Shift EXO Chair

All right, friends, it is time to shift. What do I have underneath me? It is a chair. This chair is particularly an exo chair. So, if you're working with an exo chair, kind of mirror your springs with what's going on with me.

I will do my best to kind of give you some weights. If you're not working on an exo chair, that's totally fine. You'll be able to adapt to your chair this entire session. So, it is time to throw your chair workouts into sixth gear. And what do I mean by that?

I don't mean major, major, fancy party tricks. What I mean is we're gonna change up your chair. I want you to get some really great functional moves that you can share or you can use in your own body and enjoy them for many, many moons to come. So, I hope you enjoy this class. I hope you'll come back to it time and time again and let's get moving.

So, we're gonna start on our chair seated facing back away from the pedal. Now, you'll notice that I'm pretty far forward on my sits bones, right? So, I'm pretty close to the edge here. So, find what works for you. I've got a nice kind of runway back behind me.

If you have less of a runway, that's fine. And also, by the way, if your feet don't touch the floor, you might want a small box underneath your feet. Take your arms out, reach 'em wide, feel the boldness in your body. Really spread the energy lines through your fingertips. Sit up nice and tall, feel that crown of the head reaching to the ceiling.

And all I want you to do is start to gimme a light tip off of your sitting bones. Hollow out that belly just a little bit, and reach your arms forward. So, your energy is now forward. And then inhale as you lift the spine up nice and tall. I'll be coaching the breath at times.

All right, team, but just make sure that you're breathing with me as you're going through. So, we're hollowing, we're reaching forward. That feels good on an exhale to me. On an inhale it feels good to lift up nice and tall and gain that nice buoyancy through the body. Exhaling as you reach forward.

I hope you guys are ready to move and have some fun and some joy. This whole session is about flow and moving functionally with flow around the chair and getting a total body workout done in about 30 to 45 minutes, let's hope. So, you can stick with me for that long, I think. And two more here as you exhale, reach forward. Just starting to warm up your spine a little bit, seeing where your arms are at.

I don't know what time of day it is, where you're taking this session. So, just kind of just get into your body and notice how you feel right now. Now, from here, you're gonna take your arms forward. I want you to lift one arm up, almost like you're in the pool, and you're gonna take a backstroke repetition. There might be a pedal back there.

Can you reach back, place your hand down onto it. Did you make it? I hope so, we're just testing the waters. Come back up and reach that arm forward. Other side, please.

So, let's see where that pedal is at for you, because if you're not on my chair, and I'm not on your chair, you don't know exactly where that pedal is at just yet, but now you do. So, if you're willing and you want to, let's take that pedal and press it down. Adding in a bit of rotation and just starting to feel what the tension is on the pedal. Now, I'm on a bit of a light or a lighter spring. So, my pedal is set on a one spring on three setting.

It's a one heavy spring on three setting. We're gonna stay there for the majority of this workout. There will be one section where we start to, actually, amp up the tension, because we need it. But other than that, that's the only spring change that I have planned for you. So, this should feel like a really good flowing workout.

So, start that reaching. Feel where you're at in your spine. Enjoy this, enjoy that rotation, enjoy my view. You're with me, you get that view too. It's so nice, and reach it back.

We're gonna be even. So, we'll do one more to the other side and then we're gonna move into a different body position. So, lifting up and reaching and pressing that pedal down, good. And then bringing it back up and reaching it all the way back forward. Now, turn yourself and face towards me.

We're gonna do a variation on a little bit of a twisted teaser, but don't let that term make you panic. What I want you to do is start to move forward and place your hand down onto your pedal. Your other hand is gonna go towards the back edge of the chair and bring your legs up into a teaser position. Now again, if you can't handle this position with your legs and you have a box here for your feet, that's totally fine too. But if you're willing and you want to, you're gonna come with me.

We're gonna take that pedal down and my chair arm is going to straighten a bit. Yes, I'm veering off to the side. I'm in that carpool lane a little bit. And then as I bring the pedal up, I'm gonna come up with my legs and notice how the weight of the pedal, actually, impacts what I'm feeling on the side of my core right now. So, I'm calling this a twisted teaser, 'cause you can see that teaser start to come in as we reach those legs long, and the pedal sort of assists us to lift us into that position.

