Box Play Reformer

Hi, I'm Delia Buckmaster, and welcome to Pilates Anytime. Today, we'll be doing a reformer routine using the box the whole entire class. So it'll either be in the long box version, short box version, or also on the floor. So get ready to play with the box. Today, I have the box on the reformer starting off as a long box position, so taking the length of the carriage.

And I have the red spring on, and I always center the spring. So that way, the carriage moves nice and smooth. If you don't have a red spring and you don't have the same reformer as I'm using, it is a full tension spring. I also have the footbar in its high bar position. So let's get started.

I'm gonna have a seat on the box facing backwards, and we're gonna warm up using the resistance of the straps. So I'm gonna reach down where I have my straps hooked on the L hooks. And I'm gonna go ahead and grab on to these shorter loops. So where you'll be sitting on the box is gonna be very dependent on your femur length, how tall you are, and the comfort comfort of your hips with your feet on the headrest. So hands out in front, palms facing each other, let's try this.

On our sitz bone, you can always adjust yourself if you're not on the right spot. So get deep inhale breath as you sit up nice and tall. And then, go ahead and roll yourself back to about a half roll back. So make sure that you're not just rocking on your pelvis, that you're actually intently scooping the abdominals in and moving the pelvis away from your thighs. Sitting up nice and tall, leading forward with your arms.

It's an exhale breath as you roll back. (breathes audibly) It's an inhale breath as you sit up. Now, depending again on your arm length, you might need to adjust where you hold onto the rope. Just remember that the higher you hold onto the rope, the more tension you have. And this actually will be easier on you the more tension you have because it will pull you up a little bit easier to your seat. So continue to roll back, squeezing those inner thighs together.

Eyes forward, allowing your head to just drop where it's supposed to go. So don't focus on your head and neck. Just look forward and it'll just drop right on your shoulders. One more time, as you gimme a half roll back, scooping your abdominals in and pause, and then sitting up nice and tall. Let's take it back to that half roll back and hold.

From here, we'll go into a little bit of pulsing here just for emphasis on those abdominals. And then, make sure that your lower back is in a comfortable position. So where I'm sitting on my hip bone is gonna be maybe different than where you're sitting. So if you have a very tight lower back, you're gonna have to adjust to that. You might only be able to come down about halfway.

If you have that flexibility today, go ahead and take it way low and feel that shaking. Shoulders nice and wide yet protract at the shoulder blades for emphasis on that flexion. And then, reaching with those arms, sit up nice and tall and pause. So I'm gonna sit back just a little bit further, so that way I can get a little bit more tension onto the rope. And then from here, I'm gonna go into a little bow and arrow so that I can add some rotations.

So tall with your spine. I'm gonna bend the left elbow, so I draw that elbow into the ribs, as I punch my right arm forward and find a nice rotation with my spine. And then, I'm gonna extend my arm forward and pause. I'm gonna stay to one side. So again, left elbow, I'll draw that towards my ribs.

And then, I'll come forward, reaching the arm forward. So make sure that it feels like a push and pull. So as my left shoulder blade glides through the center of my spine, my right shoulder blade is moving further away. We'll do it one more time on this side. That could be an inhale or an exhale, depending on what you wanna feel.

And then, go back to start. Try the other side. Drawing the arm into the ribs, punching the left one forward, and then sitting up nice and tall. And again. And rotate.

And return. And let's continue using both an inhale and an exhale. So try both breaths 'cause that's gonna change what you feel. That inhale might give you just a little bit more rotation in that push, pull position. Let's alternate now.

Inhale to the left, exhale center. Inhale to the right, exhale. Now, how fast you move is going to be dependent on how fluid you can make these movements. So make sure that they still feel pretty precise. You're still feeling that nice opening and rotation into the thoracic spine.

And make sure that you are not twisting into that low back. That's a very important cue. We wanna open up the chest and breathe properly. Over to the other side. And then, return.

So now with your arms out in front, I'm gonna have you bring those arms behind you into what we call plow position, but just into a little chest expansion if that's the language that you understand. And then, just open up the chest and feel a little thoracic extension. And then, bring the arms forward, lining up your shoulders with your hips again. So inhale. Opening up, retracting the shoulder blades, eyes towards the ceiling.

Exhale and release. Now, I am inhaling. So for emphasis on the extension, the opening of the ribs, and getting as much air into my lungs as possible. And the exhale, I'll find that tall, tall spine. And then, return.

Don't worry about the gesture of your arms. Just worry about the mobility of the upper part of your back. And returning the arms back and forward. You can take a little rest here into flexion. Take a deep inhale.

And on your exhale, you're gonna come all the way back up. Now, I'm gonna go to my rhomboids. I'm gonna take my arm inside the longer loops. And then, the rhomboids are gonna lead us to the next series of exercises. So my arms go in the longer loops, my arms are up like a doctor that just washed his or her hands.

