Strengthening Your Deep Core

Hi, everybody. I've got the beautiful Jillian here today to be my student. For a reform and intermediate level reformer class. And we're going to have some interesting variations that we're going to be doing that I hope you find enjoyable and challenging. We will start by warming up the hamstrings because usually when you do footwork, you use your quads ad nauseum, and don't use your hamstrings enough, so, Julian, please lie down on the floor and have your bottom through your shoulders on the towel. So this can be a humiliating experience if you've never done this before.

You want your back, your lumbar spine flat on floor, you will use your glutes and hamstrings to slide out just a little bit and then pull yourself back in. So you start going out and in, Some of you may need to cheat and help with your hands because your hamstrings will be so weak, and you're going to go further and further out every time. What you wanna watch out for is that you don't arch your back. If you find that you're starting to arch, you're trying to use other muscle groups to help you. You're using your back muscles, and this is not for your back. This is for your glutes and for your hamstrings.

Your hamstrings like crazy. We usually just use quads. So that's why I like to turn them on and remind people their back body is as important as their front body. So let's see if you can go further out Jillian and now pull in. Ah, you saw she arched her back. No.

So out you go, I'd rather you help with your hands. And then maybe the towel is too wide for you because you literally yes. I'd rather have you do this and pull with the arms So you start to wake up these muscles. They do turn on. They do get stronger.

And if this is a very easy exercise for you out there in cyberspace, you lift one leg up and you do one leg at a time, but it's amazing. It's so important. It saves your lower back it turns on your stomach. I can't rave enough about it. And then when you get on the reformer, you actually understand to incorporate this Yes.

You see how much she's working, but that's the idea. Wonderful, Jillian. Please get up now and come on to the reformer. Jillian is 5 foot 2. This is a balanced body reformer, and we are going to do the footwork with one blue spring right now. So very, very lightweight.

She's in a v shape. Your back is flat. Your headrest needs to be up, and let's have you just a little wider with the legs. So as you go, and pull the machine back in. So now as she's going out and in, I am hoping that she is using her hamstrings way more than her quads because they're the pulling part of the movement.

Because we've disengaged the spring tension, they have to work much more. Usually, we have strong springs, and we use the spring brings us in, and we use the front of the body one more time like this and come back in. Now bird on a perch I like today. Let's do this. Let's come way low and literally imagine you are like a bird clawing a branch and out, you go three quarters of the way and pull. And three quarters of the way and pull. That's right. You will start to feel the low abs kicking in as well.

You want that connection of everything in your body pulling in. Keep going. Keep going. There we go. 2 more times. One more time.

Now let's do something nice. We're moving down to the balls of the feet, flex the feet a lot and push out and push the heels all the way down. So now she's in full flexion. Ideally, now bend your knees and come in and keep that. Yes. Now as you push up, press the heels down. So if the heels drop, come back in.

If the heels drop at the end after you extended your leg out and then you flex. You're missing a whole section. Most of the time, people are very tight in the front. You see, you dropped at the end. I glanced down. So heels, heels, heels, heels. Yes.

So again, we're opening up the back of the body, and we're turning it on. Pretty good one more time. Heels, heels, heels, heels, and pull with the hamstrings. Move up onto the heels now. Flex the feet and out you go. And this is the hardest one because there's nothing to hold on to. It's amazing how much you use the foot to help with the pulling part, and now that's gone.

If your back is arching, remember, you've now gone out of your back leg muscles into your back to help you do it so better to not go as far out and in, but stay in the muscle group so that you're really using the right muscles. One more time like this Now pause in here for a minute, Jillian, and I've taken. She's solo. No springs left. Let's see if she can pull in. So, okay, you can be like that and pull because she's using her foot a little bit to make it happen. So it's a wonderful thing to do is to go out and in a few times with no spring tension.

It's very humiliating. It means that you have a completely different visceral experience of the whole physiology, and you just can't let go and push you have to contain all the energy inside you. It's a beautiful, beautiful opportunity to have a completely different muscular experience one more time like this and back. Now you're going back for tendon stretch I'm putting you on 2 red springs now. So g giving you more spring tension. Remember, she's a tiny lady. She's five foot two out you go.

Tell me And now when you go down and up with your heels, you want to balance hamstrings, glutes, thighs, inner thighs, and outer thighs. So because the spring tension isn't so tight, you can feel all the muscles around your thighs and legs and see if you can engage us awareness. This is looking nice, and she has a nice long trunk right now. She's not overinflated, over deflated anywhere. And the muscles are working very, very nicely.

