Fun and Flowy Reformer

Welcome to class, everybody. Guess what day it is or what time it is, more accurately. Girl time. Girl time. I'm here with my friend Mary, I'm Kristi and we're just gonna take you through a really, hopefully, fun but flowy class.

So let's get started. Mary, you wanna lead the way? Yeah, get out of the way. Go over here. Okay, okay, okay, good.

Okay, so you're gonna stand at this side of the reformer. We have a blue spring on. Gonna reach down, put your hands on the box. Get centered, feel the heaviness of the bones of your feet, of your body on the earth and reach out. Oh, oh, that's Go, go, go, go, go, we don't have gonna feel good.

a lot of time today, so we gotta make everything count. Bend your arms and reach. Bend your arms, don't push with your hands. Pull from underneath your shoulder blades. We're coming up, Kristi, round.

Come all the way up to standing and inhale and reach over keeping the pelvis over the feet, dive down, stay there, bend your arms, feel that mid back and stretch and bend your arms and stretch and lift up or undulating through the spine. Come all the way up, we're doing one more. Love it. We go down. We reach out and bend the elbows, wide elbows and stretch, letting the body get nice and juicy.

Bend and stretch and round. And, oh, I just got a cramp in my ab, and stand. Your turn. Lemme help, you sit on your box. Okay, come to your- Are we gonna use a blue?

You could. I'm thinking maybe blue. I don't want a blue. You don't want a blue? All right, all right, we'll change it to a red.

Take off the blue. But I know what you're doing. She's smarter than me. Sitting on your box so that you can really connect to your sits bones. Find your straps, hold above the buckle onto the tape perhaps, sit real tall, ground your feet.

We're just gonna do some rollbacks. Yeah, ready? Yep. You sure? Your ab okay? Yup, yup.

Alright, let's go inhale. Knees are together, exhale, roll those hips back. The collarbone stay wide, but your spine gets to round. Hold for the inhale. Start an exhale and come back up.

And once your shoulders are over your hips, you get to sit up really tall. And I have a little resistance on the strap. Just a little bit. Inhale, if you haven't already, start the exhale. Rolling back, keep those feet grounded.

You might even enjoy your calves into the back of the box. I was just about to say that. That's what I'm doing. Ha, inhale. Maybe I'm the smart one. Exhale, come back up.

I don't know about that. And sit up tall. And so really we're playing because it's fun, right? And it's also just like, warm yourself up, feel good, you've already committed, you're here. So have some fun with it.

Rolling back, if I didn't say so. Take the breath here at the bottom. Notice your collarbone are wide. Keep 'em that way even though you're curling forward on the exhale, sort of holding your spine back and then sit up tall. Let's just do two more, inhale.

You're tall, feel the ground of your feet even though it's on a reformer, exhale, roll back. Try to hit all those bones there and this is where I really do kind of connect with my calves into the box. Inhale, start the exhale, come forward and sit up. Last one, here it is. Inhale, exhale.

Oh, should we stay here? Yes. Once you get there, stay there, take an inhale. On the exhale, float the right leg up or one leg up. Inhale, pause. As you exhale, keep your spine where it is, but change legs.

And inhale, exhale, change. Are you going faster than me? You are, okay. I think so. I'm gonna speed it up then.

I'd rather, that's good. So you're just inhaling as we pass, find a breath, tapping down. Keep your curl forward. Like go with the straps a little bit. Yeah, let this spring pull you.

Okay, tell me more, tell me more. No, no, no, that's all I had. Okay, how are we counting today, Mary? I'm not. Alright.

One, two, we're stopping on four. Here's four, both knees up, inhale, keep your feet there. Exhale, curl up, keep your feet there, keep your shins there, curl up, stop, inhale. shake off any tension. I know, you love me.

Exhale, roll back. It's small but effective. Inhale, hold at the bottom, start the exhale, go with the springs, go with the straps I mean, and up. We're just doing two more. You can do two more of anything.

Exhale, roll back. Hold, inhale, start the exhale and up. I did say two, right? I should be able to count that high. Come down. You can't even count to two.

Last one, whatever. I'm thinking, I'm concentrating. All right, come down. You want to show me that twist you were doing earlier? Oh, yeah.

So crisscross, but just rotate with your body towards the bent knee. Go, just let your straps come with you. It feels nice for me to push down on the arm. I'm turning towards like rotate. I'm not pulling on the strap, I'm just pushing it down and pulling it maybe towards the box.