Not that it's easy, assistance doesn't always mean easy. You got two more. And you can see my outside arm is slightly straightening. It's not going all the way straight and then it's bending as I come back up to that teaser position. Last one here, we're gonna get to the other side, but I wanna go back and do two repetitions where we add that rotation in again.

So, take that backstroke, find your pedal, reach it, give yourself that lovely moment of reorganization and come back up and forward. Other side, this is your last one for your sort of active recovery. And then I'm gonna turn and face the beautiful water behind me. You're gonna turn around and you have your roadmap so you know where you're going. Place your hand down on your pedal, place your other hand up on the back corner edge of your chair.

Remember, you're gonna veer off to the side first. So, the pedal lowers towards the floor. I'm inhaling as I do that, I'm exhaling as the pedal pulls me back up into that twisted teaser position. Inhaling as the pedal lowers. I bent my knees and then exhaling as the pedal lifts I straighten my legs.

Good, and if you need to leave your legs in that tabletop position, or if your feet are on a box, that's completely fine. There's never any judgment in any of my classes. Inhale, there's only joy and fun and smiling and functional movement. Last two, please. We got to about five on the other side, so we'll make it an even 10 by getting five banged out on this side.

Last one here. And exhaling as you come all the way up. Let's finish our warmup with just two more of those backstrokes. So, taking your arms forward, lifting one arm up, yes, reaching back, and draw that arm up and back over, and then other side as you lift. Now, what's headed in our direction next is some standing functional lower body strength and power work here.

So, I'm gonna come to this side of my chair. So, the side of the chair that's closest to the water. And what I wanna talk about here is what we're working. We're gonna go into some squatting, some lunging, and some different ways to work your lower body and your glutes, but we're gonna use the assistance of the pedal. So, I'm setting myself up, I've got my outside leg in my case here, the water leg forward.

I've got my inside leg in my case, the chair leg back. And I'm placing my hand down onto the pedal. So, there might be, as I mentioned in many of my classes, micro adjustments here, meaning movements of where your setup is, and that's fine. From here, test the waters though. Start to find where you wanna be at.

You can see I already shimmied my back toes back a little bit and that's fine. Start to press the pedal down by hinging at the forward hip. So, you're taking a nice extended lunge pattern here. And as you're doing this, I want you to find that front heel. So, really starting to focus on driving up through that front heel.

Exhaling feels good to me as I press through that front heel. And then watch those fingers. Make sure that you don't have 'em wrapped around the chair pedal just for safety. Nice and long. Good. Now, let's amp it up a bit.

You wanna take it to that more athletic lunch? You can do that here. So, taking that 90/90 lunch, I like to inhale as I come down. Exhale as I find the front heel. Good, inhale.

So, starting to challenge your balance here a little bit too. Training your body in function in weightbearing, because this is where we live our life most of the time is in standing. So, you wanna do functional movement. Last two. It's also a great way to get into lunging patterns with the assistance of the pedal, if you're not used to coming into that deep of a lunge.

Now from here, just turn and face your pedal. You're in a nice big open base of support. My toes are out, my heels are pointed towards one another. We're gonna switch our hands on the pedal. So, my hand's gonna come down onto the pedal.

My other arm is reaching out long to the side and I'm gonna start to bend my knees into a frog squat or a sumo squat. So, I'm still finding those heels now on my feet and I'm opening my hips. I'm working more to the inside of my legs and that pedal's helping me a little bit, come up and that's great, we love that. Good, and last three. But just think about where your hips are now.

They're in a different position. So, we're trying to hit different angles of the legs. That's super important for good, high-quality, lower body strength and power. Stand all the way up. Now, come with me.

Keep this outside leg or the pedal side leg where it's at. Sweep your other leg back behind it. We're switching back to the other hand as you place it back down onto the pedal. Reach your other arm out long. We're in a curtsy lunge or a cross back lunge position.

So, let's press that pedal down and take that cross back lunge. So again, a different angle of the hip here. Trying to train that really mobile area of the body, our hip joint in a variety of different ways, because I mean, hey, what if you play golf? Or what if you trip on something and you need to catch yourself? You wanna have strong muscles around all angles of the body, because we don't just hop forward and hop back in life.