Okay. Bend your knees and come back in. Now hundreds. I'd like you to hold the straps. I'm moving you to we're gonna have a runway. She's on 2 reds right now. We're just checking.

See what the spring tension is. Good for you? Okay. So go come back down, and I'd like you pull up this now. Stretch your arms to the ceiling first.

So we've re we've spread the shoulder blades and curl up as far as you can go and reach those arms forward. So I'm looking at how much can she lift now? Extend the legs out? Lower lake? Lower legs and start your hundreds from here. I'm just stretching her a little bit more, I'm asking her to go deeper into her muscle patterns. Soften the legs but reach them.

I want them reaching from the hips more. Yes. She just opened up her hip flexes beautifully. That's it. Keep those arms reaching long. Keep that chest curling up. So she's really creating this bend in the upper back.

And lengthening out her lower back in opposition. So just a few more pumps finish your exhalation. I never count to a 100. And when you're done just finish, drop your head back down. Our next one will be shorts, fine massage.

Now I have attached on this machine. I've moved these down because, I'm personally, and I know Jillian is we used to working on a grass machine and the all the spring attachments are not the springs, I should say, but the straps come low. So there's no each angle will have its own unique effect on the body. It's not like there's a right or wrong way to do it. It's a fun way to sparement with different variations, and we are working low to allow a longer range of movement with the legs.

So, let's have you set yourself up for shirts by massage. We have one red and one blue spring currently. So put your feet in the straps and put the headrest down. And as you can tell, if this strap was coming from here, it would have a different angle and a different pull into the low body, different effect. There's all good, just like variations.

So always check your low back is long and flat and comfortable. You're not compressed and and kind of stuck anywhere. Extend your legs out, and let's have you go once. Just do one short spine. Whatever variation you're used to doing, Just do it to feel out your own body and find yourself. Find your spine. See if you have the range of movement coming in.

Now we will play with some variations. Extend your legs out. Soften the knees. This immediately, you can have the this immediately deactivates your hip flexors and loosens up these muscles. We use these is a lot to roll up.

I want her to work here and especially you out there. Let's have you use your core to roll up and over. So roll up and over using your stomach, then you lengthen the legs, then take the legs as far down as you can just be aware not to drop the springs and get a super stretch. Now bend your feet towards your bottom until you find the strap tension and now roll your your bottom away from your feet. So you roll through the spine, And when you get as low as you're able to go, you pull your feet to your bottom.

Very nice. Let's have you go again. Extend soft legs. So they you don't have to bend them as much as just keep them soft. It usually makes the person work much harder. Now we'll just spend your feet.

Bend your feet down. Try and get as low as you can with the knees. It's kinda like rolling like a ball if you think about it. Soften the feet. Don't grip in the feet. Use your stomach as you roll down.

Work through the spine. When you get as low as you're able to, you pull your feet to your bottom. Starting again, extend the legs out and soften. So did you see how much you bend Don't need to exaggerate the bend. You just don't want this beautiful long leg.

Just soft. Now you throw that's right. You want to really feel that you're using the whole rolling motion from your core. Nice and soft, roll down. We're gonna have one more variation.

We're adding in here. Same way. You'll roll up and over. Roll. And then when you bend your knees, we are going to bring the palms of the feet. It's like you're clapping your feet together, and you're slightly flexing.

So it's a very unusual position. Let's have the So this is very much of an archival variation. It's gonna have a massive stretch on the outside. Then you flex your feet. And pull your feet to your bottom. Lovely, lovely work.

Let's go into coordination. So take this strapped. You stay with the same spring tension. I would like to see a massive curling in the upper body. Now extend your arms and legs out.

It's similar shape to the hundreds. Open and close. Bend your knees. Bend your arms. And again, extend. Open and close.

Bend your knees. Bend your arms one last time. Extend. No cross. In. She's an automatic and relaxed down.

Lovely work. Let's have you swing around for rowing. And I am releasing one of the springs, 1 red spring, please use a spring tension that works in your body at home or with in your studio because each machine is so different. We're going to start with round back. I'd like to see a similar rounding in the whole spine that you just did in the hundreds. So back, you go pull the hands to your sternum and take your arms to the side.