Nice. If I'm showing you this, does that mean I get to decide when we stop? Yeah of course. Yay. Let it be soon, let it be soon.

Four, Oh man. three, Oh good, thank you. Two, one, both knees in. Oh, roll up the way you like to, keep your legs there. Oh.

And so wish you had a blue spring, come down. Oh yeah, very happy of what we chose. So we're gonna go into footwork now. My box is stuck. Okay, spring?

Are you asking or thoughts for me? Yeah, three reds or three reds in the blue? Yeah. everyone can decide what they want. I just spied on your spring, but I won't tell.

I won't, I won't divulge. I was jut curious. I have three red on. (Kristi and Meredith giggle) Not my friend after all. Okay, feel your feet on the bar.

Here we go, push out and bend in nice and quick. Working in both directions. Quick doesn't mean sloppy, Meredith. It just means little faster pace than normal. Let's do three, pull the carriage in, two, pull the carriage in, one, pull the carriage in.

Come onto your toes. We're gonna do a combination, Kristy. We're going out, under. Under, okay. Up, in, out, under, up and pull.

I like to pretend I'm working harder against the springs. Like on the in than I'm working on the out. Like right here? Yeah, now. Coming in? Yeah.

Nice and pull. Under, up and pull. Three, under, up, controlling the articulation of the foot, Meredith. And in one, if you ever hear me correcting anything, it's usually me talking about my own self. Heels together, toes apart, go.

Out, keep the heels and in. Squeeze the heels together and in. Press out, resisting, press out, resisting. Feels good. I know, it feels good.

I like to move quickly. Actually, that's not true. But it-- I was gonna say, this is really nice tease. It's not normal for me, but it feels good today. It's invigorating for me. Yeah.

And three and two and hold as you are straight, stay right there, back to parallel and prancing. Pull way under the bar. So can you pull beyond where the spring pulls you? Can you push into the foot that's has the bending toes? So both feet get work.

Four, four, three, four inch, two and last one, bend both knees and come in and come up. Let's go into rowing. So drop your spring to one. Just gonna leave the bar up or take it? Let me take it down. Let's take it down.

Let's take it down. Take your bars down, spin yourself towards the back. Your headrest is down as well. Sitting, you know, with a little space behind you, but we're going into rowing. So grab your straps and we're sitting very tall to begin.

Arms are stretched out and now we inhale, bend, we roll the spine down to the lower back, spin the arms out, start to press, dive forward, take those arms low, behind you. Keep reaching 'em as you push up, up, up, circling them all the way around, you'll hit the stopper, of course, but continue the arms all the way over your toes And then roll back up to the start. Inhale, bend the elbows wide, knuckles are basically together. Roll down, exhale. Stretch your legs, long inhale, split those arms open, and exhale, dive forward, arms are back, take a second, open those collarbones, you can even try to squeeze the shoulder blades, push up, up, up as you circle around.

Do you close your eyes when you do stuff like this? Yes. When I'm working hard, I just notice. I'm like, where are my eyes closed? Inhale, we roll down on the exhale. Actually, I keep my eyes open so I can see where you are.

Oh. Just so you know. Okay, fun fact, I'm gonna keep 'em open. I'm gonna practice something new. Pushing up, up, circling over.

Let those shoulders spin, enjoy that actually. We'll do one more. Inhale, bend, exhale, roll down, collarbone are wide, turn those arms under, arms wide, press back a little and dive forward holding the waistline back a bit. Press the arms up, circle over and roll to the start. This version, palms up, so next one, we're just bending to 90 degrees, right?

Exhale, roll down, taking it so you kind of land with that upper arm right next to your ribs, then inhale, start the exhale, start rolling right back up, up, up. As your arms extend, they end up right out in front of you again, just opposite your shoulders, yeah? Yeah, I can't see you, but I think so. So what I think about is bend, roll back, bring your arms with you, start coming up and as you do, reach forward on the diagonal. So you're a little bit back on the diagonal and then you're up with your arms down.

Is that what you're doing? That is what I was doing, yeah. Great, do it again. You say it again. Bend your arms, You said it better.

roll down, arms come next to the body. Think of a little bit of abdominal work, reach up and forward with the arms, back on the diagonal with the spine and then that whole shape comes up to drop the arms forward. Last one, bend and round, hold here, five biceps. Oh look at you. Well, you know.