So the elbows are right below the shoulder. Palms face me. I'm gonna open up my arms so that my hands line up with my ears, maintaining a nice, tall posture, and then bring the arms forward. And again. So what you wanna do is just find those end ranges of your shoulders without overstretching the front, and then still stabilizing through the back. Inhale to open. Exhale to return.

Can we feel those shoulder blades glide across the spine? Glide across the ribs towards the center. Inhale, exhale. One more time, making sure the palms face the body the whole time. Once you do this last repetition, we're gonna scoot the bottom forward.

You're gonna take the hands, interlace them behind the head, and then, from here, you're gonna roll yourself all the way down supine on the box. Now, depending on your torso length, you might make some adjustments here as to where your lying. I'm gonna keep my feet actually on the headrest to open up the front of the hip. And then, I'm gonna take my upper back, upper thoracic, neck, and I'm going to extend back on the box. From here, nod the chin, and I'm gonna go into a little flexion.

Now, the reason behind the straps on the arms is to give you a little assist. So I'm gonna exhale to flex. The rope and the resistance are gonna pull me up just a little bit higher, so I could focus mainly on the stretch of my back and not the engagement and shortening of the front of the body. Inhale to open. Exhale to flex. (breathes audibly) And again. Lengthening through the front body, and then trying to lengthen through that back body.

Now, let's try the legs in open kinetic chain. So legs up to a tabletop position. I'm gonna squeeze my inner thighs together. So you wanna feel like you've got a tray that you could balance there on the shins. Take the upper body back, inhale.

And then, exhale to flex. Now, because I brought my legs up and my hips in flexion, that's gonna allow me for a little bit more upper body flexion because I could press gently with my lower back into the carriage. Exhale. Now, I have worked with a couple of clients where this movement makes them a little bit dizzy. So if that's happening to you, just shorten your range of motion or just stop doing the exercise altogether.

It's just a little bit of a, sometimes if you get tendency to have vertigo, just dropping your head back and forth like this can make someone dizzy. Exhale to flex. (breathes audibly) One more time, inhale. (breathes audibly) And then, exhale to flex. Now, I'm just gonna drop my left foot down to the headrest. And then from here, maintaining flexion and maintaining a 90-degree angle of the knee, I'm gonna rotate to the right. So now, with my arms in the straps, it's gonna feel more like airplane wings as I rotate.

And it's coming from the mid back, so I'm really working on increasing that rotation. So it doesn't feel like a pinch in my obliques. It feels like it's coming from one side of the rib onto my left side to my right, so it feels like one long line. One more time. As I rotate, I'm gonna find center, maintain flexion.

You can rest if you like, but I'm gonna stay up here. Left leg up. Rotate to the left side, one, and back to center. And rotate, and two. Again, like airplane wings, it should keep you nice and stable.

Just visualize if someone was behind you and holding onto your shoulders there and just guiding that rotation to the side. One more time as you rotate left, bring that left foot down to the headrest, and then release back and let that tension go. And stay here as long as you'd like, taking a couple of breaths for me right now. Inhale. (breathes audibly) Exhale breath. (breathes audibly) And then, I'm gonna reach my arms out in front as I flex my spine, grabbing onto the rope, so it pulls me all the way up. So now, seated on the box, we're gonna do some of your back rowing prep exercises.

I'm gonna sit back the length of the femur. My feet are still flat on the box. I'll hold onto the short loops. Just a reminder, we're still on one red spring. Palms face down.

Sitting up nice and tall, you're gonna plow those arms back and forth. So what you wanna focus on is posture. So even if you're working with your extremities, your upper body or your lower extremities, you wanna make sure that you haven't forgotten and you've maintained the integrity of your torso. So if my arms are moving back and forth, and I can't keep a tall spine, then I either need less resistance or I need less repetition. And as you're moving those arms back, can you move them from the back of your body?

Can you move 'em from your spine and not just from the shoulder? So that it really creates a nice, long line from the sitz bone all the way up to the crown of the head. From here with my arms forward, I'm gonna take 'em up just a little bit higher and turn my palms towards each other, and then I'm gonna open up from here and then forward. Now, with my arms further away from the midline of my body, or I should say my hands, the muscles that I'm recruiting are gonna be smaller. So it's gonna be a little bit more challenging.

So make sure the arms aren't too high that you're gonna over-recruit those upper traps and cause that tension at the back of the neck. So maintain a nice long line with that cervical spine. Arms forward, arms back. And I'm gonna do that one more time. And then, as my arms come forward, maintain the tall posture, turn the palms up, and then go to your bicep curls.

Again, focusing on posture. So here's a benefit to being on the box and doing these exercises. If you have really tight hip flexors, or if you're injured and you can't get up and down on the reformer, this is a way easier way to do all of the back rowing and front rowing work. Inhale, make sure you get that full extension of the elbow. It's very easy to forget about that.

