Arms, Hips, & Abs EXO Chair

Hi, thank you for joining me today. We are going to do a quick intermediate warmup on the Exo Chair and today I'm gonna use the straps, so if you have straps, this is a great workout for you. So what I have set up in terms of springs on the chair is one spring on two, so the second hook up from the bottom. And I have the arm springs so they're the shorter of the two straps with handles connected first starts, and then nearby for later, I have the longer of the springs with foot loop straps attached so we'll use those a little later, but they're nearby for convenience. So we're just gonna start standing on the mat with the handles in our hands facing the chair.

And I want us to just center the gaze straight ahead. Feel a little bit of pull back against the straps, not a lot, so I'm not actually moving my arms much except for maybe a couple of centimeters, but using that sensation of pressing into the springs to feel connected to my body, to feel connected specifically to my upper back, and also it creates a little bit of a finding your upright relationship to straight up and down challenge from here. Continue that little backward pull on the straps as you let your knees soften. We're rolling down. So basically I'm giving the springs enough pressure so that they don't go slack and what will happen is they'll have to go backward on the diagonal a little bit like that.

Inhale at the bottom. As we exhale, we push down in the feet, we start rolling through the spine, rolling through the spine, keeping that little bit of pressure against those ropes springs, standing tall. And inhale. And exhale, pulling against the straps, pressing the pelvis forward, letting the body articulate down towards the ground, reaching just slightly behind the legs. And inhale.

And exhale as we go up. Keeping connected. Staying evenly weighted. Coming all the way up. We're gonna do one more inhale and rolling down.

Rounding, rounding, deepening, deepening. Stretching the spring, so nice addition of a little bit of arm work that's otherwise unavailable on this piece of equipment, which is very exciting. Stand up tall and hold. Take your arms back for five, small, four, and three and two and one. Keeping a little tension on the springs, bring the arms forward.

Lift yourself up onto your toes. Hold your balance. Press the arms back. Lower your feet down, pulling against the tension in the spring, and let the arms come forward. Roll up onto your toes.

Full articulation in the feet. Now what I like to play with is, as my feet come down, I'm pressing against the springs now. As my feet come down, can I keep my head where it is? Is that actually humanly possible? I've gotta create space, create downward reaching in the arms, create space between the ribs and the pelvis, space between the head and the heels, and then the arms go forward, so a process of elongation, let's do it again.

Lift the heels. Press the arms back. Hold back on those springs as you let the feet come down. Control, control, control, control. Soft landing, little spring release.

Lift up, last two. Arms pressed back. Try not to lean back when you take your arms back. I just caught myself doing that so try to come just upright. Full articulation through the foot, arms forwards.

Last one, lift up. Arms back. Feet go down. Arms come forward. We're gonna do a little bit of standing balance work here so we're gonna take the, let's say the right foot up onto the chair, positioning yourself so that you can be able to press the pedal down.

We are starting at near the top of the spring. I've got the pedal a little bit down from there. We're gonna press the pedal down, take the arms back. Lift the pedal, bring the arms forward. It's harder than it looks.

Press back, push down. Arms forward, lift up. Press back, push down. Arms forward, lift up. It's our leg work forward today so enjoy.

Feel the back of that pressing leg, feeling the supporting lang. And forward. Two more here, down. And forward. And one more, down.

And forward. Lifting the pedal all the way up, step that foot down. Change sides please. Orienting the spine in an upright position. The toes are on the pedal.

We're gonna press back with arms as we take the pedal down. It takes me a minute to get organized. Two sides are a little different. And then forward go the arms as the pedal comes up. Keep everything else still.

Just the leg and the arms are moving. And back. And controlling the pedal on the way down. Controlling the pedal on the way up. And three.

And up. And two. And up. And one. And up.

I don't know about you, but that is a fair amount of arm challenge. So we're gonna take both handles in one hand and come to sitting on the mat, stretching all the way out with the legs. Lift all the way up tall through the spine, bend the arms, pulling the chest forwards, and then allow the arms to straighten. You'll lose tension a little bit as you round your spine, then roll back. So full articulation of the spine, letting the pelvis rotate under.

The low spine comes down. The head and the chest come down last. The head and the chest lift up first. Keep a little downward pressure on those handles springs as you roll up, bringing the shoulders over the pelvis. Bend the arms and lift the spine.

Lift the chest. Straighten the arms, go back into a round shape. Don't worry if you lose your spring tension there. Roll back, you'll catch it again. Rounding down, feeling the feet reaching out for the chair, keeping the collarbones open, taking the head all the way down, bringing the head and chest up, deepen into that lower spinal shape or the imprinting of the spine is maybe a better way to say that.

Curl up. Bring the shoulders over the pelvis, bend the arms, lift the back. Reach the arms forwards and go down. So nice spinal articulation addition, feeling each bone of the spine coming to the mat one at a time, all the way until the head finds the mat. Press down with your arms there, if you're curious about a little bit of extra arm work, lift up, roll up.