That'll be the last time I let you take over. Just kidding, love it. Lesson learned. Four, five and now come up and now come all the way. Cool, turn around.

Let's keep going. You're so graceful, you put 'em down. Thumbs in the straps. Sitting up again tall. Now you're up against the shoulder rest, but hopefully not wedged and we go.

We reach the arms forward, turn the thumbs down, touch, lift the arms right up alongside the ears and come down the side. Shave them back up, you push out, you go down, you lift up, get your spine longer than even your arms, come down the side. Two to go, push out, turn it down, get taller as your arms go down. See if you can work that opposition just on your own. Last one, did you wanna say something?

I'm on a roll. No. I like your killing. Talking, talking, talking, and back to the beginning. Now here, we're gonna round forward, allow the elbows to kind of match your spine.

So there you are. Then shoot the arms out. As you extend your spine, sit up tall and circle 'em down again. So we shave up and hang on one second, let the elbows dip down a little so you can really feel that cue of rounding your spine, taking your arms with you, then shoot the arms out on the diagonal long spine, the thumbs can go down, sit up and take it around. Do you turn your thumbs down right away?

I can't remember. I do. As my arms are straightening, I internally rotate, yes, take them straight down. You have to, else straps get in your way otherwise. What I was trying to do. I think.

Making sure, let's do it one more time. We round forward, as you're extending your spine and your arms, the thumbs will go down so you don't wrap yourself up and bring it around, voila. Okay, let's do some hip work. So? I'm using a red and a blue.

Same. Yeah. Do you wanna check? (both chuckle) Yes, I do. Okay, so what we're going to do here is we're going to put our feet into the straps.

Go ahead, go ahead, I'll catch up. I don't know why I felt like I needed to have the foot bar up. I don't know. I don't know. Okay, so what I want us to do is bring the heels together, toes apart, press out until you're in a long diamond shape and hold that shape, diamond.

Yep, lift that shape up, press through the hip, so externally rotate to take that shape down and up. Good call. You're welcome and press wrapping, wrapping, wrapping through the hips and up and wrapping through the hips. Now here's a change, go up, stretch your legs straight up, keep the carriage still, bend your knees, rotating the knees back, take the legs down. Okay, stretch the legs forward.

Try to hold the carriage as still as possible. Bend the knees, wrap the hips, hip hinge to bring the legs up, stretch straight up. Squeeze your heels together as you bend and rotate in the hips, press that down. Stretch out, pull back through your waist to keep the carriage still. It's like it, feels like it might not be possible, but it's totally possible.

And then back up. I think you taught me that, stretch up. Look at that. It was years ago though. So no wonder you don't remember, bend.

You're being cruel to me today. And reach down. Okay, do you wanna do circles or do you want me to go straight into spinal articulation? You choose quick, quick. Spinal articulation. Okay, which one do you want?

Long. Okay, go. Oh, me? Yes. Here we go.

Coming up to about 90, maybe a little bit more. I am slightly turned out. We're gonna hold the carriage still. If your headrest is up, please put it down and that's roll up, up, up, getting as long as you can without moving that carriage. Long spine, long spine, open, and then just melt your way back down starting at your chest all the way until your sacrum and tailbone are down and then just circle it around.

Bring it back in. I'm gonna go parallel from here on out. My feet are parallel, a little past 90 for me. It doesn't have to be for everybody, and then just roll up through the spine. All the way up, you get to stand on your upper arms a little too.

Separate your feet and roll it down. Yes, ooh, I got a little squirrely on that one. And circle it around. Inhale back two 90. Stop yourself so you know the carriage is still and now see what you can do, right?

You can't pull too much on the straps, but you certainly need to use them for assistance. Get long, long looking up, not so much at your abs, separate your feet and down we go and circle around. Let's reverse it. Ah-huh. Yeah, coming.

So you circle back up to about 90, but you just keep your feet about hip distance, off we go, up we go. Feel that connection, close the feet from your throat, from your upper back, from your middle back, find all those bones, letting the muscles almost relax until here, we'll push down and away with the feet together, let them circle around back to the opening right above your hips and up we go. Up, up, zipping close, stay tall. And now imagine pushing or not pushing, placing your spine down a little further than where you picked it up. You get one more chance for that.

