Reformer Legs, Back, & Arms

Hi, everyone. Tracey Mallett here with Pilates Anytime. Great class today. We're going to be focusing on our arms, upper body, yes, that mid upper back, our posture alignment, and also our legs. So those are the three major components today that we're going to be focusing on. So what you need for this workout obviously is your reformer, but we'll also need a box and some light dumbbells just to kind of finish off those arms later on in the workout.

So let's get down onto the actual reformer. Gonna quickly warm up those legs. Gonna get the headrest up. I am working on two reds and a green right now. However, that is entirely up to you. Remember, this is your legs, so we're gonna go a little bit heavier to work the quads and the hamstrings.

So I'm gonna roll down. Put your head on the headrest. Now, get your heels in line with the sit bones. Drop that tailbone down, then scoop out those abs, reach your fingertips towards the bars as you pull your shoulder blades down and away. Now, we're gonna exhale, push out and in. And out.

We're gonna get a nice cadence going here, nice rhythm. We go out to come in. And I want you to put a little bit more focus on the back of the leg, the hamstring. There we go. So we're gonna get those legs nice and warm just to warm up.

The larger muscle groups here will warm the whole body. Get that heart rate up a little bit. Let's do five more here. Now, full extension. That's kinda your quad drawing away from your kneecap, so you're lengthening those legs. Let's just do a couple more.

And now, we're gonna go into some midline little pulses here, so we're in that midway. So we don't go to full extension, we don't go all the way down. We keep right in the middle there. Keep that work on those quads and those hamstrings pulsing here. There we go. Kinda pulse until we feel the heat. (chuckles) Let's do four more.

And four, and three, and two, now one more. Let's go into that full extension without moving the pelvis. And then, come back onto your toes where the heels were. And we push out and in. Be mindful to keep that ankle joint completely still 'cause we really wanna work on those legs.

The quads drawing away from the knees. Tailbone is down in that neutral position. Really drawing in those ab. That's it. All the way in that full extension, feel those quads lengthen and back. (exhales) And breathe. Good. Let's just do a couple more.

And let's go into our little pulsing here midway. There we go. And just pulse, pulse. There we go in that midway, kind of awakens those legs up. And that's what we need right now just to awaken the body. Good. Okay, let's do four more.

Ready? Four, three, two, now one more full extension. Let's go into a nice little prance here, little prancing. Stretch out those calves. Keep the pelvis still, though. (exhales) And breathe. (breathing) Four, three, two, and one.

Releve and then come back. Turn the toes out, heels together in your little diamond position. We exhale and squeeze. Once again, the heels are connected together. Now, look where the knees are.

The knees are kinda going diagonally out. Not to the sides, diagonally out. There we go. Once again, reach your fingertips towards your bar. Lengthen through that upper body. Now, think of your inner thighs, pelvic floor, abs drawing in, you're zipping up.

That's it. Put a little focus on that pelvic floor. As we exhale, let's do one more. Ready for our little pulses, everyone. Go pulse and pulse. There we go. In that little V position, feel those inner inner thighs and little pulses here.

There we go. And eight, and seven, and six, and five, and four, and three, and two. Now, one more fully extension. Lower your heels. Releve, lower your heels. So you're dropping your heels underneath the bar with control.

Controlling those feet, working the feet. Four up, three up, two up, and one. Bend your knees and come down. Let's take the heels nice and wide. And we exhale, push out and in.

Once again, the toes are going diagonally out. Tail bone down. Neutral position. Scooping out those abs. Be mindful that you're using your abdominals. Even though you're lying on the reformer, those abs are still active.

We never have those abs go on vacation. They stay with you all the time. (breathing) Breathe. (breathing) Let's do four more here. Exhale four, exhale three, exhale two. Be ready for our pulses. And go, and pulse, and out, and out, and out.

Little pulses. And a pulse. Hamstrings are working right now as we lift. Hamstrings, put the focus to the back of the leg. And a four, and three, and two, and one more that's going to that full extension. And then, come back. Replace the heels with the toes.