Two more times. One more time. Now, my palms are facing up. Okay, now, this is challenging to keep that wrist straight. So with your palms facing up, let's pull the arms back and imagine that you've now hooked the arms behind a bar.

So the only thing you could do is bend, extend the elbow. So disassociate that humerus to the shoulder, that's gonna stay nice and steady. The wrist is gonna stay nice and straight, and I hope I'm demonstrating that here for you today. The elbow is extending, so I'm really getting the tricep. This is a big burn.

Again, one red spring. One red spring for 20 years and I haven't changed it. Inhale, and still super challenging. Two more times. One more.

And then, I'm going to release those arms forward. I'm gonna slouch for just a second 'cause you know you want to. Then, I'll place the straps over the blocks. And then, I am actually gonna turn around. And no straps, but hands on the bar.

So counterintuitive to sitting on my hips, I'm gonna put myself in extension. So the bar is at its high bar position, which is great. So you can rotate one red spring. If it's not enough spring or too much spring, you're right there. You can reach down and change it.

So you flip over. Chest over the box. Just like it would be if you were doing long box series facing the other way. From here, extend your arms. And then, you can kinda put yourself in good position here. So my legs are adducted, squeezed together.

Pubic bone pressing down into the box. Abs are pulled in, arms are long. So I want you to imagine that those hands meet the shoulder way in the middle of your back to form almost a V. From here, swan. Lift your eyes, crown of the head to the ceiling, find extension, and then push back.

So again, head up first, eyes up, inhale breath, and exhale breath. You can change the position of your body on the box. If it's not quite right, please start over. Don't think you're committed to that position. And then, wrap those hands around the bar.

Because if you press into those fingertips, those nerve endings will send a nice little message, pulling you a little bit higher towards that ceiling. I love that feeling. Inhale as you extend, (breathes audibly) and exhale. Let's try that one more time. My repetitions are based on how good it feels, so there we go.

Now, from here, shoulder presses. So nice and tall with the spine. Still engaged with the back body and legs. I'm gonna bend my elbows, and they're gonna face more down towards the floor, or if your head was noon on the clock, then the elbows are going like to say, I don't know, seven and five o'clock, somewhere in there. But visualize that so you can maintain consistency here.

(Delia breathes audibly) Strong through legs. So I'm working my lower body. It is not being lazy. Those inner thighs are working. The back of my legs are working. I am not squeezing my glute. I am floating my legs up.

And again, open those legs a little bit wider if it works better for you. Now, returning the carriage so I can relax for just a moment. We are gonna go into single arm. So I'm gonna bring my hands a little teeny bit closer to each other so that they feel like they're maybe more in line in my peripheral vision. I'm gonna extend my arms out and pause.

I'll take my right arm and place that forearm into the box as I bend one elbow. So I'll do four repetitions on each side. Inhale, exhale. (breathes audibly) Two more. One more. And then, I'll switch sides, bringing my hand on and left forearm in.

By pressing that forearm down into the box, it will help align you. And I don't remember, I might have said it in the beginning, but I use my spring in the center. And one of the reasons I use my center spring is because I feel like I'm lined up with it so I can keep my body pretty straight. It's just a point of reference. One more.

Both hands on the bar, a little bit wider now. So from here, shoulders wide, you can relax the lower body if you need to, but then reset it up. So press the hips down, float the legs. This time, I'm gonna keep that engagement at the back body as I swim my legs. Now, the swimming has to come from the hip joint.

I mean, it doesn't have to, but essentially that's what you wanna feel. You wanna feel that glute to hamstring attachment there. That's where you're moving from. And what's frustrating is that most people don't have that range of motion there. So then, the knees start to go, or then the back starts to go.

So just be patient. Think about just moving through the hip joint. Now, from here, I'm gonna release that right arm off of the bar, bring it down towards my hip, and just look over the right shoulder, creating a little extension with rotation. And then, bringing that hand back to the bar, and then rotating to the other side. Now, if it's too much for you to continue to maintain a swimming motion, just hold the legs steady and practice the exercise, upper body.

You're allowed to break these exercises up into parts. And then, you can level them up on your own. Inhale over that shoulder. Exhale. We're gonna do one more on each side.

Smile as you go, it makes it feel way easier. And then, the hand down. And then, one more to the other side. Inhale, and an exhale, and ah. And I like to just complete it with one last swan.

So I'm actually gonna relax my lower body this time. As I pull myself up, feel that extension and release at my lower back. Lifting through my eyes, pressing through my fingertips, and then lowering myself to the box. Now, this might take a little talent, but I'm gonna try to mount it like a horse here. So I'm gonna lift myself up and have a seat on the box.

That's not always available. I try my best to create smooth transitions, but sometimes they become epic fails. So whatever works for you. So I'm straddling the box, reaching back for the straps. The straps, depending on your reformer, can be anywhere attached.

