EXO Express

Hi, I'm Misty Lynne Cauthen and welcome to EXO Express. This is a quick trip around the EXO Chair. We are an energizing the front body. We are awakening the back body and we're doing a quick workout for those who just might have a little less time. Let's get started.

We're going to start with a foam roller, which is optional and I'm going to set my EXO Chair to position three. That's one spring on position three. The foam roller is going to go about a foot's length or so away from the front edge of the chair. If you have little feet but long legs, you'll have to adjust accordingly. Mount the roller safely of course.

And then, optionally you can grab your celastic handles as well. One foot and then the other foot go on the pedal. And I'd like for you to start with legs parallel. Let your shoulders and chest open. Give yourself a moment to acclimate here because this is a different position.

Your arms are floating so you have to find a way to engage your upper back without shortening to plant it on the roller. And I'm gonna slide back just a little bit so I have more room for my legs. From here, I'm going to start with my legs and I'm pulling the pedal toward me activating the back of my leg. I'm not thinking of pushing down, I'm thinking of creasing at my hip to bring the pedal back. And I'll do three more like this.

As I'm doing this, I'm paying close attention to what's happening in the rest of my body and I'm trying to keep it nice and quiet. Here's the fifth one. And now, I'm pulling the pedal toward me and holding. Now, let's try some arm activation. You'll open your arms out to a T and hold, and bring them back in.

As you're pulling, think of keeping the armpits rotating forward toward the chair. Three more. And of course, we're moving with grace and dignity. The faster you move, the more likely it is you're going to splatter on the floor. One more.

Excellent. Bring the pedal up. Give it a moment. If your feet are cramping, spread the toes, lay the toes back down, and here we go. Now, the arms and legs will move at the same time.

Five times. Five. Oh and PS, this is not a good time to stop breathing. When you hold your breath, you add more tension in places where it doesn't belong. And then, you fall off.

One more. And pull and hold. Let's stay here, five, four. Rotate those armpits a little extra. Two, one, arms come in.

With grace, slide one heel up to the front edge of the chair and then the other. We're doing rollups here. And you can use the front edge of the chair to make sure you're working in a balanced way through your legs. Big breath comes in first. (breathes deeply) Exhale, nod the chin to your chest, and curl all the way up.

Trying to hold your balance at the top, let the knees flex. Stay, it's not as easy as the looks. Scoop and roll back down, keeping the weight balanced between both legs. Two more just like this. Big breath in, nod, exhale, blow, curl.

Feel your front body activating. Feel your back body responding by stretching. Hollow the belly, roll back down. One more. Big breath. Chin to the chest, exhale, blow and curl.

And we're gonna stay here at the top. Lower your celastics, step your feet down one at a time. And that's enough of this roller. Let's get rid of it. Just make sure you push it off to an area where you're not gonna step on it or fall on it in any way.

So, I'm going to change out my handles for my loops. You might as well do both at the same time. (handles rustling) And again, please place the handles in an area where you're not going to trip or fall over them. You're going to step your thigh into the loop here. Slide it in.

And put it someplace comfortable. Make sure that yes, it's going to rub a little bit on the frame, but you don't want it getting caught. So, you wanna be far enough forward to keep the catch from happening. Now, you can either bring your heels together or keep the feet parallel behind your knees. But this hand is slightly in front of the shoulder, the other hand comes to the hip.

So, from here we're starting with the side bend. Engage the armpit, side bend over, stretch and come back up. Just two more like this. Pull, side bend over. Ideally, the weight is staying balanced between both legs so I'm not leaning into the chair or away from it.

And come back up. Now, we're going to add on. You may need to adjust your body away from the chair a little bit. I'm just gonna adjust my knee inward. So, I'm side bending over, staying engaged in my armpit and shifting my weight over this hand.

Now from here, we'll clam. Rotate the thighbone in the hip joint. Let the neck continue to stretch up and over rather than getting long and flat. Three more, and two more. Don't forget to breathe.