We go out and in. We keep moving. Keep the ankle joints still. Press out. (exhales) Ooh, I feel those legs starting to awake. Up and down. Let's do five more. Exhale five and in, four and in, three, two, now ready little pulses.

And a pulse. Teeny tiny pulses in that mid range of motion. Watch, you're not releveing too high. You're on the ball of your feet, so you could wiggle your toes around. The weight is on the ball of your foot. All right, I haven't said stop yet.

I know you want to, but you're not going to. Keep going. You've got four more. And a four, and three, and two, and one more full extension. Now, bend your knees. Come all the way back. Bring your knees into your chest.

Okay, we're gonna roll ourselves all the way up. Okay, we're gonna come down into a blue spring, so that's a half spring. Turn forwards, flip your headrest down, (headrest clunks) and put your knees together. We're gonna work on our back now and our arms. Take the longer loops. Palms down.

We're gonna go straight up, and then back again. Now, if this feels a little too easy, you can choke it up, go to the smaller straps or just choke it up a little bit more. But a blue spring is perfect for this 'cause we're working into the shoulders, into our back. But obviously, we can always progress to one spring when you get the strength. As long as you've got your form, your shoulders are depressing down towards the reformer and the arms are lifting straight up.

Exhale. Now, shoulders are stacked over your hips. You're getting that nice thoracic extension as the arms come to right by the ears. Now, we're gonna be adding. So we go straight up, open the arms, and circle back. And straight up, circle the arms, control it back.

And straight up, shoulders over hips. Now, we're gonna do a little focus here with our eyes. Lift up, look up, open and around. See how that eye level as you lift really opened up your chest a little bit more and really mobilized that thoracic spine. So look up. (exhales) And then, back down.

One more, ready? Look up (exhales) and then open. Now, we're gonna reverse it. You ready? Palms are flat. We go out, lift up. Now, keep your eye level forwards. Just keep looking forwards.

Get the arms working. And then, we'll change our eye line out to the side. Palm's facing outwards. Palm's facing downwards. There we go. Now, let's see if we can change our eye focus here.

So we open. Now, look up. A little extension. Ooh, you feel that in through that thoracic spine, feels really good. Working on that postural alignment, building strength. Your arms, your mid back. Look up and down.

Inhale here. (inhales) Exhale look up. Let's do one more. And open. Look up and then come back. Arms forwards, I'm gonna choke it up a little bit, just to make it a little bit smaller. Now, we're gonna do our fly here. So open your arms out to the side.

So your arms are slightly rounded, and it's a reverse fly. Sitting up nice and tall. Now, your focus is your mid thoracic spine, but it's your posterior deltoids, your back of your shoulders. So make sure your hands are just below your shoulder, and they're going directly to the side, okay? (exhales) Let's do four more of those.

Exhale four, exhale three, exhale two, and then exhale one. Come forwards. Give yourself a little bit of a break. It's pretty intense on your shoulders and your back. And then, guess what? We come right back up to it. We're here.

Now, we're gonna incline. Hold it here. And we're gonna lift up into a chair position because we can. And we're gonna do like a little pull. Now, if this is too challenging, just drop one leg down. This is more of a balance exercise here, your abs, 'cause you're on a super light spring.

So there's not much going on in your upper body, but you're moving your arms to test your balance. So this is all about your core. So put your focus into the center of your body, and let's balance. All right, your shins are parallel. And then, we're gonna reach forwards to here, and we're going to try and do a bicep curl.

Once again, just lower one foot down if you need to. And then, replace it with the other, so we do equal sides. Here, I'm balancing. My elbows are as high as I can manage and keep that balance. (exhales) And back. (exhales) I've got the smaller straps here. And let's do four more here.

Four, three, that balance, two with the biceps, one more, hold it there. Now, we're gonna reach that right leg up, the left leg up, the right leg up, the left leg up. And four, and three, and two, and one. Bend your knees, drop the feet down. Wonderful. Put those straps down. Let's stand up.