Push away. Thank God. I mean, thank God there's just one more. Oh, thought you were saying... It's hard for me. Yo, good, good, good.

Oh, that's good. Stay tall as you close up the feet, roll it down. Roll it down. Roll it down and push away. Do you wanna know what my favorite stretch to do here is?

Yes of course. Okay, so we're going put the left foot on the floor. With the strap? Yep, keep the strap on your foot, put your left foot on the floor, let the strap pull back so it's like you're bending your knee a little bit more. So it takes you into a hip stretch and a quad stretch.

Press the knee towards the carriage and then hold onto the strap that is on the right leg and take that leg out to the side. It can be bent or straight. I'm gonna stay bent today. Oh. You're welcome.

I get it, you're, yeah. Okay, yes, thank you. I wasn't finished groaning, I was gonna thank you. Beat you to it. That's good. Okay, to get out of here,

the easiest thing to do is push into the foot that's already up in the strap and then the other one will just come up easy and then change. Nice. Oh, okay, take your time on this side. Sorry about all the groaning, friends. Okay, let's press with the left leg.

Bring the right leg back in, please bend your knees, take the right foot out and set it on the foot bar, take the other one out or if you already have, come in and hang your straps up. We, you and I are gonna do some pushups, you're welcome. Come up, put the headrest up. I'm sticking with the red and the blue spring. Thank you. You're welcome.

We're gonna step up onto the carriage, putting the feet in the headrest. One, two. Lowering into a front support position, plank position, push out and come in three times. Push out, keep the legs strong, energy through the heels, number two, press out, number three. Bend your elbows, push out, come up over the top.

Oh, that's a little tricky. You taught me this too. Press out. And over the top, I haven't done in a long time. Bend, push out, Really long time.

over the top. I should have started the other way 'cause it's harder. But here we go, go back, bend, come in with bent arms, push up, out, somebody needs to do more push ups. Yeah, yeah, let's see. Put it on the list.

I was speaking about myself. Oh, bend your knees. That was brilliant. And rest. Okay, short box.

Grab your boxes, please. Box. We'll be placing it in front of the shoulder rest. It doesn't matter if your headrest is up or down. It's a good idea to lock your carriage down. We won't really be moving it, but there we have it.

Footrest can go down and then you have your strap. You're gonna need that for sure. I won't be using a pole, so don't worry about that. If you know a different version, we put both feet under the straps. And in this version, we're kind of forward on the box.

Quite forward actually. So you're right up on your sits bones, knees are together, let's go hand over hand, forearm over forearm. We inhale, we roll back. Exhale, rolling back. Just take it to where you want.

Inhale, hold, start the exhale. Think about pressing your spine backwards even as your body ends up going forward. When you're over your hips, just straighten up and you can let the arms drop. Inhale, are you switching every time? No 'cause this is a like a, no.

[Kristi[ Make it comfy, okay, exhale, rolling the hip bones away. I'll go back. Okay, it's all good. I'll do four, so we can switch and you can just stay there. Inhale and exhale.

I think about pressing my hamstrings down and it helps me significantly when I activate the backside of my body sitting up tall, I am gonna change for the last two. You don't need to. Arms are pressing into each other for that opposition. We roll the hips away, the arms basically stay where they were, but they end up away from your body. Inhale, hold, start the exhale, curl it forward.

Stay curled, stay curled, stay curled, and then straighten up and your arms just kind of drop into you. Last one here. Exhale, roll back. Here's the perfect place for the hamstrings, especially if you wanna go further, which you're welcome to. Inhale, exhale, come forward and sit up tall.

Right, taking the hands behind your head, I lace them fully together and support sort of that occipital ridge or that bump in the back of your head. Kinda lifting yourself up and hinge back, inhale, keep your back totally straight, exhale, coming up. For me, it feels like a little bit of the hip bones are already slightly behind me. Just a little. So inhale back.

That's really what allows my back to stay flat. And inhale. Exhale coming up and even if the backs of your thighs aren't really on the box, you can still think about pressing 'em down. Last one and up. For this one if you can, you can keep your hands there, or at lace maybe the thumb together, straight up arms, right by your ears, same thing where I have, it's a subtle pelvic tuck to start.