Now stay here and pull with the arms only. Now bring your head to your knees and bring your hands right down low behind you. So thumbs touch. Your head is in. Your whole spine is round and now stretch the arms up first. So they go as high as you're able to go, sweep the arms and start flexing your feet, sweep the arms around.

Sweep the arms and grab your feet. Now right here, I like the elbows to the ceiling. Your nose to your belly button and you pull back and you pull on your feet. This is a massive stretch into the body, and it opens up this whole lower spine beautifully come back up, roll back again. Roll, take your arms out, push with those arm.

Come forward thumbs touch. Flex your feet as you circle the arms around. Yes. And elbows to the ceiling elbows elbows, elbows, up, up, up, up, up, up. Yeah. Very unusual stretch. Like chicken wings.

Come back up. One more time rounding. Arms out. Push. Big circle with those arms. Lift the stomach away from. Yes.

So the stomach is pulling back off the legs. Come back up. So this first one was round back. Now we have a long flat back, so I want you to lift up even more in here. Even more. This part of your spine up, I'm looking to get the back as flat as possible, and then you hinge from the hips. Yes.

Come back up. Keep your back flat and reach in a long diagonal. Don't look down yet. Look look out. I'm looking for as much length right here as possible. Now you stretch the arms down.

Imagine yourself touching the floor. Touch behind your back. Sweep the arms up. Take the arms all the way over to your feet. I'm already preparing Now when she lifts her head up, I want her to flatten her back.

Right. So it's like a backbend right into this area. Imagine a string pulling your sternum. Yes. Then you come down. So it's a long bend rather than a round bend.

Here you go again. Lift and lengthen. Come back up long arms. Long back. Reach the arms out and down. Pull the hands behind you.

Big circle all the way around. Yes. Now lift your head and pull your spine even more length in the thoracic, even more lengths, even more length, don't go low yet, don't go low yet. There, we want this back as flat as possible it's good to have long hair, then they can pull on it. Come back up. One more time. I love ponytails. Lean back.

Come back up, lift the arms out, long with the arms, all the way out, all the way down, pull the arms down and back in big circle. Yes. Now as you grab your feet, stretch the backs of the knees as well, pull the chest forward and bring your head down. Lovely work cuts when you interface the front. So the hips are way back. I like to ask for the thumbs right by the armpits.

So way back here. So you get to work and pinch even more, really work this area back and get the chest to lift, push up against my hand. Yes. Now stretch out with the arms. Bring the hands down. Press up through the crown of the head lift up to the ceiling. Lift.

All the way out and down. So now we're lifting the whole body up, press out. Bring the hands down. Lift the arms way up, way up, way up. I'm fine with the shoulders coming up even higher, so we get more length in the ribs all the way out and down. So for me, I'm fine with this traction because it releases one more time out with the arms down with the arms, up with the arms, lift, lift out of the hips, more up, more up, more up, and out and down. Yes.

Now slide forward. Drop your head and slide beyond your heels. Reach. Now lift the arms first. Arms up now look forward between the hands and lift the arms up more. Come up. Come up, come up, come up, all the way out, and down.

So just pause a minute. This area, we can do there's lots of variations for this, but I would like from here that you work the arm lift because the whole back of the shoulders usually underdeveloped and the shoulders are very tight on people. So I emphasize it's a huge amount because it's very valuable and more advanced work. So drop your heading down. You go.

And now reach the arms up first. Arms up reach into the straps, straighten the arms, all the way up, all the way up, all the way up. And down. You know what I'm going to do for Jillian? And maybe for you, I'm making a lighter spring tension because she's fighting So when the spring tension is too tight and the body is weak, it can't do it. So you need to find the spring tension that works for you. Let's see if it makes a difference.

Slide forward. Now lift the arm stretch the elbows. Stretch the out. There we go. Now I can see the muscle pattern starting to kick in out and down. Very nice, sitting cross legged.

Many variations for this one. Today's theme is elbow back, more length in the spine, lean forward more. So I'm looking for a straight line here, especially this area that's tight elbows wide. Now slide your hands up and keep those elbows back. As you do this, imagine a stick going between your ears, and you have to stay behind the stick again to stretch tissue that runs right under hollow bones and under your armpits.

I'd like to see the elbows go completely straight every time when you go up. Stretch those arms. That's it. Pull with them as though you're trying to stretch them out of your body. Pull. Yet There we go. You want to see if you can find this place that you're really lifting up and then take the arms to the side for Haga Tree nice lifted body and close the arms and open and close and open and close and open two more times like this. Close and open one more time, close, and open beautiful work, put the straps away.