Put the little bar all the way down. Grab your box. We're gonna go into our legs now, and we're going to put our box short ways like this, good. Now, I'm gonna go into a one red spring or one spring. Some of you may be able to go a little bit heavier, but I'm gonna keep it at one spring. We're gonna step up onto the top.

Step up, and we're gonna take one leg forward, so your toes are against the actual box. And you're other foot, the toe is on the platform, the heel is against your bar. We're gonna reach out. So you're in that position here. You're legs are straight. Bend your knee.

So we're gonna get your knee and your ankle all in alignment here. And then, we're gonna try to find our balance. And lift up, bend that back knee in. Shoulders over hips. We push out and bring it back in. So you can see it's my back leg doing all the work.

The front leg is bending and just pushing the carriage forwards. You've got that box there for a little extra help, little extra support, just to make you feel a little bit more secure in that position. Now, if you feel comfortable, let's take the hands behind the head, elongate that torso, and push out. So you're gonna start to feel heat in that back leg. (inhales) Good, and keep breathing.

Shoulders over your hips. (breathing) Couple more. (breathing) Hold it here. You're in a lunge position. We're gonna go up and down. Straight up. Now, look at my front leg. It stays bent but the back leg is doing all the work. So yeah, you're gonna feel the heat in those thighs.

I feel it too. And down. (exhales) Keep focusing forwards. You've got your balance. It's all about your center being strong. There we go. Up and down, up and down, up. One more up. Hold it here.

Reach the hands down. Push out in that elongated split there. Hold it in that stretch. Now from here, we're gonna look down towards your box. Bring that back leg in your plank.

We're gonna push forwards and back. Now, here we go. We are working our back right now. Of course your core is stabilizing you, but you're trying to push forwards, keeping the shoulders depressed, so those scapulas in those little pockets. You got that long neck, but you're pressing down. Your arms are connected to your back.

You're gonna feel the back. Your abs are lifted up against gravity, and you are going. If this is too challenging, go to on your forearms. Couple more. One more. And then hold it here. Draw in those abs.

Slightly tilt the pelvis. Feel strong. Now, we're gonna replace it with the other leg going forwards. Toes against your box, back knee is bent, feel secure. As we release, find your balance. Put your hands on your hips, and we go forwards and back.

Forwards and back. Remember, your transitions are just as important as your exercise. How we transition, how we set up, we set up for success. So take your time to get into these positions. Now, let's see if we can move the hands behind the head.

There we go. Start to feel the heat in that back leg. I totally can feel it. Keep the shoulders over your hips. Do a little adjustment that we're not pitching our body forwards. Yes, it's all here. This is where you're feeling it.

Push out and in. All right, we're nearly there. Good. Just a couple more. (inhales) One more. And then, bring it back. We are here. We go up, up, and down. And up, and down. Let's try and keep that carriage still.

It's a little challenging to keep that carriage still. I'm not saying it's easy, but it's our goal. We have to have goals in life. And push down and up. Up, up. Down, down.

Up, up. That back leg is working super hard. Scoop those abs. Don't forget the abdominals, everybody. Gotta keep strong in that center of your body. I know it's getting challenging. You've got two more, that's all I'm asking. Two more.

One more. Shaky, shaky, I got you. Reach the hands down and stretch. Always gotta push that little bit harder at your comfort zone. There's your stretch. Hold it there. Now, we're gonna go back into that plank.

Remember, if you wanna do forearms, you can. All right, bring that leg back. Nice and strong. Forwards and back. Forwards and back. Forwards and back. (exhales) We're just gonna do four more. Four and then we're gonna add onto this.

Two more. Last time, hold it here. Let's do a little mini push-up. Down for two. Up for two. One, two. Up, up. Keep that carriage still, still.

Up, up. Down, down. Up, up. Two more. Down, down. Keep that carriage still. One more, down, down. Up, up. Into your pike here. And pull back.