Last three, life is three dimensional, team. Good, you've got two more then we're gonna take a little transition as we go through to the other side. Last one, great job. So, give that a rest. We'll get to the other side, but we're gonna flow it.

So, come with me. Stand and face your chair pedal. I'm in a bigger, boulder base of support. I'm not super narrow. I wanna think that I'm in swan, or excuse me, saw in a standing position.

What do you mean, Erica? Take your arms out and see if you can see that mat work exercise in Pilates. Well, I'll rotate towards you, rotate twist. And we're gonna saw down, but we're gonna find the pedal and press it. Ah, you should feel some nice dynamic flexibility on the backs of those legs.

Come up, face forward, try your other side. Rotate, twist and press. Trying to stay back on those heels as you're doing this. And rotate forward, rotate, twist and press. So, similar shape than a mat or as a mat work exercise.

We're just doing it standing in gravity using the chair pedal. It feels great. We see this happen a lot in Pilates and Pilates-based exercise where similar shapes show up in all different ways. Good. So, I hope you're ready for the other side, because we've only got one more of these standing saws as your sort of quote unquote break where you're finding your rotation and you're getting that nice little hamstring moment coming up and facing center. So, let's rinse, repeat our lunging, squatting and cross back lunging sequence on this side.

Remember, my outside leg, so my leg that's closest to you is forward. My inside leg, my leg that is closest to the chair is back. My hands down on the pedal and I'm gonna start to test the waters by bending my front knee. I'm keeping my back leg straight. And for me today, I can definitely notice that my right calf is a little bit of my tighter calf, and that's fine.

You might feel the same thing. Maybe you're a runner like me and you've got tighter calves. So, don't judge it, just notice it, and enjoy what you're finding in your body. That's the whole point. We are all snowflakes in a great way.

No two bodies are the same. And so, these exercises will kind of manifest and feel differently depending on what's happening. Now, take that 90/90, if you want it to be more athletic for you. Again, driving up through that heel that is on the front foot as you come up off the floor. You're starting to get a deeper connection that way with your glute and the back of your leg with your hamstring.

Good, and four more. And then it's sumo squat or frog squat time. Three, press through. You got it, team, two, and press. Gaze your eyes forward as you start to feel more comfortable to challenge your balance.

Great job, now pivoting. Opening your base of support, switching your hand to your other hand to the pedal as your other arm reaches out nice and long. Your knees bend, the hips open, the pedal goes down, drive through the heels. And again, team, I'm on that light-ish spring. If you wanted to make this more challenging, meaning more load on the body, you might wanna take the pedal weight even lighter.

It's up to you. Whatever feels good for you that day. Not every day are we ready for a super, super intense workout, but that would be a great way to challenge these movement patterns. Good, you've got two more please in these frog squats. And then it's cross back lunge time.

Last one, squat down and all the way back up. Now remember, this forward foot or the foot that's closest to the foot pedal stays forward. Your back leg swings around. We switch our hand onto the pedal and we go into that cross back lunge, down and up. Now, you really wanna start to find that front heel again.

So, the heel that's on the foot that's closest to the foot pedal. Press it through, I'm getting nice and warm. I hope you are as well. Keeping nice controlled movement with these, and four more, and press through that heel. And three, this is gonna conclude us for the first flow that we're going through, but I've got another one planned in standing coming at you right next.

You've got last one here, that could have been a bonus repetition. I'm known for those bonus repetitions. Congratulations, and I'm sorry all at the same time as I like to say, and we're moving on. So, join me, come around the side of your chair so that you're facing me. We're gonna start with a forearm walk down plank to a pedal press.

If I could catch my words right now. And we're gonna walk it back up. So, that's what we're starting with. Place one arm down on your forearm on the top of your chair. The other arm is gonna go, or the other hand is gonna come onto your pedal.

Walk your legs back and take a nice wide position here. The first thing I want you to do is, actually, just start to open the door of the arm that is on the chair top and let the pedal go down, because of it. Do you need to move your leg placement? Like I feel like I did, so I just stepped over to the side a little bit and you'll see why. Good. So, testing the water by letting that pedal go down and coming back up.

Now, on this next one, here we go. We're gonna take it all the way down, if you're willing. You're gonna walk the arm that's on the top of the chair forward. You are gonna walk that backhand out. So, you're in a diagonal plank here towards the pedal and you're gonna press it.