And we are setting you up for long, long box series. What? And you will want to see on one I'm thinking of 1 red or 1 blue. What do you prefer? The blue. Okay. By popular demand, she's doing the blue.

So she's gonna set herself up for pulling on the straps. And this is an advanced, way of getting on. That's lovely, but not essential. Just get down. You want your shoulders flush with the edge of the box. Now this is where it gets interesting because people have a nice dip in here, and they usually use the low back muscles a lot.

Let's have your feet a little bit of parts. If you separate the legs, soften the knees a tiny bit, now tighten your buttocks and lift the hamstrings a bit. So you want this feeling of this kicking in. You want the length in the sacrum, and then the glutes and the hamstrings firing so you stay long. Now can you pull back with the arms without shortening in your low back?

Pretty good. Hard to do. Take the arms back and down. And again, nice and long and back. So I like to have the activation of the lower leg happening. Just because, again, it takes some work to get that area to work. Okay. Take your arms to the side for t shape.

So bury your sacrum again. Activate your glutes and hamstrings and now pull your arms back towards your buttocks. And out again. So Jillian has a beautiful, flexible back, but I'd like to see more work in her upper back. So as you pull back at the shoulder blades onto your back, and I want the sternum coming forward. So we bend in here in preparation for breaststroke.

One more time, just for good measure, I can see the muscles working on her body. That's good. Okay. On your back back stroke. And I am adding a red spring. So one blue, one red. I would like you to stay in the spring the whole time.

So arms and leg go up and send your arms forward a bit. Forward. Yes. So we're working this whole upper body. Open your arms and legs and curl down and stretch and bring your hands in. So, again, this flexion of upper and lower body, arms and legs up, arms and legs open and curl hands come together together good and come back in one more time up open and curl hands come together for me and come back in. So you're closing the energy in. You're deepening into this position.

I will release a spring for you. I'm putting you on one blue for your teaser. So the arms along, the chest is open, and let's have you come up to your first teaser. Let's see what happens with you. Actually, that was really lovely.

She was balancing her upper body and her lower body down and up with the arms. So of course, I'm checking her out, but I want all of you to do perfect teasers here. And to one more time like this, and 3, and roll back down. So we will Add something. When we went through short spine massage, I asked all of you to soften your knees.

I'd like chili and and all of you to soften your knees again as you float up because that'll throw you more into your core and out of your legs. Float the legs, bring the size towards you, tight size toward. Ah, you see how you want to grip. Yes. Down and up with the arms. So you're there's this reflex desire to straighten the leg to get strength out of the quads, and I want to take that power away from you So you work the core more and really wake up this area roll back down. That was excellent.

One more time, So just very soft legs. Think of the thighs coming up towards you as your chest comes towards your thighs. Yes. So there's this magical closing of the body from deep inside. It's very animalistic. It's not for Instagram and roll down, but that was beautiful.

Okay. Stepping off you will set this up up first for, let's start with Some preparations for Swan. So you're still on 1 spring. You're gonna lie on your stomach. Let's see. I think what this is gonna work. I have her on one blue spring.

Your shoulders are fl flush with the edge. And put your hands lower down on the side. So the head is long. So remember same thing here. You want to have this soft knees and now lift there there. So when she's not later on, we do want straight legs.

But at the beginning, we need to get this muscle connection working right. And sometimes people literally have trouble if you're having trouble feeling it, if you bend, you can get the sacrum long, and then you can get the glutes and the hamstring kicking in because it just this is a shorter lever. Let's keep you like this right now and push out and in with the arms. So is that spring tension too light for you? It's okay.

Yeah. Let's switch you to red. Okay. So she's moved on to red because we want a little bit of pushy motion. Now let's move your hands up and same thing. So what you're doing is you're starting to pair for handstands and more of the vertical power when you do inversions one more time like this. And now let's have your legs long without changing shape. Yes. So notice is a little bit more.

Once the legs are long, there's more weight. That the body needs to be dealing with. Now from here, start lifting your head and coming in in a beautiful arc. Very good. Bend your elbows to lower your chest. Push out again. Press.

Lift your head and start coming up. And bending down. And one more time like this, lifting up. Now press out from this position and bend your elbows. Press out, lift your head to come up, making sure that you feel this bearing down pushing out again.