Suck in those abs. Pull those abs in. Fantastic. There we go. Now from here, we're gonna step down. Step down. Put the carriage long ways. Back onto a blue spring.

So a half spring. Step up onto your box. Your chest is over the edge. We're gonna walk forwards. Hold onto the ends here. Pull your shoulder blades down. Elbows go down. And then, what we're gonna do as we pull, the elbows are gonna touch the box 'cause the elbows are going down towards the carriage.

And we push. That's it. Push and pulling, very functional movements here. But we need to be mindful that we're setting the scapula down. Got that long neck. I'm working in extension, so I'm mobilizing that mid thoracic spine.

My triceps and biceps are working here. So you've got your arms and your back. Double duty, we love it. Four, and three, and two. Give me one more, everyone. One more.

And slowly come back, come back, come back, come back. Great. Adjust yourself a little bit more. Chest over the edge. Pick up your straps. Take your hands out to a T position, and we come back, and then out to the side. So your palms are flat.

I have a confession to make. This is my least favorite exercise, but I know it's an exercise that we all need to do. Pull your shoulder blades down and back. So from your T, pinky hits your hips. You're reaching out for the crown of the hair.

Try and relax that lower body. Let's do four more. Ready? Exhale four. Exhale three. Keep the palms flat. External rotation, that shoulder joint.

All right, let's do one more. Bring it down. Finish it off with some triceps because we are here. Let's choke it up a little bit. I'm gonna make it a little bit more challenging.

There we go. The more you choke it up, the harder it's going to be. Keep those elbows high. Now, full extension. (exhales) Couple more, you've got this. One more. (exhales) And bring it back. Put those straps down, everyone.

And let's come back. All right, let's move our box, if it moves, to the end here. (box thudding) We're gonna step up onto our box. Feet hip width apart. Hands forwards. Now, I'm going to move it to like one red spring.

(springs clinking) All right, so the legs are gonna start together, and we're gonna take your leg out to the side. We're gonna rond de jambe that leg all the way up. Push the carriage out. And then, as the carriage comes back, the leg goes back to the side. So push the carriage, rond de jambe the leg in that nice stretch.

And then, bring it back and curl. And again, around, push out. And then, contract those abs as you bring it back to the side. And again, out and around, so you've got hip mobility, legs, and of course that fantastic extension on your back there and around. So you've got everything working for you here.

And rotate, reach out, ears by your biceps. And then, control it back. Two more. And around, reach out. And then, curl back. One more. Reach out, hold it there. And little pulses up and down to work the glutes.

Hip mobility. Try and keep your upper body still. So you're working, pushing that spring out. And a couple more. And then, bring it straight down. And then, come back. So we've got the other leg to go now.

So legs together. Take your opposite leg, tap it out. So let's rond de jambe, reach the leg out. And then, bring it back. Slow and controlled. And inhale, reach that leg out. Ears by your biceps as you stretch it.

And then, control it back. Try and keep with my cadence as we push out. Keep that control. And then, curl back. (inhales) Breathe. Inhale, reach. Exhale, pull back.

Open that hip, open that leg, extend it. And control it back. (breathing) Feeling good. Let's do one more. This time, we're gonna open that leg up, reach out in that extension, and then lift up. Keep the upper body still. Keep that carriage still. And lift up, lift up, lift up.

Six, five, four, three, two, and one. Bring the leg down and come all the way back. And roll hands, step down, give yourself a little bit of a stretch, here we go. Let's roll ourself all the way up. Let's put on one red, one blue. We're gonna add on.

We're gonna work those booty muscles here. So we're gonna step up, put your foot right on the edge, put your hands on your thighs, and we're gonna push that leg out and in. There we go. Super simple. Pushing out and in to work the glutes. There we go. Keep low. That's it, keep low.

(breathing) Four more. And four, and three, and two. And one more, come back. Switch to the other side. Hips back, hands on your thighs, start to move that leg. You're pushing out and in. Your hips are back, your hands are on your thighs, and you're pushing with the glutes.

