Lengthening Tower

Hi everyone, it's Amy. I'm so excited to be here presenting in tower class for you, for us. And if you have any kind of bone changes, bone density changes. This is a great class for you teachers needing new material, but it also can be for anyone who just wants a variety. But I won't be doing a lot of loaded flexion, it is based a little more on extension protocol.

All right? What we need, leg springs, arm springs, a top loaded and a bottom loaded. And I've got reds for those. And then a little squishy ball, okay? So quite a bit of variety in here.

Watch your knees as you come down, and we'll be starting with our footwork facing the tower. This way, we get a good chance of watching our own alignment through hips, knees, and feet. So I want everyone bring your bar up. We've got our safety chain of course. We'll start on our heels in parallel.

All right. So just get that connection. And I do want us to focus quite a lot here in the footwork, in dorsiflexion of the ankles. So that we really engaging the front of the anterior tibialis, front of our shin, and getting some nice stretch in the back of the shin there and the calf. Okay. So we're in a good neutral position. Let's take a deep breath And I do want us to exhale as we lower the bar, and then press up.

So 10 of each, we'll be doing 10 positions. So what we're watching for, of course, when we do these plie or these knee bends, is that we don't rock out of our neutral. The lower that bar comes, the more likely it would be that your tail gets pulled up. So as you're bending, really trying to keep the sit bones open, reaching forward, using the muscles of the quad, the hamstrings to push the bar up. Okay. Five more times, keeping that dorsiflexion of your shin and ankle.

You're gonna really feel your shins warming up and working. Three more. And two more. Watching your alignment. Last time.

There we go. And now let's step onto the balls of the feet. Okay. And then here, instead of being up in this like tippy toe position, let's go ahead and get into that flexed angle and bend, and extend. Don't worry about how deep the bar goes. Eventually, yes, you could probably get it all the way low.

I just want you to feel like you can maintain some good flexion in those ankles, that deep flex of the knees also real healthy to get that, maintain that nice neutral pelvis. Five more. Down and up. Then bend, exhale and (exhales). And up, and down.

And up, last time, bend and straighten. Okay. Now plant our flexion, heals together. Let's do the foot in this position for this angle of the legs, and then we'll go back to some more of the flex. So we're bending and straightening. Keep that tailbone rooted.

Keep that pelvis in your level, inhale and exhale. Just gonna check into, you've got a sense of length through your whole spine, easy across your collarbone, shoulders. Four more. We feeling that nice elasticity through the legs all the way through that bar. Last two.

Lift. And one more time, down, and up. Okay. Repivot out to your parallel, and now let's emphasize flex and point. Okay, we'll do 10 of these. And then we'll take our alternating walking and play.

So you do wanna get pretty good full range of movement in those ankles here. Bend and stretch. Bend and stretch. Yes. And so as you get to see your own feet, you can notice your wonderful feet. I've got those little bunions I try to work around, so my flexion, my feet do shift a little bit.

Okay. Now let's walk and place everybody down, and then press. I want you to focus on the press up with that foot. This will be the one to press up and bend in, press up. Bend.

And press. And bend. Just one more each side, bend and stretch. Because you have more of that bend and stretch with one leg, but let's go ahead right now. Lower the bar all the way.

It might kind of bounce around as you take your feet off and then just shake your feet, kind of feel right at the front of the ankle. A lot of work in that area, which is really what we want, producing that and promoting that nice, strong ankle flex. Okay. For single leg, same thing. I'm gonna have us be on the ball of the foot. Just this leg can be bent here, foot flat, and then bring the bar up using the whole upper leg.

Just push, push, push. Okay. Now let's do bend and stretch of the knee, and then a flex and point of the ankle. So I want us to start with the ankle and the extension. Hold it in extension now, stable as you bend your knee, and then extend the knee.

Now the knee stays stable as you flex your ankle and move your ankle. We'll do five patterns. Here's two. So the depth of that knee bend is really what you can manage. If you feel any pain or sensitivity come through the patella, just back out, don't go quite so low. Okay?

But if you feel like you can go all the way down, get a good knee bend, why not? It's a good stretch in your quadriceps. Really good for the ligaments in the knee to have that good knee bend, helps with your squatting work, right? Let's go to the second side. Okay.