Push, it's like a single arm pushup on a diagonal, which is gonna really help you feel your obliques. And you wanna try and keep your core nice and stable here, just three presses. Walk the outside hand back, walk the forward arm back up, and press all the way back up. You did it. All right, let's walk it down again.

Come on, come down and hand forward. Back hand out, three pedal presses. I'm in a nice big spider pushup position to create a nice big base of support for this exercise. Should feel good. Help you keep that core stable, and then walk back up.

Come with me you've got one more. We'll do three of these on this side, 'cause guess what? We've got three of them to do on the other side. Walk it down, good, and bend. Press, whoa! Sweat is starting to form on my forehead now.

Quality versus quantity, team. Last one, boom, boom, boom. Walk back up, place your forearm down and bring yourself all the way back up. Walk it in, nice job. We're gonna take a little active recovery, not that you're not working, before we get to the other side.

So, step back behind your chair, narrow your base of support, you're in the number 11 with your feet, toes forward. Heels are back, lift those arms up above the head. Come down towards the pedal. Now, one hand is going to stay on the chair top. Your other hand is gonna go to the pedal.

The opposite leg to the hand on the pedal is going to extend out. Here we go, you're going to lift that leg, bend your chair arm and let the pedal go down, and then come back up. So, start to feel how this is as tension on your arm that's pressing the pedal down. Not that your chair top arm isn't getting any work. And also, notice what's happening on that leg that's reaching back behind you.

You should have a nice, strong leg that's reaching energy out through your toes. So, you've got strong, active backs of your legs, your hamstrings and your glutes are active right now. Give me three more, and press. Come up, then once we've kind of integrated this exercise, we're gonna add a little bit of a different angle. Last one here.

And all we're gonna do is come into a bit of a diamond shape. So, you're in a little bit of a diamond shape here. And I want you to take that pedal down, and as the pedal comes, or sorry. You're gonna shoot the leg out, as the pedal comes up, you're gonna find your diamond. So, shoot the leg out, pedal goes down, come up, find your diamond.

Good, and reach. So, we're making it just a little bit more dynamic. A little more dramatic, if you will here. Good, give me three more. We're also changing again the angle of the hip and the leg.

So, your leg is gonna feel this in a little bit of a different angle, maybe on the outside of the leg a bit more. Last two, and pull it up. And last one here, now stay here with me. As the pedal comes up, can you bend that knee and pull it towards the elbow, and reach it out. So, now we're picking up the side body of the core, uhoh, and reach and pull it in.

You got it, team, and reach it, and pull it in. You've got two more, and reach, and pull it in. I love the energy, and reach, and pull it in. Now, we're gonna take it to the other side. So first, make that other, take your pedal hand up to the chair, bring your other hand down to the pedal.

Go back to your number 11 with your feet, and then situate your opposite leg. So, here we go. Now, the pedal goes down and the other leg lifts. You should be feeling a little bit of flexibility on that floor leg. Try and stay through the heel.

Like can you wiggle your toes on the leg that's on the floor? I don't know, try it. But give me that same really good energy through that leg that's lifting up towards the ceiling. Three more, please. Then we'll take that diamond.

Good, and pull it up. Last two, and reach and pull. Last one here, good. Now, let's set our diamond here at the top. So, we'll go to that little pizza slice on the floor.

Make your little diamond, that pedal's gonna go down. And then the pedal's gonna come up and you come back into that diamond here. So, press the pedal down, reach the leg. As the pedal comes up, you pull to the diamond shape. Good, and reach, and pull.

Good, reach out, and pull. Find that diamond on your legs. We all love a diamond, and pull it in. You've got two more and then we're gonna add that little knee bend towards that chair, top elbow. Last one, now hold it.

Here we go, here's your change, and pull to that elbow. Whoa! I gotta adjust my hand just a little bit to keep my hand on that pedal proper. Remember, micro adjustments are fine. We are not to be perfect. Perfect is overrated.

And movement should always be a celebration of what your body can do. And three more, and pull it in. It's my mantra. It keeps me moving happily every single day of my life. And two, and pull.

Good, and last one here. And pull it all the way back in, fantastic. All right, so we've got our forearm walk down plank on the other side. I'm setting my forearm down on the top of my chair. I'm finding the pedal with my other hand.