So this glute is working, but this glute here is stabilizing. So you might feel it more on the stationary side, and that means you're doing the exercise correctly. So push out and in. Whoo hoo! All right, five, and four, and three, and two. And one more, and come all the way back. Beautiful. Turn around. Step, step, step down.

Come up onto the top here. Put that little guy back (springs clinking) into the middle here. And we're gonna come all the way onto your knees. Back to one red spring, one spring. Feet against your shoulder rest. Hands wide.

Tilt the pelvis forwards, pull your shoulder blades down, and look high. Now, we focus. We're gonna push out, and then back. Now, we're gonna be adding onto this. What we're going to do is we push back, we're gonna release the front arm, your right arm. So we go circle, bring it back, lift up.

Let's do it again with the right hand. And back. (exhales) And again, back. And forwards. And rotate, follow that hand. And back. Two more. (breathing) Palm facing outwards. Bring it back in, one more. Let's go to the other side now, so we push back.

Keep the pelvis still. Keep your hips facing the bar. Follow your hand with your eyes. Lift up, back, rotate. Three more here. (inhales) Follow that hand. Feels really good working that mid upper back, your lats, your serratus.

One more. And back, hold it here. Now, push out. Bend the elbows. Push out. Bend the elbows. In and out, working the arms. And back, push out. Inhale, your core is stabilizing you in this simplistic move, but it's pretty intense. (exhales) Four, (exhales) three, (exhales) two, (exhales) one, and push away.

Keep the arms straight. Bring the carriage in, bring the carriage in. Lift up, and then bring the feet together, knees together, and push out into that stretch. Hold it there. Look right, look left, look right, look left.

Back into your center. Now, we're gonna take your left foot against the shoulder rest. Right leg into the center. We're gonna push out, bring it in, push out, bring it in. Little active flexibility with those legs.

Push out, bring it in. One more. Push out, bring it in. Hold it here. Lift up. Switch sides, opposite leg. Lift up nice and tall.

And we push out, look down, bring it in. Exhale, push out. So we're not holding the stretch, we're moving through it. Move through that stretch. One more. Move through that stretch.

Bring it in nice and tall. And then, bring that leg down. Pull all the way back. Go down to 1/2 spring now. We're gonna get onto our legs again, so we're gonna come all the way down. Now, what I'm gonna ask you to do is just put this out the way, just so it doesn't get in the way.

You're gonna have your headrest up, and we're gonna come all the way down. (headrest thuds) Grab your little strap, and push all the way out. So I'm on 1/2 spring. If you wanna make it a little bit more challenging, you can take it up to one spring. All right, so hands is here.

We're gonna lift that leg up, and we're gonna circle it around and take it back. So we go up, circle around. So be mindful that your hips are stacked. And around. And up and down. So again, a lot of hip mobility here, but also we're working through the glutes, your hamstrings, the legs, and forwards.

If you wanna help a little bit, you can put your hand on your hip and lengthen out that waist, so you're not hiking that hip. It's a nice cue here to keep that length. All right. Shall we reverse it now? So we go forwards and lift. Now, you're only as big as your hip will allow.

Flexibility is all specific to your joint. So remember, if it's only small, that's totally fine. You're still getting a huge amount of benefit doing this. And as we do it more, we'll get more flexibility, more strength. And up and around.

Keep that lift out of the mats. Do one more. Now, go diagonally forwards. Externally rotate it forwards. We go straight towards your ear, and then you press down. So think of your hamstring pressing down here. Keep the hand on the hip if you want or here, wherever you feel most comfortable.

And we inhale, bring it towards your ear. Press down. Inhale up. Exhale down. In that external rotation and exhale down. Up towards your ear, and then down. Couple more. (inhales) Breathe and down.

One more. Breathe and down. This time, you're gonna bring it up. Hold it here, grab it, and enjoy that stretch. See if we can pull, pull, pull, pull. There you go. A little bit more.