So you don't want this area getting shorter. You want it to stable point one more time. Lifting up. So the feeling is pressing out. The feeling will be that you're arching your whole spine, not just sections of the spine.

Very good. Now step off, and let's get started with preparation. For breaststroke, which is usually considered an advanced exercise, but this is intermediate. So we're just going to work on what is needed here. Notice she's hooked the thumbs and you grab and lie down. So once you're down, The position will be that if you bend your knees, your kneecaps are just over the edge of the box, so bring yourself further forward.

Right. So right here is this nice place you find the position of the sacrum. You don't want any arching up. Is there space here? This is what you don't want. You want this hip flexor super long and open. So this low section of the spa of the pelvis is flat or as close to flat as possible.

Now you can lengthen the legs without losing that. And now let's see if you can press your arms forward and then take the arms to the side. So now we're doing the equivalent of breaststroke. Bend your knee, but I'm sorry. Don't bend your knees.

Bend your arms. Now In this position, I want you to lift your head. So now you're swimming in the water and your head's above water, And you are just gonna go for a swim, and you're gonna stay with your head above water. No. Meaning arms to the side. So she we're just doing breaststroke.

You're just gonna keep going and doing the stretch. And open out. So this is a fabulous, fabulous place to start building upper body strength in preparing for the more advanced variations, whether it's swimming on the floor or breaststroke. One more time, Jillian. And out. Now bring your hands in.

Now this is where we are building on what happened in rowing. So just extend your arms forward. Now can you lift your arms up so she's tight. Blow with the arms. Lift the arms.

Lift them. Lower them one more time. Lift them and lower them and come off the machine. So I already know this whole upper body area is tight. It's very common for people. To not have full range of movement here. The chest is tight.

The shoulders are tight. There's a compression, and we want to get the genetic design of the body to be able to open here and to come back. So one a beautiful place to do this is if you stand against the wall, and your head is against the wall and your chest is against the wall. Now we have an indentation here backwards. I'd like you to lift your arms up I will often have people just come to the wall.

And first of all, I just want them to touch the wall. At the beginning, if they're tight, they're gonna do this. So at first, I let them do that and then bring the arms forward and then take the arms back and bring the arms forward. So at first, if you're a tight person, I'd rather you do this and start moving in a place that you're tight and not just forever stay in your tight place. But now start to lift the arms up.

And really reach back with them. So we're looking to increase this range of movement and Geline's having a hard time. Can you reach more back with the arms? More back. More back. More back and bring the arms down.

That's what we're looking to do. Walk away from the wall. Reach your arms up. Take the lift up with the spine, and now take the arms back. Take them back. Take them back.

Take them back. Bring them back. Bring the arms down. So just so you can see camera wise turn sideways to the camera, come on further forward towards me, lift the arms up. Same exercise. I want you to be doing this.

Take the arms back. Take them back. Take them back. So she's challenging all of this tissue here even more and wash the elbows. Keep the elbows tight and reach back even more. Even more. Even more.

It's not in one day, but it's well worth doing it. And it will start to develop the back of your shoulder, the the back deltoids. So people get rotator cuff tears because this area is atrophy, they're not working, and then they're doing something more advanced. But we're going to have fun and just do a, breaststroke you do need someone to help you. If you're at home, you just do the regular breaststroke or you try and lift up just to start to get strong, but we will do this.

If you have a teacher or you have somebody to help you, it's super fun to do. So get yourself more forward, Jillian. So your kneecaps are just by the edge, your hands are by your armpits off the box now. Right? So here we go. 1, 2, 3, and then now lift the arms.

Lift the arms. Lift the arms. Lift the head. Lift the chest. Take those arms back towards me. Open your chest and bend. So it's actually not so hard to do when you have somebody helping you stretch forward and add she's lifting up with the arms.

I'm pushing down. So it's like a lever. Now take the arms back towards me. Yes. One more time. One twos. 3 and lift the arms up, up, up, take the arms back, back, back, back, and come down. Beautiful, beautiful work.

You're going to step down, bend forward, and stretch your back out. And your next one is stomach massage. Let's have you on 2 she's on 2 REMS. Put your feet on the down below down below there and round your back and see if you can bring your knees all the way to lift them up in the air. Lift the feet off.

I always like to have people check this. Now can you put your feet on the foot bar without losing that? Now push out keeping all of that shape, lower the heels, lift the heels, and come in. So you want this sense of pulling the legs into your own body. And 4, and 5, 6 7, and a take your hands behind you on the shoulder rest and lift and open the chest. Now keep those ribs long.