I'm walking my legs back and I'm making a nice big, bold, open base of support. And I'm gonna test the water first by letting the pedal go down about halfway and then back up. Remember, this is a different side, so don't judge yourself. I think we did about three or four of these. So, that's three for me.

And on this fourth one, I'm gonna take it all the way down to the base of the chair. I'm gonna transition my forearm to the front of the pedal. My other arm goes to the floor. Three pedal presses, push. Strong side or smart side for you, I don't know.

Last one, I think this might be my smart side, my little bit of a lazier side, but I'm not judging it. We'll make it through. I've got two more, here we go. My pedal's going down, come with me, team. Transition, hand walks down, other hand goes to the floor, three pedal presses.

Three, and two, your core is nice and stable and strong. This is a whole body move. Walk back, come back up, and lift the pedal up. We've got a big transition coming after this last one, and it's gonna be so much fun. I can't wait, well, kind of I can wait, 'cause I've got three, I've got two, and I've got one press, walk back up, and then lift that pedal all the way back up to the top.

Walk it in. Nice job, team. I've got a good sweat going on. Here's the deal. We've gotta load up this pedal, okay?

And we're gonna go into some squat variations. Don't let that panic you by any stretch of the imagination. You need this weight. So, I'm gonna leave my one heavy spring on three. I'm then gonna take my other heavy spring and bring it all the way up to the top of the cactus on four.

I need that support. You play with what works for you. Now, maneuver yourself around to your pedal side. Place your hands on the chair and place your tush on your pedal. Let's talk here for a moment, while you're bringing your breath back into your body, I want you to come into about a shoulder distance with the part with your toes facing forward, your heels facing back.

Now, I have full safety right now, because I can use my arms here to support this squat. So, this is my, you hear me say it all the time, if you take my classes, test the water moment. We're testing the waters, we have the assistance of our arms here. You're finding where your bottom needs to be on the pedal, because we all have different bottoms. I've got a rump in a good way.

I love my rump. And so, you gotta negotiate where you wanna put your rump on the pedal. And there could be a little bit of like a woohoo. That's not the right spot. And you'll find that out in just a moment.

So, now that we've tested the waters, you're like, I'm good, Erica. Let's see if we can change a contact point by reaching one arm forward. So, we've changed things. We're trying to challenge our balance. Yeah, we're having a good time.

You're like, I got this, Erica. Great, I think I do too. And I'm going to now resist the temptation to talking to you and or looking to camera now, because I'm going to see if I've got this and reach both hands forward. Look at that. I'm in a squat position.

Team, we are in triple flexion of your hips, your knees and your ankles. And you are using that pedal to help you levitate up off the floor. Find those heels for me, please. As you go through, don't judge your legs. Like I've got a tighter right ankle, because I've sprained it three times trail running.

Yes, three times. I've also fractured that foot so I'm not judging it. I'm just trying to work through what's happening on that side and give it the love and the joy that it needs to find the floor and connect. Give me three more, and press it through. Last two, good.

Press it through, last one, press it through. Give yourself a little mini break. Bring your hands onto the up part of the chair or the chair top. Now, are we done yet? No. I've got a few more things planned here, but then I promise we're gonna go core on the floor in a moment.

Readjust if you need to. Remember, we're gonna test the waters first. I'm in a bigger base of support. You might be able to get that pedal lower down to the floor. Do you need to add less weight now?

Are you like, I'm crushing this, Erica? Like I could totally go lighter on my load. The lighter the load that you have, the more harder it's gonna be on your legs. Remember that, okay? And the same, the heavier it is, the more supportive it's gonna be.

So, now we're in that more frog squat position, training the outside and the inside of the legs a bit more. I'm gonna take one arm off as I did before. I'm gonna focus, make micro adjustment for my tush. Might need to give myself a little bit of a lean forward here as well. And I'm going to press through my heels.

Getting a nice hip opener. Yeah, maybe you wanna, actually, try and lift one heel. I don't know, I'm just giving you options. I'm gonna stay right where I'm at right now. The sweat is starting to fall.

Give me three more, and press, and two, but loads of fun things you can do with the assistance of this heavy pedal on the chair to get your lower body strength and power handled. I think this is a bonus. Thank you, please. And we're gonna switch. Now, all I want you to do is pivot and face towards me.