One more. Bring the knee down. Come up. We have one more. This time it's fire hydrant.

So, you're pulling down, side bending over, shifting the weight over. Keeping this armpit rotated forward, you're going to lift the thigh up. Five, four, three more. And two. You get one more.

Lift it up with grace and dignity. Put it down. Let the hips settle over the knees. And with control, bring the pedal up. To transition to the other side, we'll add flair.

You know what? Let's let this rest. We'll add flair here. Pressing the pubic bone forward but not sinking. Chest is wide. Wrap the palms around the pedal.

Just kneeling roll downs. Nod the chin of the chest. Keep the pubic bone forward so you're not going all the way down. You're just focusing on the C-curve or the macaroni curve of the upper spine. Rolling back up.

Three more. Nodding the chin to the chest, curling up and over. Blow (exhales deeply) And inhale up. Two more. Pubic bone stays forward.

Both inner thighs are turning on and staying on. And here's the last. Pull, curl, up and over, stay. And just for kicks, let's add triceps here. Five, four, three more.

Two, one and hold. Scoop, roll up, and stay. As we have two sides, it's time to address the other. So, we'll turn around. And again, you have options here.

Once you get your celastic on your thigh like so, you can either leave the legs parallel or bring the heels together. Find the weight balanced over both thighs and hold onto your pedal. So, I like the hand on the hip again. That reminds me to seat my shoulders, keep them level. I'm pulling my pedal toward me and side bending over, and up.

I'm gonna take a little slide outward. Four more. And it's always better to make the adjustment in the body than to suffer by being too close or too far away from the chair. You don't wanna sacrifice the movement for any reason. Side bending over.

And really make sure you're descending through both thighs to keep the weight balanced. And back up. So, here we go for the clam. We're pulling the pedal in and side bending over, and shifting our weight over it. Letting the outside leg lift.

Keeping the stretch in the trunk. Now, knee opens and closes. And again, I'm pinned in in my hip. And so, my thigh bone is turning in the hip joint. I'm not picking my leg up per se.

I'm rotating. like I'm screwing in and out a light bulb. One more. And from this side, I'm drawing back up. One more.

Now it's time for the hydrant. What joy. I'm pulling the pedal in. I'm side bending. Woo! And I'm shifting over.

From here, lift the leg up. Five. It's as if there's a weight on my thigh and I'm pressing that weight away. So, I'm not thinking about up because that might bring me out of my side bend. I'm thinking about away.

Woo-hoo. One more. Bring the knee down. Bring the pedal up and center. Whew. Now, it's time to stand up.

So, carefully slip your leg out of the celastic. And as I've mentioned, make sure you put your loops or your handles in a place where they're less likely to cause you harm if you fall over them. In fact, let's just not fall. So, from here I'm gonna stand up. I'm gonna go to the back edge of my chair, hold the pedal and change my spring.

I've got one on position three already. And because I'm doing legs, I'm gonna add another spring to position one. If you prefer the spring lighter, just bring the other spring, the first spring up to the high hook position. Now, for your foot alignment, your inside foot's gonna be in line with the frame. And then, your outside foot will be hip width or perhaps a little bit wider, depending upon your pelvis.

I'm gonna bring my inside foot to the pedal and it's in front of me slightly. My hands can either be to my hips or wide. Whatever feels best. Now, I'm thinking of pulling my inner thighs together to bring the pedal down. I'm bringing it down, first one's always a doozy, and up.

So, this is challenging because my base of support is going from wide to narrow. Oh yeah. And I have to manage the weight of the pedal. So, I'm really thinking of my energy going up and in. I'm not thinking about going down. Let's do three more here.

And two, and one. Now, we'll push the pedal all the way down. Find your balance. Very important. The outside foot comes to the forward pedal.

Inside foot stays where it is. And we're just gonna do a standing balance. Draw everything in and up like you're being sucked up through a straw. Find your focal point. Open your arms wide.