Even though I'm tall, we're gonna just slide to the right and then one side and bend our on side and back up and the other way. Keeping the hip bones down so it doesn't feel like much, but it's a bit of a reach and a subtle bend at the end to make it more satisfying, we can do a subtle rotation today. So your right armpit is gonna go towards your left one I guess just this very subtle rotation, like away from the direction and then come back up and a subtle rotation and over a little bit of that. Let's do one more each side. So you're turning towards the leg that you're stretching towards.

I'm turning away from the direction I'm bending. Okay. Shall I use left right? No, I'm confused, but it's okay. Like, just keep going and I'll do what feels right. Okay last one.

So slide left, turn your chest to the right even though you're gonna slightly bend left. Ooh, that made it worse, I'm sure. But you're doing it. Yeah, it's okay. [Kristi[ Let's just get out of it.

Yeah, yeah, great, perfect. How about that side? All right, so I'm bending the bottom knee. You can hook your foot if you want, I'm not going to, hand, again the headrest can be down if it wants, stretch your top leg. Let's take the hands behind your head.

Oh. I know, I was about to skip it, but here we go. We're reaching out and down and we come up to the diagonal line, use your leg, don't be afraid to use your leg. Reach your leg even. I'm only doing four. So there you go. I was hoping for three.

Well that's not a bad idea. It's okay, I can do two more. It's not a bad idea. Pressing the back of your head into your hands, oh my goodness and last one here. Coming up and we'll take this stretch.

You can put your elbow on your headrest. Just might feel better with the headrest down. I like to put my hand on the ground. Or if you're as flexible as Mary, you can put your hand on the ground. But let's not forget about reaching the foot through the strap and then hands on the frame following Mary and then extend your spine.

It's kind of like reach your chest through those risers as you stretch your leg. Carefully, help yourself back to the center and up other side. You said four, right? Four. Here we go.

Set up is everything, make sure you feel solid and strong. Once you do, you can put both hands behind your head and here we go. Inhale down, exhaling up. And again. This is easier.

Sorry, I'm quite happy to keep going now. Oh, that's okay. Symmetry, right? This is four. Was that four? Yeah by my count.

Could be wrong. Okay, we'll give it a little time for those who know better than I. I'm just holding still. Alright, take your stretch. I think it was four.

I don't know. You know I can't be trusted. What? You know I can't be trusted with numbers and counting. Oh.

Yeah, no I don't. Turn facing your frame, reaching your leg, extending your everything. Okay, let's get ourselves safely out of this. Hand on the headrest, turn yourself back to the side, help yourself up. Knowing you, only have one or two more to go, yeah?

I am gonna take us into some back extension right now. Use a blue. It might be tempting to do this on a heavier spring, but if you do, it'll be harder for your arms. But you'll need a sticky 'cause you'll slide on the box. Fun fact.

Or you could just use a blue and everything will be all right in the world. Here we go. Lay on the box. Energizing through the lanes, walk all the way up to the risers with your hands. You're welcome.

Bend your elbows and lift your chest up, pull the risers apart. Are your elbows down or wide? Wide and a little down. Okay, I had to look and go down. So now I had the eyes of my elbows facing inward and then I'm pulling wide, but I always think about just that little bit down to emphasize the external rotation of the shoulder and resist back and wide elbows, upper back, pulling the risers apart, lifting the chest through the arms and back.

Last two, pulling and lifting. I'm trying to see if I can get my carriage to touch the end. Can't quite, but I touched the headrest. Congratulations to me, last one. Last one.

Sorry. So proud of you. And reach back, carefully come back. We're gonna finish the way we started with a full circle. Like not a full circle, but cat stretch.

So get down. I'm working on it. Okay. Come around. Stand behind the reformer or at the front of the reformer or here, put your hands on the box, take your spine down.

Do you feel that you have more range in your spine? I do. I definitely do. Bend and straighten your elbows twice. In between these in the beginning, we came up today, now today in the second day of this workout, round up, we're gonna just stay here.

So just bring it in. Go down. When'd you get so funny? And stir crazy maybe. Bend and shoulder blades down, arms straighten all the way and bend and straighten all the way and round in.

Should we do one more or zero? We gotta do one more if you ask. Okay. Yep. Okay. Yep.

This is back to the juicy stuff, right? Yeah. This is where we get to-- So here again, wide elbows with a little tip down and two and boom and round. This time we come all the way up. Turn around, open your arms.

Oh, thank you. Thank you. Bye.