But I like to make sure they're close by because I don't wanna have to reach so far back. I'm holding onto the longer loops because it's gonna give me a little less resistance with this red spring, but you can hold onto the short if you'd like. From here, elbows bend. Shoulders nice and wide, and what I wanna really feel is I wanna feel that retraction. So I'm gonna continue to feel that posture I just created for myself with the last series.

I'll reach my arms up out in front, and then I'm gonna open my arms out to the side, making sure they stay in my peripheral vision, or my hands do at least, bringing my arms forward, bending the elbows, and pulling them back. This is called offering. Exhale, arms reach up at a diagonal. Inhale, they open for a stretch. Exhale, they come back in front of the shoulders.

Inhale, your elbows bend. So continue to reach and open. And forward and back. From my sitz bones all the way up to my head, I'm feeling length. And then, I know that this series is successful.

Moving through my arms. Do not overload the shoulders in resistance. It will compromise the shoulder. It will also compromise the posture. And then, forward. Now, I'll just go right into hug a tree.

I'll continue this motion, exhale. (breathes audibly) Tall spine. I'll do one more. And then, the elbows will pull back. So really feel that stretch right at the shoulder here. So now, from here, I wanna hinge at the hips.

So making sure that I'm slightly forward of my hips, and I might feel a little bit of a lumbar extension, but it definitely should feel consistent up the back. From here, reach your arms forward. Another cue that I might not have said was just have the feet slightly forward to the knees. It does help with the balance, okay? So arms out in front, arms in your peripheral vision.

From here, make a little triangle with your hands, and bring it out in front of your forehead here. Tall with the spine. Extend your arms and try to avoid the ropes touching your shoulders. Inhale in front of the forehead, just making a triangle. Exhale, palms face forward and parallel.

Now, if this is difficult, then stay out here and do some tricep presses. You can raise the roof right here, okay? Otherwise, bend and press. And again, like I cued on the swan dive exercises with the swan, thinking about the arms attaching at the middle of the back, right between the shoulder blades, making the bottom of a V. Arms straight out.

Now, stay here, and let's just bring the arms behind. And then, fold forward for a little stretch. Take a deep inhale, and then sit up nice and tall, making sure that you're at the edge of the box, placing your feet on the box or your legs. And then, I am now going to hold onto the shorter loops to give me a little bit more resistance for spine stretch, okay? So our movements are gonna be quite the same.

Maybe like the first exercise. The hardest part here is sitting up tall. Now, doing this from the box is not easier than doing it on the carriage. It's a little bit more challenging. If you feel like you need to bend those knees, you do so.

I'm gonna send that energy right out and flex the ankles. Feet are about fist distance apart. Extend your arms out in front of you. Turn your palms down and flex over your legs. You're looking right at your knees.

Sitting up nice and tall, back to the start of that offering position of the arms. Exhale, flex. Remember, the knees are like the edge of a building, so try not to go over that edge. Tall through the spine. Exhale as you flex forward. (breathes audibly) Inhale, nice and tall.

Continue this movement, allowing the shoulders to rise. And if you're struggling with that resistance, just simply grab onto the longer loop, and that'll give you a little bit less resistance. And then, pull back. We'll try that one more time. Exhale as you flex. (breathes audibly) And then, inhale, sitting up nice and tall. I'm gonna place the straps on the box or on the blocks, and then my feet back up, so I can do a little spine stretch side.

Arms out to a T. My hand to the edge of the box for a little support as I stretch side here. And then, back to center. And then, what you wanna do is maintain a nice long line, and I'm gonna use an inhale breath, almost like side breathing, to open up the lung on that side and have the ribcage move. Inhale, (breathes audibly) and exhale.

One more to each side. Ah, one more to left. I could be here all day, but I know that you can't. And then, release that tension of the arms. We're gonna go into short box series.

So full disclosure, I don't know if I've ever done some of these before for you guys on Pilates Anytime. So we're gonna do them today. I have done them side, which we will be doing some side work as well here. Okay. Now, adding all of the springs on.

(springs clinking) I am not somebody that is too concerned about the footbar, unless I think that it's really gonna be in the way. And most of the time, it's not. So I'm just gonna leave that footbar up, so there's a little bit less clinking and clanking going on when we move on to other exercises. So the footbar is gonna stay up. You move it the way you'd like.

I'm gonna have a seat, sitting on the short box this time. Everyone's safety straps are gonna be different, depending on the piece of equipment that you have. With the Studio Reformer Balanced Body, they'll be coming in from the well to grab the strap. This one on the Allegro 2, it's a little bit looser and it's on the platform itself. So make that adjustment.

And what I tell my clients is that you may not necessarily need that for the exercises that we're doing. However, it is training the feet, so as you advance and level up some of these exercises on the box, you are safely reacting with your feet to save you to not fall backwards, okay? So I push my feet forward, sitting towards the front. Basic round back exercise. I'm gonna hold my wrists, drop my hands to my lap, and then I'm gonna tilt my pelvis away from my femur as I curl my toes towards me and have my ankles hooked gently as I find a round back.