And we're gonna hold this balance for 10 seconds. I would tell you a story but you don't wanna hear it. So hold, stay tall, and breathe and breathe. Transitioning. We're going to turn to face the pedal.

And we'll go to Pilates stance. The heels will be just in between high and low. So, find a nice comfortable balance point. Hands go to the sides of the chair, rotate your armpits forward, press your pelvis forward and we'll do five pull-ups here. Exhaling up, five.

I'm really thinking of bringing the pedal toward my nose and not thinking about going up. The up just happens. So, that gives me one less thing to think about. On one, I'm going to stay up here and hold. We'll do three pushups.

Down and up three, and two, and one and hold. Think of melting away from the ceiling. Taking your time, keeping the upper body stable and tension free-ish. And good. Second side is here.

So, we're going to mount it from the floor this time. You'll turn the foot that you haven't done to be parallel on the chair. Step back, keeping your weight forward so you've got control of the pedal. That's important. Arms go wide.

Then, find your inner thighs and your outer rear and control them to bring the pedal up. You may need to adjust your foot a little bit. And four, three, two. Remember, energy up, energy wide. And I'm adding an extra one for good measure.

Place your hand down for balance. Again, super important. Step your other foot on top of the chair. Find that parallel leg alignment. Draw your energy in and up.

Find your balance. Channel your inner balance points, your mind. Whatever it takes, don't fall off here. Instead, envision yourself finishing like we just did. We're amazing.

So, we're turning to face the chair again. For pull up, again, hands will go out to the sides, rotate your armpits forward, find your round shape. And then, if you'd like to raise your heels higher, that's okay. But again, I'm gonna take a midpoint for my body. Spine is round.

Five pull-ups here. Five. That first one's always a doozy. So, you may wanna adjust your feet if you need to from the pedal down position. Two and hold it up on one.

Turn your feet parallel. We're going to bring the knees to the forward edge of the pedal. Spine is round. Push your pelvis forward. Plantar and dorsal flexion here.

Your arms are still really active so you don't slide off, but you're really working from the calves through the tippy toes. Three more, and two, and one point. Bring the heels together. Don't move the pedal. Stretch the knees up and we'll do plays here.

Five, woo-hoo! And four, and three. Keeping the inner heels pressing together. Two, and one. Hold, hold, hold at the top. Ride your pedal down.

Step off one foot at a time with grace and dignity. But you don't get to be done yet. So, now we're gonna finish our workout. We're moving one spring again. I'd recommend removing the low spring.

(spring rattling) And if you had anything to keep yourself from falling off, just put it in the center of your chair. We're going to end with a seated mermaid with rotation. So, the top leg is hooked on top. Try to feel both sits bones resting into the chair here. Your hand comes to the pedal just slightly in front of the shoulder.

Your other hand can either come behind the head or reach out to the side. You're side bending over. Rotating and stretching, reaching. I'm pushing through my bottom toe a little bit so that I can then slide it behind and rotate to look at it. And then I'm going to bring it back to where it started from.

Bring my hand back to the front of the pedal, find my side bend here with a wide chest, and then pull back up. One more. Up and over, side bending, rotating, sliding, and looking, unwinding, return to center and grow up, letting the outside sits bone fall down and planting my foot. Second side. Same idea.

Balanced on both sits bones, hand comes down, the other hand now there goes wide, or comes behind the head, chest is open. And really enjoy this stretch because it feels so good. Rotate, find the pedal, hold, and then reach and look. Unwind. Let the heel drop and come back up.

You have one more. Up and over, side bend. Feel the weight of this outside hip, rotate, and then that hip rolls forward. Two hands on the pedal, stretch through the outside foot. Slide it back, look over your shoulder.

Square it up by unwinding. Let the heel come down and roll all the way back up. Whew! Thank you so much for joining me for this workout. You can catch more workouts here on Pilates Anytime at any time.