Your thigh, the back of your leg, your hamstring, is gonna come onto the chair pedal. It feels a little weird at times, but I want you to try this with me. Take your outside leg, the leg that's over here, back behind you. Place your front hand on the chair, other hand comes forward or your outside arm on the chair. Other arm comes forward.

And just take a nice little bit of an assisted lunge here. I'm going down to that 90/90. It's not a huge range of motion, but it's a nice little transition, because I'm gonna bring you back and we're gonna face that away again and do a little bit of a pistol squat. Yes, you heard it here first. Don't worry, you're not gonna be put on YouTube for this one.

Last one here. Good, and in between we're gonna turn and face back with our tush on the pedal. Here's the deal, team. What I'd like for you to do is narrow your base of support, find where your bottom needs to be. I'm gonna take one leg and I'm gonna reach it out long.

Yep, I'm gonna leave my other leg on the floor and I'm gonna start to test the waters here. I'm not gonna go hands free. That's definitely party trick land. If you wanted to do that, you absolutely could. But what I am gonna do is I'm gonna challenge myself by reaching one arm forward.

The arm that I've taken forward is the opposite arm to the leg that's pushing through the floor. Great, three more. Whoa! Three, and last two. You got it, team, and last one, and press through. Very nicely done.

We've got the other side to do, but I wanna do the lunge facing away from you first. So, pivot with me. It's like an old friends rep episode, if I'm dating myself, pivot. Hopefully, you're getting a little laugh out of that one. I remember I had my hand atop my chair and I just went down into that nice little lunge.

I'm getting a nice hip opener here on my leg that's back. Doesn't mind what you do with your free hand. It could be behind your head, out to the side, whatever feels good for you, on your hips, or on your hip. Not a plural statement on that one. Good, three more, and two.

Many of us struggle with getting into squatting and lunging, especially, as we age. And this is a really nice way to use this assistance of the pedal to help with that. Now, I hope you remember which side you did your pistol squat on. Mine was my outside leg, the closest to the ocean. So, I'm gonna switch to my standing leg being my inside leg.

And I'm gonna send my outside leg back. My other, oh, let's test the water, sorry. Bring that other leg up. We're gonna test the water here first and press through. So, think of that chest staying lifted.

Your eye gazes forward on the horizon. You're driving up through the leg that's on the floor. The foot that's on the floor. And I prefer the heel, like can you wiggle those toes? You hear me say that cue a lot when we're doing squatting and lunging.

Take your opposite arm to the leg on the floor forward, and press, good. How much do you need of the arm that's on the chair? I don't know, right? You've got three more. And then it's time for core on the floor, and two, and last one here.

Oh my gosh, you made it, team. Well done. Go grab your mat. We're gonna do a nice quick spring change and come on back, 'cause we've got some core on the floor before your cool down. All right, you grabbed your mat.

Come with me, we've gotta drop a spring. So, the cool thing is, is I brought you up, at least in my situation, I just added a really heavy spring. I'm just taking that heavy spring off. So, whichever side, or whichever heavy spring that you added, remove that now. I'm back to where we were working for the majority of this workout.

And we're gonna stay there to finish this whole thing out. So, stay facing me and stay off to the side of your chair. Have a seat on the floor, or on your mat. I'm not gonna worry about my mat being here right now. And what I'd like for you to do is I'd like you to have your outside foot on the floor and your inside foot up on the chair.

And I'm gonna ask you to probably go about your heel. Now again, remember, micro adjustments are okay here. My hands are back behind me on the floor. My fingers are facing towards my bottom. If that doesn't feel good for you, I'm gonna encourage you to open up the base of support for your arms and, actually, spin your fingertips outward.

So, for me, this works okay. I'm gonna press into the floor, I'm gonna lift my chest, and I'm gonna start to see how it feels just to lift my bottom up off the floor into a reverse single leg plank position. It's kind of like a reverse tabletop. You're trying not to move the pedal first, because yes, we will move that pedal, you know me. Good, so you're coming up.

Now, that weight underneath the pedal is on one foot and it's kind of slightly off to the side. So, here's number four. Stay lifted for me, please. Now, can you depress that pedal down, activating the hamstring on that pedal leg, but still keeping that leg on the floor really active through the back of the leg and the glute. Your arms are active, your chest is open, your heart is shining forward.