So you're starting in your ankle extension, and then we work the knee, and the knee, and the ankle, and ankle. And knee, and knee. And ankle. Really push. Three.

Just keep a nice normal, calm breathing. One more. There we go. And okay. Go ahead everybody lower that bar all the way down.

And then I want you to lift your feet up and just shake, shake, shake. It's always nice just to reinvigorate both feet at the same time there. Okay. Now I need everybody to come up off your back. Let's disengage that spring from bottom-loaded. So just take that down.

We can also take our safety strap down And we'll now be using the overhead red spring. Okay. And your ball. So let's grab that ball And we'll be putting that ball way up in the inner thigh. Not at the knees, not at the ankles.

I really want that right in the inner thighs up high so you can feel not just at the knee. I don't know, there's just something different up here. It looks silly, but oh, well. And you can feel from the back of your inner thighs how you engage to get the ball firm right in those legs. Okay. So you've got a nice neutral pelvis.

Let's have our hands shoulder width here and your arms in a nice straight line. And then shoulders are flat on the table or on your mat. Okay. Let's do some pelvic curl, everybody. Take a breath. (Amy inhales) Mobilization. So let's tip that pelvis back.

We can do this. And then as you roll up, I'm aiming those knees straight out across the mat, nice lift of the hips, inhale. And then our slow roll down. I really like to think about elongating through the segments of my spine as I'm rolling up and down. So we're not compressing.

I want you to try to decompress, lengthen in both directions, reach those knees forward. Lift, use the hips, squeeze, contract, and then exhale, we roll it down. Now keep those shoulders flat on the mat here. Try not to let any protraction come in. So you've gotta use your upper back muscles to hold that spring.

One more. Check into the balls of the feet, the big toe joints. You should have good weight distribution across all parts of the foot, that tripod of your foot. How long can you articulate through your spine? Okay. Nice.

Now, keep a nice neutral pelvis there, let's open a up the upper body. So I'm gonna suggest this here with our arms when we pull down. If you feel okay in your rotator cuff, I want you to let your elbows go out wide. Now you don't have to pull. Don't go too far right now. Contract between your scapula.

It's not a rib thing. It's those muscles between your scapula some retraction and use that to stretch the bar overhead. Now let the scapula glide up, stretch like you're yawning in the morning. Slide the scapula back down. Use the muscles between the scapula to hold the elbows wide.

Okay? If that does not feel good for you, I'll show you this version. You can do narrow elbows. Okay? You have to discern what's right for you. And if it's teachers watching for your clients.

Yeah, shoulders can be interesting as we're getting older. So you have to really use your discretion on the angle of where your elbows go. I'm gonna do one more with wide. I wanna use my upper back. I wanna let the scapula really stretch up and then come back through.

Now we're gonna combine the two pieces together, a little bit like the breathing bar on the Cadillac. So first is the pelvic curl, bridging, sustain that position. Bring the arms overhead. Oh, I love this sequence. You'll keep your arms here and breathe.

Now when you roll down, I've got some opposition pushing the bar back. I'm really elongating through that spine. Trying to get every vertebrates little further out on the table and then come to act through neutral. Two more patterns and engage your legs. Let's roll up.

And inhale exhale, take the bar overhead. Rolling down, you can reach the arms even further, elongate through all the segments of your spine, reach into that neutral, and then return. Let's go one more time. Engage the ball, roll it up. You could also use a magic circle of course for this, but the ball is nice.

We'll be using it for some abdominal work pretty soon here. Take a breath, engage the ball, and roll down. Get long. Can you get longer? Can you get longer? Can you get longer? And then neutral And then let that bar come back up with control.

Put one hand in the center. Elbow can come down, take this away, and then just come on up for a minute. Okay, great. Now, moving on. We're gonna put this ball between the shoulder blades on your back, okay?

Now you can let yourself lean back. Remember, we're trying to avoid some of that thoracic flexion, but I still want us to feel and get some abdominal work and strength here. And work in the abdominals, but just not by doing all that stuff. Okay. So the ball is a helper.