My arms are gonna come up to frame my face and make this way more challenging. And if your legs come up, that's great, but don't over-grip your hip flexor. Flexing over the spine like I'm trying to bring the ribs a little bit closer to my hips as I find my sitz bones, sitting up nice and tall. Exhale to flex back. Inhale, arms up.

Exhale, scoop the abdominals in. Inhale to sit up. And we'll continue with this motion. Flex, (breathes audibly) and forward, and sit. Two more times as you flex your spine, arms up, round your back, sit up nice and tall. Last one, exhale breath.

Inhale, arms come up, maybe pause on this last one. Can you feel a little shake around over your legs? And then, sit up nice and tall. On the next one, we're gonna go into straight back. So I'm gonna take my arms and cross them over my chest.

So I'm not putting them around my throat. It's right across my chest. And then, we'll move them in a second. Now, let's just lean back on the first one. Your hip is a hinge joint, so let's just lean back on that hinge.

Now, from here, if you feel like you're not getting enough and your quads are biting, take your pelvis tilted very slightly back into a posterior tilt. It'll unlock the quads on your hip joint, and then lean back a little bit further, feel shaky, (vocalizes) and then come back up. I don't know if you can hear the shake, but I gave you the sound effects anyway. Inhale to lean back. And then, a little flexion, and then back up.

Yes, I like to find the shake. So what the shake is, and what I've been told the shake is, it's your abs and your back kinda working together, fighting. And if you go too far into that shake, your abs are gonna give up and your back's gonna do the work. So you want them to fight and work together, but you don't want such a struggle that you're convulsing up here, and then it's just your back that's gonna take the work. So let's do it again.

Your spine is safer if the back and abs work as a team. And then all the way back up, ah, all right. Feet now are gonna go out to the sides. Now, this strap is long. So only open up your legs as long as wide as your strap will allow you to.

The meaning or the objective behind it is I want you to feel tension on the outside of the feet. Do not evert the feet, okay? So don't open them up. Don't supinate them. Keep them flat, push against the strap, feel the energy to the outside of your legs, sit up tall, arms out in front. Take a deep inhale.

Let's flex back, (breathes audibly) pause. I'm gonna take my upper body and rotate it towards you, so to my right. I'll take my arms up towards the ceiling to line up with my ears and rotate back to center, and then bring my arms down to meet the height of my shoulders. I'm gonna go to my left side, bringing my ribs with me, arms come up. Rotate back to center, arms come forward.

Leading with my fingers, I'll sit up nice and tall, finding my sitz bones. Exhale breath as you roll back. We're gonna go to the opposite side. I'm gonna rotate to the left, reach my arms up, turn back to the center, bring my arms down, and then rotate to the right. Bring my arms up, come back to the center, arms down, sit up tall, here is your breath.

Exhale to flex back. Inhale to rotate and lift the arms. Exhale to the middle and lower the arms. Inhale to the left and lift the arms. Exhale to the middle and lower the arms.

Inhale to sit up, leading you right into your exhale flexion back. Rotate, left arms up. Back to the middle, arms down. And to the right side, make sure you're bringing the whole torso with you, keeping that lower body steady, sit up tall. And one more set, exhale, why not.

Inhale to the right. Arms lift, frame that face, come back to center, arms down, sit up tall. Roll yourself back, arms up. Come back to the left, arms come down. Back to the middle, sit up nice and tall, and release and hold.

We're gonna turn side now for a little mermaid series on the box. So sitting side, this leg on the box is an option. The other option is the leg hanging off the side. If you have really tight hips, this is a great option, and you continue to work with us doing these exercises. I'm gonna bring my leg up 'cause it actually almost feels like a really wonderful stretch on my hip, and I need that constantly.

My left foot is up against the very edge of my strap. Just like this. I am turned in. It's almost medial that I'm turning my knee in because my biggest goal here is lining up my hips. Starting off with the first exercise, arms are out to a T.

I'm gonna bring my right arm around my belly, my left arm to the ceiling. Start to extend the strap leg and turn it to lateral or parallel as I flex over the box. And then, I'm gonna use the leg to assist me up as I come back to sitting and counter stretch to the other side. Inhale, (breathes audibly) exhale. (breathes audibly) Inhale, and exhale. Now, you know you're doing a good job because your left hip is not going backwards every time you come up.

So you wanna make sure that you stay in that nice, long line. Oh, that feels great. And then, come all the way back up. I'm gonna add on, we call this hawk. Arms out to the side. You're gonna rotate or, I'm sorry, flex laterally towards the carriage well.

Rotate your entire upper body towards the carriage. Add a hover towards the frame. You'll take your opposite arm to your belly. Rotate back to the side, and then lift yourself all the way up and back to start position. Inhale, hinge or flex.

