Day 5: Tone & Energize

Hi, we're here for day five. We finally made it to the end of the challenge. I'm Gia, and we're gonna do a reformer class using booty band. If you have a regular THERABAND, you can always tie it around your legs or you can do everything without a band if you prefer. We're gonna start with the band around your thighs and we're gonna start with some footwork.

So I have three reds and one blue spring or three full and 1/2. My head rests is up. You can do whatever feels good to you. We're gonna start on your heels, about hip distance apart. Depending on how tight your band is, you may need to go a little bit wider or you might need to go narrower.

You just wanna make sure everything is parallel, you're flexing your feet, toes are coming back to your shins. You wanna take a deep inhale as you push all the way out, exhale as you come back in. So as I'm moving, just keep going. You wanna think of pushing out with the legs, so the band is always staying a little bit tighter. We have four more.

And three, two, this last one, we're gonna come halfway in. Legs are still bent. You're gonna open your legs like a clam, and then close. So open both knees and close. Three and four.

Using the outer thighs, the hips to open the band. Six. Two more. Seven. Good.

Stay halfway out. You're gonna push out and in for little pulses. Just one inch up, one inch down. Good, keep pulling the toes back to the shins. Breathe however it feels good to you.

We have four, three, two, one, stretch all the way out. Just get a little length, and then come all the way in. Good, we're gonna switch to your toes still in parallel, heels are lifted high. Same thing, we're gonna push all the way out, and then back in. So nice straight legs, and then return.

So I'm trying to keep the weight of the big toe in the second toe so I'm not rolling out toward my baby toe. That's a stronger position for the ankle, but I'm still using the outer thighs to push that band out. We have two more. Last one. Halfway in.

Same thing as before, clams open, and close. Open, close. Again, as I'm opening the legs, I'm trying not to roll out toward my baby toes. I want my ankles to stay straight or in line with the rest of my leg. Two more.

Last one. And pulses. We're gonna go out and in, just one inch jump one inch down. Heels are still high. Make sure you're using the backs of the legs in addition to the quads and the outer thighs so whole leg is working.

We have four more. Three, two, one. Stretch you all the way out, get some length, and then come all the way in. Stay on your toes, you're gonna swivel so your heels are together, toes apart. So now, you'll feel the outer thighs and the hips a little bit more.

We're gonna stretch all the way out, and then come back in. So trying to maintain that rotation from the hips, three, and formally gluing those heels together, really lengthening the legs. Last two, and last one, halfway in. Clams, we're gonna open a little wider, and in. Two, three.

Try to make sure both legs are opening the same distance. One leg is usually a little stronger. We have two more. Good, little pulses. Push out and in.

Two, three, four, keep pulling the abs in. Pelvis is neutral. Last two, and switch all the way out, and then back in. Swivel back to parallel. Staying on your toes, you're gonna push all the way out and hold.

Keep pushing out on that band. You're gonna lower both heels under the bar, and then lift back up. And lower, and lift. So try to get full range of motion with your ankles and keep pushing out on that band. Keep it nice and tight.

Four more like this. And three, two, last one. Keep the heels up, bend your knees halfway in again. You're gonna lower the heels here now and then back up. Try to get both heels down at the same time.

One usually likes to go a little bit faster than the other. So we're trying to match as much as we can. Four more, and three, two, last one, and then push all the way out. Just get one more last chance of length, and then back in. Sit up, we're gonna change the springs.

So I'm taking off two. So I'm left with two reds, and then lie back down. We're gonna keep the band where it is. If you feel like it's a little too much for your hips, you can always take it off or add it again later in the class. So I'm gonna bring my legs up to tabletop, still pushing out on that band.

Arms up to the ceiling, shoulders plugged in, and I want my hands just right over my shoulders so that the straps are tight already. Take a deep inhale here. As you exhale, just push both arms down by your sides. Your head will stay down for now. Inhale, arms up.

Exhale as you push your hands down. Inhale, arms up. Exhale, press. Two more simple like this. Last one.

Next one, we'll add a chest lift. Arms up, press the arms down, curl your head up. And then lower, and then curl up. Two more. Last one.

Then we add the legs. As you curl up, legs stretch out over the bar. Inhale, bend. Exhale, stretch. We have two more.

Last one. Hold it here. You're gonna bend both legs in, and then push out. Keep that chest up the whole time. Stretch out.