Come on, that's it. You got it. Just a little bit more. Hold that stretch. And release. Let's take that strap down. Remember, pilates is all about flexibility, so we don't wanna skimp out on that flexibility component. We're gonna take our foot into the strap here and reach the leg out.

So make sure the underneath leg is bent, and we're gonna lift up and into our circle and down. So you can make these circles smaller or if you've got the flexibility and the stability within your pelvis to make it bigger. You may have the flexibility, but do you have the stability to be able to do it? So find your perfect circle for you, for your body, and let's work on that circle, and gain that nice full range of motion. If you wanna put your hand on the hip, remember to lengthen out that hip, kinda helps a little bit just to open up that waist, so we're not hiking that hip.

Feels so good. All right, and let's reverse it. So we're gonna go forwards. This specific exercise is a lot in my practice, personal practice, because I find the benefits of this have really helped me as I've aged to keep flexibility and keep pain at bay within my hips. So I hope you'll like it as much as me 'cause I do feel that it's important to keep that flexibility. You don't use it, you will lose it, that famous saying.

Okay, let's do one more. Last time. Beautiful. Now, take that leg diagonally out, externally rotate it. We go up, up. Now, press with the hamstring down, down. I'm diagonally forwards of the reformer as I come up.

And then, I press down with the hamstring. There we go. Watch you don't hike the hip as you lift the leg. It's all specific to your hip. Maybe put your hand right here. Stop it from lifting. There we go. Put your hand on your hip and depress it.

Push that hip down as you lift the leg up. There you go. Awesome. Let's do a couple more. Feel that hamstring. All right, can we do one more? Your glutes are on fire too. And let's lift it up and pull.

So holding that stretch. Fantastic. And let's release it and bring it down. Ooh, now your legs feel like jelly now. That's a good sign. And let's step up and step up. We're gonna come all the way up.

We're gonna come back into your center here. We're gonna take a nice deep breath in and exhale out. Now, we're gonna pick up these lovely dumbbells just to finish off with a few minutes of upper body. So we're gonna pick up your dumbbells here, and we're gonna step up onto your reformer, onto your kneeling if you want or you can sit down. We're gonna feet hip width apart, and we're gonna just do some arms, just to finish off.

I promised you some arm finishes to finish off your class today. And we're gonna go out and in. (breathing) I've had so many more requests for more upper body work, so there's nothing better than picking up light dumbbells, going for high reps just to finish off those arms today. And let's do one more. Hold it here. Now, we bend and extend. Keep your palms flat, elbows in line with your shoulders, pull in those abs, and press out and in. (breathing) There we go. Keep smiling.

We're going for high reps. Yes, I'm still moving and so are you. Ready? Let's do four more. Exhale four, exhale three, exhale two, exhale one. Hold it here. Palms up, elbows in.

So now, we're showing our biceps here. (breathing) Elbows nice and high. (breathing) Four more here. Four, three, two, and one more. Bring the arms down. Palms flat. We circle, three, two, one. Hold it here. Slow, slow, slow down. And a three, two, hold it here.

And a slow, slow, control. Circle, circle, circle. Hold, control it. There we go. And again, and a circle, circle, circle. Hold it, control.

You have three more. And a three, two, hold it here. Draw those abs in. You've got two more. And a three, two, one. Hold it here. Slow, feel those arms. One more, and a three, two, one.

Hold it here, hold it here, hold it here, hold it here. For four, and three, and two. Lower it down for four, three, two, one, and down. Whoo! That little burn in those arms, it was well worth it. Put those weights down. Let's step forward.

You are done. You are roasted as we would say. (chuckles) You are baked. You are finished. We're gonna finish off with a roll down. Chin to chest, roll down. Touch your toes. And then exhale, roll all the way up. Realign that spine.

Shake those shoulders. Amazing work. Just look how tall you feel right now. Your mid upper back is worked. Your legs, hip flexibility, and arms. Great having you today. Come and work out with me again.

Look forward to seeing you right here on Pilates Anytime. Bye!