Exhale, rotate. Inhale, back to lateral. Exhale, over to the other side. One more. We're gonna take it up and over. This is challenging here. Reach, rotate towards the well.

Wrap that arm underneath. Now, I want you to pause here as you lift up three times, one. And exhale, two. One more, and three. I'm gonna lower down, place my hand on the headrest, and then just rotate and hold for a stretch.

Breathing in through the nose, out through the mouth. And then, go ahead and place that hand back to the headrest, rotate back, and make it beautiful as you come up, and complete that series. Nice. All right, so we're gonna go to the other side. So I'm just gonna shift, replace the foot.

Now, you get to see it from my back, okay? So from here, I've got my leg folded. That's my tight leg. That feels pretty good. Remember the cue on this foot. Let that leg just do what it needs to do, so you can square your hips off.

Arms out to a T like airplane arms. Start to lean over as you wrap that left arm around your belly and hold. Take a deep inhale breath. And lift yourself up and flex to the other side. Remember that, that leg is a huge assist to you.

So stretching up and over. If you're having a hard time here but still wanna try, as you're going up and over, just place your left hand on the headrest, giving you a little bit of support. And then, use your arm to push yourself off. Good. Now, we're gonna go into the hawk here. So arms out.

Inhale to lean over. Exhale to rotate. Bring that opposite arm to your belly. Rotate back towards the wall and flex over to the other side counter. Inhale, up and over. You can still use that hand at the headrest.

If you want to continue to do these exercises and still have that support on the headrest, I'll show you on this one. So you're gonna go up and over, and then you're gonna rotate, replace the hand, turn, and then you can push yourself all the way back up. I'm gonna take you back and over, so we can transition to that bow and arrow. So you're gonna go ahead and rotate here, turn, hand across the belly, and then you're gonna go up three times, bow and arrow. One, up.

Two, up. Three, now, just place the hand on the headrest, turn, and flex over. Breathing in through the nose, out through the mouth. And then, you're gonna go ahead and place the hand on the headrest, so you can come all the way up, counter stretch, and then be done with those. All right.

So I'm gonna move the box over to the footbar. So I'm gonna step back actually so that you can see the whole process a little bit easier. And this time, I am gonna bring the footbar down. So I'm gonna bring it down. (footbar clunks) (footbar squeaks) And then, I'm gonna take it down to one red.

(springs jangling) Now, for this particular series, the less resistance you have, the harder it will be because there's not as much holding your body weight up. I'm gonna slide the box over and have it lean against the footbar. This is an Infinity bar, so it's a little bit wider. So you really do wanna make sure if you are on this one that it feels pretty secure. 'Cause with the shorter bars, they come in and don't touch the edges of the box.

So there is a little bit more support. All right. Now, just as a quick option, if these don't work for you with the box, remove the box, put the footbar back up to footbar or footwork position, so the high bar position, and then you can place your hands on the bar and still follow along. All right. So we're gonna start off facing the box.

I'm gonna place my forearms on the box. Of course, I'm gonna make sure it's all secure before I get going. So I've got my hands wrapped around the edge, which I feel like is comfortable on the wrists. You could also interlace the fingers and lining up the pinkies, making sure not to stack the pinky fingers on top of each other. Pinky fingers are a little bit sensitive, okay?

So I'm just gonna hold the box this way. And we're just gonna go to a basic forearm plank. I'm gonna lift my knees up and put my heels up against the blocks. This is step one. Breathing in through the nose, out through the mouth, making sure my quads are strong and my back is straight, okay?

You do need your quads for plank. You need your shoulders, you need your abs, you need your back. And then, lower the knees back down and hold, okay? So we're gonna try that again, and we're gonna add a little pike variation. But this time, you wanna make sure that your feet are in good position.

So make sure that your heels end up about halfway on the blocks as you lift up. If they're too high, it'll make the pike a little bit more challenging. So now from this plank position, I'm gonna lift up into a pike. And maybe it looks perfect, maybe it doesn't, but what I wanna do is I wanna bring the carriage in, really using my abs. Then, I'll pivot at the shoulders to find the plank.

Exhale, pull it up. (breathes audibly) Inhale. The less resistance you have, the harder it is. You're gonna pull the courage in. So that negative resistance really comes into play here. I don't recommend doing this fast.

I recommend doing less repetition and focusing more. Hip hinges, shoulders pivot, you pull it in, (breathes audibly) and then you take it back. Maybe I'll do one more. I'm feeling kinda motivated. Exhale, flex, flex, flex, flex flex.

Pull it in, in, in, in, in. And then, as you lower the plank, you can lower your knees, ha, and you can breathe. All right. So now, we're gonna go into a little side work. So I'm gonna turn towards you, and I'm gonna have my right foot forward and my left foot back.

So they're crossed in this way. It's a little bit more challenging for me to do it the other way. So right foot forward, left foot back. Left forearm down. My right hand, my free hand, is gonna be on the box just to start for support.

