I was taught that I enjoy, okay?

So you're gonna hold on. Your elbows are pointing up to the ceiling. You're holding on to the carriage with your hands. Your legs are gonna come up and you're gonna try to do your long spine without the straps. You gotta stay connected to the center and think about that bubble.

You gotta keep reaching for that bubble and you lift up. (exhales sharply) Reach and roll, reach and roll, reach, and roll, and then come on in. Pop your headrest up, all right? And let's place your feet in the straps again for just a nice little treat, for the frogs in circles. (breathes deeply) Breathing life into your body.

Returning to life, I should say. You have been breathing life into your body this whole time. You've been building resiliency and adaptability and confidence in yourself, in your body, your mind and in your soul because they are all connected. And what we wanna do is really have those components of ourselves in harmony because we cannot separate them. And when we do that, we move through our lives with more confidence, more presence, and more trust in how we navigate this world.

All right. Now let's come up. We're gonna do our knee stretches. Just flow here, okay? Round your spine.

10. Still think about your bubble. Lifting the chest, flowing. Okay. Rounding, knees off. Up to 10.

(breathing heavily) Come on down, okay? Add your third spring. Running in pelvic lift. You know, when we trust our center, we trust what centers us, we realize our full potential. You know, all we have is here.

So it's good to try to make the most of it. We each have an individual gift to give. And how we connect to that gift is connecting to our center and our gut, if you will, okay? Heels up, arches, lifting the hips up, pushing out. You know, all my talk isn't just mysticism, it's science too, right?

Your gut is like your second brain, right? They've definitely proved that. So the more we work our center, the more we strengthen that connection to the center, the more we strengthen that connection to our gut and our intuition, okay? Because what is science but a study of the mystic, right? So we're gonna stand up and we're gonna do some splits.

So the splits today, we're gonna do some Russian splits, right? We're facing away. We're gonna take our pad right where the headrest and the carriage meet. I'm gonna mount from the back. My right foot is gonna, or I'm gonna step on the carriage.

My right foot's gonna be on the foot bar. My left foot is gonna be on both the headrest and the carriage. I'm gonna push myself out. I'm gonna use my back leg to stabilize myself. I'm gonna press that left leg straight.

You gotta keep using that right leg behind you. You gotta keep reaching for that bubble behind you in that right leg to power the mobility of the front leg. And you stay here. You hold yourself in space. You lean forward, hands go behind your head.

You press off. (breathes sharply) Hold it, lift your arms up, round over, and then straighten your legs. Come on back home. Go ahead and switch sides. Left foot on the foot bar, toes are on the headrest. Bend your knees.

The left leg is powering that. Pulling the belly in, stretch yourself out. And breathing. Hold it. That was my fourth. Keep your belly and keep reaching that left leg back.

And then you're in a diagonal with your body. Good. Arms up, round over. Straighten your legs. Pull yourself in. Last exercise, my friends, is the controlled pushups. You can place your pad to this side.

We're gonna gear out. So drop your springs, gear yourself one, and then add your gear stop, okay, to that last setting or the first setting closest to the gears. And if you've never done this, or if you're new to this, do two springs so that you can just feel your balance, but I've got one spring. And you really wanna go for the stretch, but stay connected to the center of your body here, okay? So you're gonna mount the foot bar.

Hands on the shoulder blocks. You gotta stay connected. You're only on one spring, remember. So presence of mind helps you stay connected. Push out from your belly, hold, go for the stretch and then pull yourself in.

Let's do one more. Hold, go for the stretch and then come in. Now, if you want, you can take that right leg up and you reach away. It's just like how we end the mat work, right? With the one-legged pushup.

And then switch. And then come on in. Step off. And again, feel that sense of accomplishment. You've trusted the unknown.

And when you do that, you connect to your center and you realize your full potential to be here. I hope you enjoyed and I'll see you next time.