It's a prop to help us, but we're not going to do this and just sink completely on it. When I use this on myself, I say, "Amy, you're barely on the ball." It's barely there. Put your hands behind your head, you're at the ready to lift off the ball. You probably feel all of this. I hope you do. Okay.

Now, I'm gonna have us go back a little further, just so you're almost head lower than shoulders up tiny bit there. I hope you can see. And then as I exhale and come up, I'm not trying to flex the spine, I'm trying to come up and unweight off the ball. It's pretty small. So it's breath in, (Amy inhales) and a (exhales) to come up.

Just a couple. Basically, your torso is in this plank line and you're trying to kinda levitate off the ball here. Okay? And then up and hold it. Now, add a leg slide and pull in.

Just alternating the legs. I'm at the ready to come off the ball at any minute. That's what I keep saying. Amy, you're hardly using the ball at all. Just slide.

Now this is some pelvic control also. Lengthen and in. How you're feeling in there? And come in. Once more.

And lengthen and in, and lengthen it in. Then we are gonna do a little transition. Let's go over. We'll give ourself a little piece of candy here with that. Take a breath, and then come back into that get ready place.

All right. So as light as you can be, slide one leg forward, let's add some upper body rotation. I still want us to keep mobilization in our spine, even though you might be having some bone mass changes, this is fine. Let's elongate those much as we can as we rotate. Range is small. Work is deep.

You can flex your foot, give your leg a little more energy. Try not to be too heavy on the ball, right? Four is fine on each side. Let's reverse it. Extend that leg and then unweight a little bit, and rotate, and center.

And rotate, and center. Try to get up off the ball, rotate and center. Rotate, and center, and then slide the leg in. Go get that piece of candy, (laughs) little reward. Okay. Now we've got a little more to do here though.

Look up at that bar. I want you to put one elbow down, reach up and grab the bar. Okay. I'll preface this real quick. If your neck starts to get a little tired, you don't have to do it here, you can put your hands back behind your head, but let's give ourselves some challenge. Okay?

Let's build more strength here. So arms are up. Chin is kind of down on chest. And again, everybody, unweight, I'm actually gonna almost lift off of the ball. Okay?

And then come back to it. Let's exhale. You could look straight up to the bar. Also, if you want to with your eyes, that's a lot in your neck, that's okay. The neck needs to get strong, right?

You could also just have your neck in flection like this, and just unweight, and onto the ball. We're not flexing. We're staying in extension. We're lifting off. Let's do one more and then add some lumbar mobilization.

Okay. Now, lumbar, and lumbar. We can mobilize. We're not flexing our thoracic spine, we're flexing the lumbar. We're trying to move.

Four and more. I know. This is a toughie. Your neck is important though. Everybody trust me, your neck needs to stay strong, okay? Last one though.

Mobilize. Good. And now let's grab that piece of candy again. Meaning get to arch and extend over. Yeah. Should feel good. Great. Bring yourself up.

Now off the ball, elbows can come here, leg can go out, and try to come up without flexing. Okay? Great. That's all we needed this for. So let's just tuck that down. We can keep the bar up for right now. We're gonna be using our arm springs now.

Lie on your back. All right. So I've got my yellow arm springs. Now, just a reminder. This is really up to you, how close you are to the springs or how far away you are from the springs. It matters on your control of the tension and your alignment through your shoulder girdle.

If you're too far out and looking for just that really hard pull on the springs, please don't do that and sacrifice your alignment through your shoulder collarbone. It's okay to be back this way. And at the beginning, it's gonna feel like there's not a whole lot of tension, but as soon as you start to move those Springs, there's tension, okay? I'm gonna stay right here, this feels fine for me. Nice neutral body.

Let's take a breath. We're just gonna start moving the springs. Okay. Now, at any point, you could make your body come out farther if you want to. Let's just add some to that pattern.

So we'll do an arm, flex at your elbows, extend at your elbows, and then two straight arms come up. Let's put some breath with it. Inhale, control the upper arms, exhale. Inhale, stretch those springs and lift. Twice more.

And trying to time this, both arms moving in the same pace, reach and lift. Last one here. Reach the arms, and bend, and reach. Okay. We're gonna add a little coordination. You've done a bridge already, but let's do bridge with arm pulls.