So now, knees lift or hip lifts, I should say. Legs extend. Now, the knees are off. Knees bend, hips come down, okay? We'll try that again with the support of the arm and hand. First, you lift the hips.

Then, you extend the legs and you lift the knees. Then, the knees bend. Then, the hip comes down. All right, let's try it without the support of the arm. Make sure that the arm is in good position on the box.

If it's too far forward your elbow, you're gonna end up too far in extension with that shoulder. Palm up, ready? Inhale, hip lifts. Exhale, you extend, bring the arms overhead or arm. Bring the arm towards you as the knees bend, drop the knees.

One more time. As you lift, you push out. And now, this time, I want you to hold. Take that free arm. Bring it underneath your shoulder and bend your knees to bring you into a twist, hold. Rotate back out.

Do it again, knees bend, carriage pulls in, arm threads, and then you extend. This is just a leveling up here again. Exhale. Inhale. One more time.

Rotate. (breathes audibly) Reach. Return. All right, a little counter stretch of that shoulder. So sit in a nice Z sit position and take that arm up and over. You can give it a little stretch and a pull.

You can even hook it in the front here a bit. Ah, nice work. So now, we're gonna turn around, but transition back to your forearms. You ready? Take it back to your plank, hold.

Take it to your pike, up. And then, back to your plank. You can skip this transition. I'm choosing to do it again. And exhale. You could take a sip of your coffee or your wine, no judgment, while you wait for me to do these and then you could turn around.

Two more times. Last one. (reformer rasps) And then, the knees come down. And now, I'm ready for the other side. So left foot forward on the block, right foot back, forearm down.

Less setups here. You guys know what you're doing. We're gonna lift the hips first. Extend the legs second. Bend the knees third. Drop the hips.

One more time using the support of that left hand. Hips. Legs. Knees. And then, the hips drop.

You ready? Take that supporting arm off. You're gonna lift, reach away. And then, go ahead and return and drop the hips. We'll do it again.

Hips lift, you reach. You bend, you return, two more times. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale.

Lot of oblique and lats working here. One more, whoop! And then, bend. Now, I'm gonna stay up there. I'm gonna reach it up, I'm gonna hold. I'm going to twist as I bend my knees. I'm gonna press out one and two, just adjusting my feet here, I slipped a little bit.

Three. Last one, (breathes audibly) and then return. Ah, I'm gonna flip around to my bottom. Yes. And then, I'm gonna have a seat on the box for a second.

Ah, those were hard. I'm not gonna lie. (laughs) And then, what I'm gonna do here is I'm gonna take my forearms down to the box, opening up through the shoulders, and I'm gonna take my feet to the shoulder block, and I'm gonna press those legs out. And then, from here, I'm just gonna open up the shoulder. You don't need to do anything fancy here. Just kinda move that neck around. And then, if you'd like, you can step up a little bit higher on the box, and you can lift up and you can go ahead and stretch that shoulder.

My hands are backwards. Opening up through the hips, stretching the bicep, and then releasing down. And I just led you into different variations, and you can try to work on those at home, but I use that as a stretch and we're gonna move on. So I'm gonna step to the camera side of the reformer. So I would consider this the right side of my reformer if I'm looking at the box.

And then, I'm gonna take the box and place it on the floor. And I'm gonna place it on the floor, and because of that Infinity bar, I kinda have a point of reference. But what you can do is you can line it up with your carriage. I'm actually gonna lift the bar up to the high bar position, just to show you that you have variation for balance if you need it. All right.

So stepping onto the back of the box, I'm gonna step up, and then place my hands on the bar as I bring my left heel back to the carriage block or the shoulder block. And I'm gonna place my right foot forward, and I'm gonna bring it pretty close. This is gonna be dependent on hip width, okay? So mine's at the front corner. And then, from here, I'm just gonna test it out, make sure the resistance feels okay.

Now, I'm gonna choose not to use the bar for support. So I'm gonna stand up, all right? And then from here, bending the box leg, pressing back with the carriage leg, I'm gonna find a lunge. And then, I'm gonna return by bending the carriage leg and straightening the box leg. Now, use my arms.

So it's just a matter of once you feel like you've got the balance and you've got the support, then you can start moving and think about the fluidity of your movement, finding a nice breath. And reach, and up. Two more. Last one, you're gonna hold. And then, from here, you can scoot that back leg.

Back and forth, working the quads. You can even bring those arms behind you if you'd like, interlace the fingers and maybe open the shoulders. So play around with arm variations at home, decide where you wanna be, maybe they wanna be on the hips so that you know how stable your hips are. Good. One more, and then release.

Option to place your hands on the bar so that you don't fall off. Placing your feet on the box, walking backwards, so that I could take the box in transition, and then bring it over to the carriage in a short box position. So I'm gonna face away from you on the next one. Placing your right foot on the platform that does not move for safety, left foot on the carriage next to the box. One red spring still, I don't know if I mentioned that earlier.