We have two more. Bend, stretch. Last one. And then bend your legs, arms come up, rest for a second. You can bring your feet onto the foot bar and just rock side to side.

So we're gonna go into coordination just like you do without the band. So we're gonna have your elbows by your side. Your elbows stay glued to the mat the whole time. Knees into your chest. You can come a little bit past tabletop.

The only difference is your legs will be slightly apart instead of all the way together. We're gonna keep our head up for the whole series. So you're gonna take a deep inhale here. Exhale, stretch out. Open, close legs, bend your knees, bend your arms.

Stretching out, open, close, bend. So as you're closing, you're not closing all the way, but it's just coming back to where it was. And stretch. Open, close, and bend, stretch. Open, close, legs, and arms.

Two more. Open, close, legs, arms. Last one. Open, close, legs, and arms. Hang up your straps.

We're gonna take the band off for a little bit. We'll bring it back later. And we're gonna go into some arms. So I'm gonna change to one red spring. Take off my other one, and then we're gonna come onto your knees.

So you can do this with your knees all the way against the shoulder rest. I'm gonna do the series with my feet hanging off the edge of the carriage. I wanna kind of tuck my toes under to kind of hold me in. And then I'm gonna grab onto loops. So standing up nice and tall on your knees, push your hips forward so that there's no creases here.

You don't wanna sit back toward your heels. Arms are straight. You're just gonna pull the arms back for chest expansion and then arms come forward. So think of using your back to move your arms. You're using abdominals to keep you stable while you're on your knees.

If you feel unstable, you can always do this seated or you can bring yourself forward again and then grab onto the ropes. Just gives you a little bit more stability. We have two more, keeping the arms long. Last one. Now, this time, you're gonna hinge back so you're sitting back toward your heels.

You're not sitting on your heels, you're up a little bit. You're gonna pull your arms back and hold. You're gonna keep your elbows by your sides and just bend your arms and straighten for a tricep press. Bend and stretch. Still pulling into the abdominals to keep you stable.

I'm trying to stay in a straight line from my head all the way down to my tailbone. Two more. Last one. And then push your hips forward. Hang up your straps once you're in the stopper, and we're gonna turn around.

So bring my feet against the shoulder rest. Try to get your toes all the way under and then your heels against the shoulder rest as much as you can. Grab onto your straps. We're gonna go into serving. So elbows are bent right by your sides and you're pushing your hips forward.

So there's a flat line here. You don't wanna sit back towards your heels. And then you're just gonna spring your arms forward like you're serving a tray. Pull your elbows back. And again.

Reach the arms forward, and then pull elbows back. Try not to let the elbows get too far behind you. You don't wanna let your ribs play forward. So keep that long line from your head all the way down. We have two more, and then we're gonna add on to this.

Now, you're gonna reach your arms forward and hold, palms face up. You're gonna open your arms out, just slightly. Close, bend your arms back in. So the goal is to keep the palms facing up. You open, then get the pinkies coming together, and then you close.

Reach out, open, close, bend. Two more. Reach, open, close, and bend. Last one. Open, close, bend.

Sit back, hang up your straps, and you wanna grab your short box. So I'm gonna bring my foot bar down just 'cause I don't need it. I'm adding on one more spring, doesn't matter which one, just to keep your carriage stable. And then grab onto your box. So your box can go in front or behind the shoulder rest.

I like mine behind the shoulder rest just 'cause I like a little more space. But if you're on the shoulder side, definitely put it in front so you don't feel like you're really struggling to reach the strap. So grab your band too. We're gonna use that again. So you can split the band down for now.

We won't use it for the round back. So your feet are in the strap. You wanna push your feet out, push your feet down, arms are gonna come up to a (indistinct) position. Swing up nice and tall. Inhale, grow a little bit taller.

Exhale as you round your lower back. Roll back as far as you can. If you wanna go into an arch, you can. And then roll up, and then back up. So roll back again.

You can go into that arch if you want. I don't always love it. It makes me a little lightheaded sometimes. So I only go halfway back. And pulling into your abdominals.

Starting with that tailbone as you roll. Coming all the way up. Lengthen. One more. Just get a little bit of spinal mobility in while we're working our abdominals.

Now, grab your band. You're gonna put it around your arms. I'm gonna bring it like up to my elbows. If you want it just on your wrist, that's also an option. You're just gonna push out gently, not as hard as you can.