This is a little bit about timing. Not a little bit, but a lot about timing. So this is what I like to think of is can I articulate to pelvic curl and move my arms down and have my hands land at the same time as at that height of my pelvic curl? Hold the bridge line as you add the bend and stretch of the elbows. And then the same is true as I unroll, I'm trying to time it.

So I'm landing and arms return. Let's breathe in. (Amy inhales) Three more to go. So same thing. Kinda managing and working with time and space with the dynamic, and bend and stretch.

Okay, rolling down. We'll do it twice more, everyone. Look up at the push through bar so that your eyes are in a good position and your head is in the right place. I don't want your neck overflattened. Lift, lift, lift, bend, and straighten, lengthen those arms, unroll and lift those arms.

Try to time it right. Inhale. (Amy inhales) And that's just some control. That's also some concentration, our principles of Pilates. Coordination also falls in that one.

And then let's unroll here all the way. Okay. I want you to keep your arms up, breathe in. We'll take one need at a tabletop, the other one, tabletop. Let's go arm circles. Think reformer arm circles.

So we come down, externally rotate the arms out to your T. The tension's easy, don't worry. Right up here is easy. Three more this way down. Keep your ribs on the mat please.

Okay? Now, if you don't have to worry about bone density or if you don't have to worry about deflection, you could absolutely do flection here. You could try to pick that head and chest up. I'm just kind of approaching these, some of these classes with that extension protocol. Okay. Other way.

Yep. Same thing. You could pick that chest up absolutely if you wanted to. Couple more. Keep those springs in control. All right, everybody.

Now, I want you to lift the arms halfway only, start to just do some toe taps. Just some toe taps. So you're keeping the engagement of the arms moving through the legs. And 8, 7, 6, 5, and 4, 3, 2, and 1. There we go.

And you can just place that and bring your arms down. Good. Lower these down, we're gonna use them shortly. Bring yourself up off your back. Okay. We can keep this up for now even one more series.

So I want everybody to come up on your knees and face the push through bar. Okay. Now I think this mat is fine. If you needed extra padding, you could do that for yourself and your setup. So as we're facing the springs, this is another one, how close or far away, you just have to start experimenting. I'm gonna put one knee on the back of that edge here, and the other leg forward.

So we're kind of in that marriage proposal lunge. Back foot, you could have flat or tucked. I like this, it helps me balance a little better. And let's work some straight arm pulls. Before we do, engage your back legs buttocks so your hip is extended and supported.

Let's do three pulls here. One. Now pull with extension of your spine. Tall spine. Work behind those shoulder blades.

Three. And now bend your elbows in row three times. This is easier. No pushing of ribs. You're really working the muscles between your scapula.

And three. Okay. And change legs with good balance and control. Tuck your toes, palms down, lift tall, contract the back leg buttocks. And it's three. Long arms. Remember down so the shoulders are low?

And let's row. Three, two, feel so good right between the shoulder blades. Okay. Arms down. Now I want this knee to come down so that both knees are up, back away, I like to back up, tuck those toes, heels can be together, knees can be apart, and let's row again. Now, you might notice the spring is a little more challenging to manage.

I've put us back a little further. Keep pressing your hips forward. Lift your chest. You can kind of see a little hint of swan maybe. I'd rather you do that than be too close into the front and have your shoulders rounded forward.

Let's work those extension muscles. Okay. One more row. Hold the row. Thigh stretch. Oh yes. Why not?

Extend your hips. Lean back. Keep the row, let it go. And row. Now, when I lean in and hinge, I look right up to the top of the tower frame, trust those springs, and then release, look straight ahead.

A couple more, row, connect into your back. Lean back, stomach in, tail is under, shoulders are down, look at the top of that tower. So this is a different kind of thigh stretch than you've seen. There's other ways to do thigh stretch. This is one.

Feels so magnificent. Okay. And then everybody relax those arms. Just put those down. Shake your hands. How are you feeling? Okay. Now we do need to take this down.

So just crawl on in. Let's take this down. Can kinda move these things outta the way, get our legs springs ready, all right? And then also while we're facing this way, we won't need this any longer, so you can just stow it on the side of the reformer. Yeah. The tower reformer.