Shoulders, nice and wide. Just a typical straight out and back for your abductors, your outer thighs. So as I'm pushing out, because I've got my foot up against the box, I've got a little bit less resistance. So the closer your foot is to the edge, the more resistance you'll have. And I'm playing around with the arms here.

I'm gonna take 'em up and get them moving. That forearm plank series was tough on the shoulders, so I wanna get that blood flowing in my arms. Now, hold the arms out to that T position. Now, as you press the carriage away, rotate the upper body towards the back of the reformer, initiating from that glute that's on the platform leg. And return. And rotate.

I love giving this one to my golfer clients, kind of teaching them that power and swing from the hip. And return. And again, making sure again, this is coming from a whole spiral. It's not just your lumbar spine. 'Cause if you just do your lumbar spine, you're gonna hurt your back.

Last one. And then, return. And then, lastly, I'm gonna rudely bend over in front of you and place my hands on the frame. Smile at you from here. This feels really good. Take a deep inhale breath.

Feel that stretch from the heel all the way up to the knee and hip. And then, slowly roll yourself up as you return the carriage. Now, some may frown upon this, but this is how I'm gonna dismount the carriage. I'm gonna take a hand to the box, a hand to the bar, and then I'm going to step the carriage leg forward. If that is not available to you, you're gonna step back, okay?

And take the carriage leg off. You always take the foot off the moving part of the reformer for support. Now, I can go to the other side and lunge, okay? Reminder, line it up with your carriage, yeah? And then, you're gonna stand up.

And then, you're gonna turn, face the front. Hands on the bar for support if you need it. Foot on the shoulder block and my foot to the front corner. I'm gonna first make sure I feel okay here. Once I do, I'm gonna give myself a tall spine, and I'm gonna start to move into that lunge.

Now, as the arms come forward, all that does is it gives me some fluidity in movement. So it's kind of just having the body move in synchronicity really. But you could do whatever you want with those arms. And back. And I felt a slight slip under my foot with that box, I overused my box leg.

So just be aware of that. You wanna make sure that you are pushing back also with that carriage leg. So just a little warning there. Inhale. Give me two more.

Last one, and then hold, and do whatever you need to do with those arms as you scoot that leg back and press. Pay attention to posture. Pay attention to what your knee is doing on that box leg, making sure that everything stays nice and lined up. Knee over the second and third toe. Your second and third toe are your most stable toes, so that's why we as instructors and fitness professionals say second and third toe, 'cause that's what's gonna be most stable there.

One more. Reach, and then return. Did not count, no idea how many we did. All right, so I'm gonna step off the back. And then, I'm gonna take the box and place it again on the reformer.

And then, I'll face you for the side leg work. Hand on the bar. Non-moving platform, moving platform. Foot up against the box, tall spine, press out. And return.

Nice and tall with the spine. There's so many variations you could do with the box right here. Giving that leg a little point of reference on that side is kind of nice. And back. Now, if you have an extended platform at home, which I do have for these reformers that I chose not to use today so we have less props, but it is going to tighten that resistance.

So just make sure that you don't have too much under your feet and it's still safe. All right, arms stay to a T. We're gonna go into rotation and then return. And again. And so maybe you'll get a little bit better picture of what's happening with this hip.

Hopefully, that's moving with me. In my mind, it is anyway. And back. And stay right on top of your hips. So don't let that leg move further out than your body can go.

Just a couple more. Last one. And then, return. Ah, and a little flex forward. Hands on the frame here and stretch. Take a deep inhale.

Exhale breath. (breathes audibly) This feels so good. And you're gonna go ahead and roll yourself up slowly. Ah. And then, you're going to release. Now, I'm gonna put a little blue spring on the reformer.

(spring clunking) Take off the red. (springs jangling) And then, from here, just so I have a little bit less resistance, I'm gonna take my right heel back onto the box, and I'm just gonna press back into a lunge. And the reason I gave myself a little less resistance is because both the box being forward, it's gonna be too much resistance for me to push back. And I'm just gonna stretch that hip flexor. And breathe, and then maybe extend my forward leg.

And then, return. And then, I'll place that foot up against the box with my left foot, still pointing the same direction as I press out into a little split. My hand is on the carriage for support, making sure that I don't go too far. And then, I'll come back. And I'll just make it over to the other side for the same thing as we conclude this class.

So the left foot is gonna go onto the box right out in front, and I'll just push back for a nice stretch. Good. And if you get some movement back there on the box, it's totally fine. Maybe a little extension of that leg. And then, return.

And the same thing, my foot will go up against the box. My right foot will still line up in the same direction, and I'm just gonna bend. Nice little stretch. And breathe. And of course, you can do as many of those as you'd like.

And return. All right. Well, there is some box flow for you, using the box the entire time that you were on the reformer for this class. I really do hope you enjoyed it, and thank you for watching.