This is four. Yes, I think we'll take it to six on this one. Let's just find a different number for my count today. You've got one more, and press it down. That's your reverse plank or tabletop with the pedal press.

We'll get to the other side, but you know how we do this is all about flow and so we're gonna flow it right on through. So, you're staying on that same spring, as I mentioned. Turn and face your pedal. This is the first time that, yes, Erica is gonna let you lie down onto your back. But first, I want you to set your feet up on the chair.

I'm making a small V-shape or like a pizza slice with my feet. You can be on your heels here, but if it feels better, 'cause the pedal will eventually come down to be a little bit further down on your feet, that's fine. Remember, you hear me say this all the time. No one set up is perfect for everybody. So, find what works for you.

And if you wanna do what I'm doing and shimmy and shake a little bit and move around, that's fine. Say a prayer above your head. Reach your arms all the way up and over. If they can't go this far, I'm fine with that. You could start this here.

Let's test the waters by lifting your arms up, nodding the chin to the chest and reaching through that diamond shape of your legs. Yes, super, super nice. So, we're working that core. We're working a little bit of that mobility core. If you need to support your head with a hand at any time, please do so, completely fine.

So, I'm gonna exhale as I lift, because that feels good for me. And I'm gonna inhale, extend the line out. Now, if you're willing and you want to, you're gonna start to pull the pedal down and reach through those legs. The pedal's not gonna be a big range of motion, but you're starting to feel the outer part of these legs a bit more. The outer parts of your hamstrings, maybe a little bit into the outer thighs as you work through the core.

And those knees are tracking kind of in line with these hips here, which is gonna make you feel your trunk or your core a little bit differently. And that's great, last four here, and last three, and reach, good. Last two, we're gonna stay focused on the backs of the legs here for one more exercise that's unilateral, meaning one leg at a time. And then we're gonna move into everybody's favorite, a walking plank before we get to the other side with our reverse tabletop. So, you're probably about set for this, but let's see.

I'm gonna take my outside leg, my leg closest to the window, up on the chair. That knee can be bent, if it works for you. You can also move back and make the leg straight. I'm gonna take my inside leg, my leg that's closest to you, on the pedal. My heel is up on the pedal.

What I'd like for you to do is lie back down onto your back. You know I love bridging for so many reasons. I fit it into every class that I teach. You're gonna bridge up and come back down. First, try not to move the pedal.

So, you're in a bit of a staggered stance bridge here. And one leg is doing a little bit more than the other for now. And last one here, you're gonna come up and now I'm taking a hip hinge bridge. This is more of a power bridge. And now, you're gonna hold it and pull the pedal down.

So, finding the hamstring deepen on the pedal leg now. All while you're still really working hard on your glutes with the leg that's up on the chair. Good, two more pulls, last one here, and pull. Now, if you wanted to lighten the pedal up a little bit more, what's that gonna do? It'll probably give you a little bit more range of motion on the pedal.

You might get it closer to the base of the chair, and that's fine. I encourage you to play with the weight here. So, I'm switching legs and we're gonna rinse repeat on that other side. I'm gonna shimmy a tiny bit closer towards my chair and I'm gonna test the waters. I'm hip hinging.

Could you roll yourself? Could you get some mobility through the spine here? Absolutely, if you wanted to take an articulated bridge, totally fine, a moving bridge really. I'm taking more of a power neutral bridge. Stay lifted on number four.

Here we go, pull. I think we did five-ish, good. And three, and two, and one, good. And then lower back all the way down and through. Fantastic, we're moving on to a walking plank position.

So, bring yourself up to a seated position and turn on over to quadruped, meaning all fours. And let's talk. So, I'd like for you to place your hands up onto your pedal. Your knees are down onto the floor. Again, I always like to test the waters first.

So, let's press the pedal down to the base of the chair. How does that feel for you? Are you good here today? That's fine. I wanna see kind of where my pelvis is at in space.

So, I wanna try and get to a nice flat back position or whatever feels good for me in a neutral-ish position of the spine. So, I'm trying to keep my trunk nice and stable, my core stable, as I lift and I lower this pedal. And if this is it for you today, awesome. No judgment, you do all the things where we're headed to in the walking plank position right here. If you wanna start to challenge yourself, maybe you walk your knees out a little bit further.