Just so there's a little bit of tension in the strap. Shoulders down the back, you're sitting up nice and tall. And then just watch so your ribs aren't displayed forward. You're gonna lift up tall as you lean back with a flat back and then come up. So your arms are just following along, lifting up and back, and reaching back and up.

I'm trying to lengthen out through the top of my head. One more. And we're gonna add our twist to this. So you're gonna twist, reach back, and up. Twist to the other side.

Reach. Good, still flexing the feet, making sure your strap is holding you in. One more each side. Hips are stable, you're twisting from the waist. Last one.

Good, sitting up nice and tall, just gonna open the arms and close. Open. Good. So it might not go very far depending on how tight your band is. We have four more, but still good work in the upper body regardless.

Three and four. Now, keep pushing out in the band just slightly. Again, you're gonna push your arms up and down. Up, down. Three.

Think of pulling down into your lats even. So that way, it's not just working your biceps or your arms, it's working your back and your shoulders as well. One more Good. Take the band off slightly. We're gonna adjust your legs.

So we're gonna do some side sit ups. So I'm gonna bring my leg in front into a little bit of an L-shape. If you wanna sit on your leg and come on to your hip more, you can. Make sure the foot and the strap is parallel and you want that foot flex. And we're gonna add the strap back just how we had it before.

So you're pushing out just slightly on that strap, lengthening your waist, you're gonna lean over, and then back up. So it's almost like your hands are framing your face and you just wanna keep that there. It's a nice guide too so that you're not leading with your head. If you try to keep your hands in between, your head in between your hands the whole time. Two more.

Last one. Now, you're gonna come to a nice long line. You're gonna push your arms up and down. Up. You're still pushing out on that band.

Four more. Pulling into your oblique. Three and two. Last one. And then take off the band for a second while we stretch.

You can leave it on one hand. You're gonna twist, grab the frame. This part should feel nice. And then push yourself up. We're gonna switch to the other side.

So the other foot's in the strap. I have this leg on the box in an L shape just in front of me. And then the band is on my arms again. Pushing out on the band, lifting up out of the waist, I'm gonna lean over as far as I can, and then back up. And again, I'm trying to keep my head in between my hands so that I'm not leading with my head or dropping my head.

And then just keep checking to make sure you're not twisting. You wanna go straight side, and then back up. We have two more. Last one. Good, come to this nice little line.

Arms push up and down. Good. So it's nice to see from the back too. I'm trying to keep the shoulders down the back, not letting them rise up with me as I lift the arms. Two more.

And then take the band off of one arm. Go ahead and stretch by grabbing the frame. Just breathe here. And then come on up. We'll take your foot out of the strap, we'll take the box off, and then we're gonna get ready for some bridging.

Just gonna bring the foot bar back up, and then I have two red springs on. You can make it heavier if you need a little bit more stability, which our goal for a lot of these exercises is not move the carriage. So if you're prone to cramping or it's just hard for you to keep the carriage still, I'd go a little bit heavier. If you want more of a challenge, you can go lighter. So I have two reds.

I wanna put the band around my thighs again. And then make sure your head rests down if you haven't already. Feet are gonna be about hip distance apart. I'm gonna stay on my arches. If I start to feel like I'm cramping, I might move up to my heels.

Arms are down by your sides. You're gonna roll up to your bridge. You're already pushing out on that band just slightly. And then roll down, just articulating through the spine again. As you're moving, keep going up into your bridge.

Pay attention to your feet. Are they turning out? Where are they staying parallel. Try to keep the weight even on your feet so you're not rolling to the outer edge. You're really standing on those feet.

Rolling up, and then rolling down. We have two more. You can push down into your arms to help you if you need just a little bit more help to get up. Roll up, down. Last one.

Rolling up. We're gonna hold this one up. Again, we're keeping the care just still as we can. You're gonna keep the hips still, open the legs out for your clam, and then close. So we open and close.

Open. Trying to make sure both legs are moving evenly. We have four more. And three, two, last one. Now keep the hips up.

You're gonna twist your hips. You're gonna hinge down as you lower one hip down toward the mat, and then hinge back up. Twist to the other side. Lower and lift. Twist, lower.

If it doesn't feel good to hinge, you can also articulate, but it just feels a little bit different to do a hinge rather than a roll down. And twist, hinge, lift. Twist, lower, lift. Good. I'm still trying to keep the knees as still as I can so I'm not rock leaning to one side.