Here we go. And then we're gonna lie on our back. Double feet for a moment. We'll do a few things with two feet in, and then we have a couple things with single leg. So I like to size this up, arms are at a full length.

And that puts your body out that far away. Let's go ahead and hold the hands on the frame. Everybody, bend your knees, get a nice neutral setup, and let's work some frog. Nice, easy frog, right? I'd like to encourage you to take your heels lower to the mat.

Maybe even skim along the mat. I love to have us keep focusing on how we can extend the front of the hip. And get more stretch strength, and also strength here. If you're frogging up here, we're still pretty closed on the hip. So as you extend, go lower so you can get longer in the front of the hip.

Couple more. I have my hands pressing the frame to give me some support. Hold here, raise your legs up. I'm in that little Pilates position. Let's do five leg circles each way.

Real nice and easy. Go low. As wide as you want to take them. It's really where you can control your pelvis and your spine. Three.

Let's watch those coils extend. Every time you stretch your legs, watch those coils lengthen. Put that quality in you. That you really elongate with strength. Okay, other direction for five.

Your ribs are in control. That pelvis is in control. Feeling those strong legs underneath your hips. Two more. Last one. And now, I just love this whole series.

So bend both knees. Let's take the off both feet for a moment. Okay. But put the right one down, keep the left one up. You're gonna put your right foot in that left strap.

You've seen me do this before. I've done it a few times here. So it's this diagonal pull. I think it's just really nice for control and some variety of the tension. Arms can be down.

Let's get that shoulder girdle back. Straight leg now, down and up three times. Okay. So this is definitely a challenging angle for pelvic control. And that's what I want you to feel and work. So I'm really having to work my leg parallel in line with this hip.

That spring is wanting to pull my leg this way so I have to work it this way a little bit. Okay. Externally rotate. Do the same thing. Three times we go down and up. Trying to follow a right in line with your hip joint.

If for any reason, whoop, you need to hold on, you just put your hands up here and you hold. Okay. Single leg circle. Single leg circle. Pelvis is really rooted. Now, let the spring help you take your leg across your midline.

You're gonna feel this really nice stretch here. Use it to bring your leg down. Control, make this a narrow circle please, okay? Narrow meaning about the width of your table or your mat. It's that ball and socket.

It usually helps so your hips won't hike. If you're trying to take your leg too far to the side, you might not be able to get that rhythm in the ball and socket. And then the other way three times. Control this right here. Control that range.

Because that spring is over there, it kind of wants to yank your leg up So you control it. Last one. And then it's a funky one. It's a bicycle move with one leg externally rotate work your bicycle motion. Okay. Control.

So the leg goes up straight, move it from here, pull down, start to bend the knee. I really would love for your heel to slide on the mat. Just one more on that direction. Kinda doing things in threes here. Now reverse it.

So feel the mat with your foot, slide your leg out. Control the up. Bend in, slide it out. Very leggy. Oh, and one more time.

So that little bicycle will come up again in just a minute, but let's give this leg a rest. Bring that other leg up. Okay. So three times down and up in parallel, turn out three circles, three bikes. Here we go. Parallel neutralize your hips.

In we go. Lower, and we lift. And lower. And lift. And lower lift, externally rotate.

So from the side back of that thigh. Use the breath, it can support you in your movement. Okay? Keeping it slightly externally rotated low, take the leg across your midline. Wow. What a stretch.

Down. Keep it narrow. Kinda really working within the frame of the tower in terms of how wide I take my circles. If you're on a full Cadillac doing this, you're within the canopy frames. It's really nice to watch the top of the Cadillac And stay within that frame.

I wanna stay in muscle and not overextend the joints all the time, right? Yes. Muscle control. And here we go, bicycle. My thigh is externally rotated. So that sets up that bicycle pattern and the control, coordination that the spring is on the inside of that angle.

And then the reverse three times. I try to feel for that mat. Okay. And then this last one, we'll be taking both feet back in there. Typical straps one on each bicycles. Okay.

Hands on the frame. Either leg begins. Now, take a kind of slow feel for that mat. As it's coming in, the other one is going out. Feel for that mat.