Maybe you tuck your toes and you bring your knees up off the floor and you do it right here in beast. Let's try one. Why not? So, walk one hand down, pedal press. Boom, walk it back up, switch it, pedal press. You could stay right here, if you'd like to in that beast position.

A term called beast in fitness oftentimes. Or you can come with me and take a nice full, high plank position. I'm widening my legs out to help my base of support here. I'm gonna walk down, pedal press. Sometimes sound effects help these really challenging exercises.

And I'm gonna switch sides. So, this is your walking plank position. Every time you switch that pedal's gonna try and throw one of your hips up towards the ceiling. And I'm gonna ask you to minimize that. Whoa! And press.

How many more do we have, Erica? Let's do two more, and lift and lower. Make 'em your best ones. Last one, and lift and lower. Come all the way back up, lower the knees down.

And then why don't we drop our tailbone round our spine. Let that pedal come back up and take a child's pose. Good, we're almost to our cool down, team. You can stay with me for that reverse tabletop on the other side. Remember, it's all about flow.

We're working around the chair to make it easy and efficient and effective for this workout. My outside leg is back down onto the mat. My inside heel is up on the chair pedal. I'm gonna first start to hip hinge and come to my reverse single leg table top position, testing the waters. If you know how many repetitions that we did on the pedal press on the other side, you get bonus stars for this workout, because I got you.

Hold, stay lifted. How many did we do? Telepathically you're telling me right now, you're like, Erica, we did six. Yes, we did. So, press down for one.

I got you, team. Let's count it out for two. Good, and three, push that floor away with your hands. Four, come on, we're almost there. Five, and six.

Challenging whole body workout. Yes or yes? Come back down with your bottom, shake out your wrist, shake out your body, and safely take a moment to bring yourself all the way up to a standing position. We're gonna finish with some beautiful spine mobility. So, come with me.

Have a seat side sitting on your chair. I'm gonna extend my outside leg long. My inside leg is bent or my football leg is bent. My hand is down on the pedal, let's side bend. Aah, this is our reward.

It feels so good. Stretch out that upper side body, and bring it back up. Isn't it so lovely and joyful that we have three dimensional bodies and three dimensional spines. So, we have to really move them in all different places. And that's the great thing about Pilates and Pilates-based exercise is that in pretty much everything we do, we do that in every workout and in every session.

You've got one more of these, and reach it up and over. So, we've shifted your brain, we've shifted your body. Let's turn onto our pelvis. And we've shifted how we think about utilizing this amazing piece of equipment of the chair. My legs are long.

Let's just take some nice back extension here with some swan. Press the pedal down. My legs are a little wider. If you wanna bring your legs closer together, that's totally fine. See what feels good for you.

The goal of this is just to get some nice beautiful work on your postural muscles, your upper middle back here, taking that all the way through the whole back line of the body. Some of us have better back extension than others and that's okay. But the whole point of this is to really help sort of like tap us into our back body. Many of us were, well, all of us wake up in the morning and we don't get up and walk backwards. So, we're kind of disconnected on the back of our body.

This is a great way to help with, if you've been sitting in a chair all day, maybe you work at a desk. I do a lot more desk work these days. We also have these devices in our hands. So, back extension is so important for so many reasons. Last one, please.

Good, and we're gonna take that side bend on the other side. So, come on down, turn right on around to the other side. We did about four or five on that other side. So, let's be as even as we can as you side bend over, opening up that side body on that upper lateral line and just really visualizing yourself moving through two panes of glass. I've got that beautiful pane of glass in front of me right now and I'm looking at the water and it's just a beautiful day in the studio.

And I hope you're ready for a beautiful day, whatever that's presenting to you after we finish up one more side bend. And bend through that pane of glass in front of you and that pane of glass behind you. Great, bring your pedal all the way back up. All right, nice job, team. Thank you so much for joining me for this workout.

I hope you really enjoyed unique and creative, but functional ways to shift up your chair. We threw it into six gear. We had a lot of fun together and I hoped that you will continue enjoying your workouts. Keep moving with joy, keep having fun, and I can't wait to see you next time.