Twist, hinge, lift. One more. Come back to center. Roll down one bone at a time, and then hug your knees into your chest. Rock side to side.

And we can take the strap off your legs or the band off. We're gonna bring the headrest up, and we're gonna do my favorite, feet in straps. So you're gonna push out, put your feet in the straps right on your arches, and we're gonna start with our heels together, toes apart, wrapping around those legs. Your outer thighs and hips should already feel nice and warm. So we're just gonna keep them engaged as you lift your legs up to the ceiling, and then lower them down to a diagonal.

So we lift up, abs are pulled in nice and tight, lower. And legs lift up and lower. One more. Good, keep your legs at this diagonal. You're gonna open to a small V and close.

And open, close. Trying to resist in both directions so you're not letting the springs do it. Now, we're gonna combine those for a circle. So we go up, open, down together. Open, down together.

Good. It feels good, you can start to go a little bit wider. Whatever you do though, make sure your pelvis is stable so you're not rocking back and forth or rocking side to side. It's nice and controlled, but then the legs are free. One more.

Reverse. Open out, up together, lower. Reaching the legs long, maintaining that rotation in both legs. Four more. Should feel good.

Try not to hold any tension anywhere. Again, the legs should feel nice and free. One more. Okay, lower your legs to your diagonal. We're gonna flex your feet and open your legs to about shoulder distance apart.

We're gonna do frogs, but we're gonna keep the legs apart so it feels a little bit different. So you're gonna bend your legs in, and then pushing out. If you don't like how this feels, you can always do a regular frog with your heels together. The challenge with it, with your legs apart is that your legs are moving a little bit more separately. So trying to keep them moving at the same time or not, zigzagging in and out is a real challenge.

We have four more, and stretch. And three, reach. Two, reach. Last one. Now, we're gonna keep the legs out, keep them turned out.

We're gonna do a small circle now, about the size of a tennis ball. Three, four, five, six, and then reverse, keep turning out. So think of those inner thighs turning up toward the ceiling as you're circling around. Good, bring your legs together, soles of the feet together and bend into a frog stretch. You can hold onto the straps, you can push your knees out to the side, or you can let your feet come down to the carriage, oh, my hip popped, if that feels good to you.

Keep one leg bent. You're gonna stretch the other leg out to the side. Stretch out that inner thigh, and then bring it back in. Stretch the other leg, and then bring it back in. We'll take your feet out of the straps, come on to the foot bar with your feet.

Hang up your straps, and then we're gonna finish with ease lunge. So I'm gonna do one red spring, take the other one off. Foot bar stays where it is. I have one foot on the floor, pretty close to the front of the frame. The other foot against the shoulder rest, and then I'm gonna bring my knee down.

Tuck your hips under so you don't get too much into your back, and then keep your chest open as you just push back into your lunge. Should feel nice after all that legwork we did just to stretch out the front of the hip. Shouldn't have been gripping hopefully, but still nice to stretch, especially if you sit a lot. And then slowly come back in. And then we're gonna go to the other side.

So again, your foot's toward the front of the frame, your other foot is on the shoulder rest. You wanna tuck those toes under as much as you can. Hips are underneath you. And then you're just gonna push out into your little lunge. Try to square off your hips as much as you can as well.

A lot of times, the leg that's in the back, we wanna open toward it. So you wanna keep pushing that hip forward. And then slowly come back in. And then one last stretch, we're gonna stretch your hips 'cause we did do a lot of hip work with that band. So you're gonna keep the feet on the floor.

One foot's gonna cross over the other knee. And then I like to put my hand on my knee just to open it out a little bit more. And with a flat back, just hinge forward. Hopefully you should feel a little stretch on that hip, the outer hip. You can also do this lying on your back if that feels better if you need more.

This is enough for me usually. And then come back down. Other side. You're gonna bring that foot right on the knee. Use that opposite hand to push your knee down, flat back, hinge forward.

This side's even tighter. Usually my good side. Just breathe into that stretch, try to release any tension, and then both feet down, and it's just gonna roll down. Just loosen out your arms. You can let your head go.

Try not to hold any tension. You're just gonna roll up slowly, roll your shoulders back, sit nice and tall, and you made it through the end of the challenge. Thank you so much for joining me. I hope you had fun and that you feel a little bit more energized and you just feel stronger throughout this whole challenge. Thank you.