As one is coming in, the other's going out. Slowing it down is fine and gives you a chance to really feel the mat, feel the coordination. You can always speed it up when you're ready. Sometimes slow is really nice. Okay.

One more round this way. And then of course we reverse it. Here we go. Reach out. How long can you stretch that leg?

How long can you open those coils? Feel for that mat. This is a really interesting coordination. One more each leg. Okay.

We're going to continue working these leg springs and doing some fun things in standing now. So everybody take those straps off your feet, just lower your straps behind you, and we're gonna come up facing this direction. Now, we'll need these springs to come all the way at the top. So I'm gonna put it at this angle and this angle here, make sure a lot of things are out of the way so you're not gonna trip around. And then we're stepping in to the loops.

All right, hands on the top of the frame, you can have yourself, an arm length behind. I actually kinda go a couple inches back. Pilate stands, we're gonna do some Releves, okay? So let's lift. Now you have to pull the springs down.

You're not really lifting that high, but you are gonna extend the length of those coils and think back on footwork when we had that dorsiflexion on the ankle, and I was talking about the anterior shin, use that now. So when I lower my heels, I actually think my shin muscle contracts to bring my heels down. I don't just simply lower my heels, okay? So you contract the front of your shins to lower the heels. Let's try that on in parallel.

Okay. Unlocking knees. And we can lift, and lower. Heels should be going straight in line behind our ankle. Four more. When I lower my heels, it's almost like I'm thinking of lifting my toenails up even though I don't lift them up.

It's the energy of the lift up in opposition to the down. Couple more. And this next one is number eight where I wanted to pause there, okay. Now everybody, bend your knees, you might have to lower your hands on your frame a little bit. You're in a hip hinge.

Now, this is another one you can play with your distance. Forward or back. Okay? I want you to pick up your one knee. As you're balancing on the other knee, make sure it's still parallel. This spring is gonna go on the outside of the knee now, and let's do some hip extension.

We'll do eight of these. So as you're driving your leg behind you, heel in line with your hip, pull the stomach in. Now, if you want more work, you can pull on your frame, which shifts you back a little bit. You don't really have to go any deeper. Be mindful on what it feels like on your standing knee.

Just one more for eight. That was eight. Now, connect to a straight knee. Okay. Really straight. Squeeze and contract.

You're gonna lift and lower eight times, just itty bitty lifts. Three, and four. Check your shoulder position. And six, were in parallel on this, seven and eight, and then bend the knee and bring it in. Step down.

If you need a little rest, you come up, rebend. Okay? Get in that hip hinge. This knees pointing forward, and you drive the leg back. Think from your glute to your heel. Let's do eight of these.

There's four. So again, if you want more work, you can get down lower, five, then I'll stretch the spring more. Six, seven, of course, eight. We're gonna hold it for those little pulses, ready? And it's small.

Two. This should be a glute, not so much your lumbar area. And five, and six. We know how to count to eight. Okay. Bend in and stand. Okay. More hip extension.

I want you to stand with that Pilates stance again. All right. You can hang your hands up, shoulders are low. This is gonna be a teeny little leg swing. Little leg swing. So I'm kind of brushing my foot on the mat here.

As you brush back and forth, on the backward pull, you'll feel all of this recruiting, controlling the front, pulling back. Last two. And you'll keep the leg behind you just for a second. So it's this tiny little leg circle. In dance, it's called the Rond de Jambe, rounding of the leg.

Okay. Let's just do four the opposite way. So four and four. I'm low and it's small. I wanted to have you stay in the muscle work.

Don't go so big that your joints are just outta control. Okay? And then step on that foot and we'll do the other side. So you'll lift and you'll just brush and brush. Brush and brush.

You've gotta stay lifted tall through your trunk. Four more brush. Here's one. Lift through the trunk, up outta your lumbar all the way through the top of the head in our last one. Little circles.

We do around to the front. Backside around to the front. Backside around to the front. One more that direction, then we reverse it for four. Stay in those muscles.

Three. All of us are former dancers, right? Here we go. Okay. Now, I'll turn to face you. Keep the springs on your feet.