Shoulders over the pelvis, bend the arms and bring the back up, take the spine into extension, take the arms forwards. We're doing two more, roll back. Lots of things to think about. Lots of places to put our focus. The down position of the arms, controlling that movement.

Lifting up. The openness in the collar bones. The depth of the abdominal connection. The shape of the spine as we lose tension on those springs and bend the arms to lift. Take the back into a little bit of extension and back and round and reach forwards and go back.

And just one more time here. Up and roll. And bend to upright. And take a little back extension. And come back and reach the arms forward.

Roll all the way back down onto the mat again and we're making a change when we get there. So we're gonna bend the knees, place the feet down flat. Let's take them together. Feel the pelvis anchored in a neutral alignment. Lift your head and chest.

Now we're gonna roll through the spine, sending the arms just past the thighs and then down, so mini roll up, and going forward and working on the down. So a nice supported abdominal exercise, and down. I like to try to remember anytime I'm doing abdominal exercises that provide this much support that it's my opportunity to create depth, to work harder rather than less hard, to try to work the springs in both direction. We're doing five. And down.

And four. And down. And three. Working your way down, and two. And down.

And let's come all the way up, but as we come up, we're gonna position the spine in a backward diagonal so I still have spring tension here. Pull wide with the elbows and forward. And two and forwards. And three and forwards. And four and forwards.

Widen back and roll down. Taking the spine into a right-sided rotation, so the right arm's gonna drop, the left arm's gonna lift a little higher and we go up that side, and down. And up that side. Squeeze your legs together. Find your feet on the mat.

Feels like they're pressing down and pulling back, and down. And. And down, we're gonna do four more. That makes a total of eight in case I don't count as well on the other side. And down.

And bending inwards and stretching long. And two. All righty, I'm doubting my counting skills. And one. We're gonna come down.

We're gonna go into the center. We're gonna roll up in the center into that extended backward lean like a teaser with feet down and bend and reach. Bend and reach and pull back with the abdominals as you pull back with your arms and reach. Last two times, bend and reach. And last time, bend, and last time reach and as you get to straight arms, we go back.

Feet are down, hamstrings are active. That's what I use that backward dragging of the feet sensation to find. Rotate the other way. Keep the pelvis level and move the spine up and down. And up, keeping that nice deep rotation, both feet pressing down, up.

Working the down, and down, and up, and down, we'll do four more. If my counting is wrong, you can tell me in the comments, but I won't be surprised. And three, I try really hard, but I'm just not very good. And two. And down.

So if you're noticing irregular counting, you get to make yourself even last time up, and down. We go back into the center, we come up in the center. One more time into that lean back. Eyes up on the horizon as we bend and reach and pull and resist the pull of the springs, and pull, and reach, and two, and reach, and one, and reach. We're gonna stretch the legs out straight and come back up to sitting.

Take the arms up in front, bend the left arm, pull down and wide with the right and center. The straps won't always have tension. We bend one arm, take the other arm straight down, and center, and we go bend, reach, and center, and bend, reach and center, working the spine up into that rotation and pull. Just as the springs go slack, I'm starting to get ready for the other side. We're gonna do this one, and then one more in each direction.

Pull and center. And pull and center. Let the straps go down. This is where we're changing straps so we're gonna remove the arm springs or the shorter springs. We're going to replace them with the other springs.

(springs banging) Sorry about all the banging. It's the hardware on the floor. Bring those with you. Tuck the other ones out of the way. Come around and onto your back.

Checking for symmetry, stepping in. Hands up on the chair just to create some active arm work. We're gonna press forwards, working through the hips, and bend. And press forwards, and bend. And press forwards, and bend.

And press forwards, and bend. And press forwards, pointing the feet. Lift the legs up, press down. Circle to the top. Press down, so a little bit of hip work nice and clean around and together.

And press from the backs of the legs and around and up together. And keeping the pelvis anchored, press, around and up together, feeling those external rotators working down, around and up together. From the top, take the reverse down, and up. Open, press down, and up. Keeping the spine stable, but allowing the hips to find some mobility.

And up, and around. And up, and around. I'm using my arms quite a lot actually just to stabilize my shoulders. I'm not holding the chair still. It's doing that for me, but I'm not just floppy in my arms, I'm active, almost like I'm trying to pull the chair towards my head.

And two. And up. And one. And up. From the top, let's bend the knees, step out with the feet, take the straps nicely and quietly, Meredith, to the ground.

Take the legs out straight, send the arms up over the chest. Lift your head and chest. Now here's a test. Can you roll yourself up with exactly as much control as you did when you had the help of the springs? Reach all the way forward.

Flex your feet and bend your knees and stretch your legs and your spine. Just two more. Bend your knees, fold in and stretch everything long and fold in and stretch everything long. Release your feet, roll all the way up and we're done.