Look, first position. Okay. You can step a little further away if you want to. Your hand is on the top. Okay. I want you to feel your external rotation. Control this little leg up.

It's almost like a passe, but not quite. I'm just gonna put my heel on my calf. Keep your hips level. So we don't have to raise it so high. We don't need that hip that high.

If you keep your foot low, you're probably gonna stay in more of your muscle work okay? Turn it inward, turn it outward, and then stretch the spring down. So it's a little kind of mini passe, internal rotation, external rotation, and stretch the spring down. Couple more. And it's a lift.

So you're controlling how the spring takes your leg in. Work back here to stretch the spring a little bit this way and down. And one more. We lift, turn in, turn out and down. Now, hold it down there.

We've got eight little Degages. You can't really go very far. These Springs are pretty strong. Stay in control. Five, six, I'm just sort of brushing my feet, seven and eight.

And then I want you to hold both legs strong and straight, Releve. Pull your heels together and see if you can let go. You can let go. You feel that work really deep around those hips, lower your heels. Okay. Of course we've gotta do the other side, I'll see you in a second.

Here we go. Okay. So it's just nice square hips, externally rotation. You're gonna control the sole of the foot almost to the mid shin. Turn your thigh inward, turn your thigh outward, and then stretch. I'm gonna push my heal down.

And heal to calf, internal rotation, external and lower down. Feel free to make that bigger if you can control your hips. Okay. That's a rule. No one needs to get so exaggerated that this hip is hiked and you're compressed in your spine. Okay. Our little brushes.

Eight. It's kinda emphasize the coming in. Control the brush away. Four more. One, two.

Are you feeling your rotators, everybody? Three and four. And then we just did that little heel lift, keep 'em together. Center yourself, trunk over hips. Let go.

Do whatever you want to do with your arms, and then lower and turn. Face your springs, let's step out of these loops. So I pick up one leg. Hold with your hands there. Don't step out and without holding on.

They could really slip up. Okay. Guys, we're doing great. I wanna put on a pair of socks real quick. Just a quick pair. I want my foot to slide easily on this next stretch so I just have this here.

But we have a few little ballet stretches that I want us to do. Okay. So come on back up. You may wanna just step away from that frame a little bit. Let's do a Pilates stance. Let's do some lateral flection.

So I'm just gonna do as if that was my ballet bar, and I'm just leaning side, leaning toward it and just really open and feel this really beautiful stretch. And center. Remember, we wanna go up in the body, up in the spine. Let's do each side one more time. Lift and bend.

How much lift and side bend can you put in your body? No collapsing down, this is always about going up. Up and over, legs are together. Okay. Now I want you to turn to face sore bar, step in, and then I'm gonna take this leg back into a pretty nice deep lunge. I wanna slide that foot and deep in that front knee bend.

Okay. Just hold that. Now you can be on the ball of your foot and do it that way. Or the slide is kind of nice to really open, open, open the hip and then use the other leg to help you stand up. Let's do two more. Slide, slide, slide, slide, and pull yourself up.

And one more time. Getting a beautiful lunge open hip flexor. Good. And up. Three on the other side. Holding that bar, slide that leg.

Contract those glutes on the back leg. And two more. And slide. And up. Last one.

Reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, and lift. We're gonna come down for, oh, it feels so good, for a Swan. No spring needed. No spring needed. Hands on your bar.

Put your face down. You can have your legs apart anywhere into here. I'm gonna take mine together. So everybody, imprint that pelvis. Let's get the scapular ready and we're just gonna look up.

Now, because there's no spring, we don't really get any help. This is really all about your back. Your arms to your back. We'll do three of them. Get out what you need. We're only doing three.

Right. Energy and strength. Shoulder blades back, pick up that chest. One more time. Good. Nice, strong class. Lift, lift, lift, and lower.

Okay. I love to finish that with a nice, easy rest pose. Sometimes it's nice to vary that rest pose, where you're emphasizing one hip and ribcage side. Going to the side. One to the other. And be sure to finish right in the middle.

And everyone take one more breath together, and then exhale. Just simply roll yourself all the way up until you're back up on top of your knees again. Thank you for moving with me today. I'll see you again soon.