Keep this fill up here, here where my hand is, and keep going too. 3, 4, 5 More flexes you go down, 7 8 hands in front of you, lift your spine up, and out and in four times, one. And 23. And 4. Now rotate out. Rotate out.

And in. Rotate out. And in. Rotate out. Rotate out.

And, again, rotate out and pause. See if you can get your hands in a straight line and then how much can you pull apart and how much can you lift up Good. Come back in other side. So you want, like, a straight line. Can you get both hands? So this hand should be opposite your little toe your middle of your feet.

This hand right opposite the center of the chair just for fun and now lift up. And come back. Hold the foot bar. Stretch yourself out. Lower the heels. So in this position, when you're doing this stretch, I want you to start to imagine how much the thighs can pull up into the stomach.

And then when you push out to your toes, I just want you to really kind of find this feeling and then come back in because this is a very important place to figure things out for tendon stretch. Now swing your legs in front of you on the floor. So we're replicating what's going to happen in tendon stretch. I want your leg straight in, like, you to bend over. You can have your feet on the floor to begin with.

So just like stomach massage a minute ago, now can you lift your hips up onto your hands? That's where tendon stretch will be. And can you pull one leg towards you and down and the other leg towards you? And down. Super hard to do. Come back down. And now we're going to because you want this feeling of pulling everything into your stomach Now let's have you come up onto the reformer for tendon stretch, and you will have both feet up.

And straight now, this is where before you even push out, I would like you really bringing your weight forward and feeling how if you over stretch your knees, you'll be using your legs and not your core. I want you in the core and use your powerhouse. So as you push out, use your stomach to push, push, push, push, push, and now lift the stomach. Try to stay in front of the foot bar and use this to lift you. And, again, it's very hard exercise to do well.

Especially if you're a flexible person, you can be, missing the point because you're just riding with your flexibility softening the knees. And use your stomach to press your hips forward. That's it. Now pull your legs up to your stomach. Pull them up, pull them up, pull them up, pull them up, pull them up, very good, and then bend your knees and sit down. That was terrific.

Now we've had this theme of stomach rounding and then also activating the glutes a lot and opening the shoulders. I'd like you to stand on the floor to really get how do we get the glutes to work? This is a stretch part of the strip split series. Take one foot behind you. I think it's called fire hydrant.

In this position, she's on 2 Springs right now. It's very common to be here and to slide back She's working in her back, so you want to be very aware of this. Let's have Jillian, let's have you go back once like that. Just go for a nice, long split. So she's this girl's very flexible. Lots of people do it like this. It feels delicious, and it's getting into the quad.

And then come back in, but we would like to also open up the hip flexion and get the glue to fire. So come a little higher. And let's have you really get this long so you have to activate this theory. Now see if you can go and get the leg to go back without shortening in your back. So much much harder, and now we're getting the hip flexor to start to open.

So this is well worth spending time working on. So it's a completely it looks different. It feels different and asking different things, and it's starting to make the glute and the hamstring be part of the formula one more time like this. Because that is the part that very often is inspiring a lot for people. Come back in. Let's have you do the same on the other side.

So first of all, just do an indulgent, beautiful stretch that looks very impressive and is very flexible. So she is a super flexible. You can straighten your front leg. You can go as far as you want to notice that the angle of the body is forward. So the pelvis has gone forward, and the pelvis is almost riding on the front side.

So we're not really stretching in the same way. Different stretch come back in. Usually dancers and gymnasts are very good at that. Now really tightness muscle and then start by sending this leg back and trying to come down between the thighs. So The range of movement is not as spectacular, but it gets deeper into the real hips versus having the back be the factor.

This is looking very good and again. And we're starting to get the hinging of the femur bone in relation to the pelvis working. One more time. Very, very nice. Excellent work. So now we're going to take that theme, and you are going to do long stretch.

With it. So this is a plank position because we're going to be asking those muscles to work very hard in a minute. So she's on 2 red springs. I want this nice and long. You can lengthen here a bit. But this is tight. So first of all, just go out and in three times, and she's doing well.

The the trunk is very stable. And everything is kind of quiet. It's almost like nothing catches your eye. That's what you want in your own practice. Now Can you float one leg up without with the same way now?

You arch you arch. So I'd rather have you soften the knee to get the leg to come up a bit. It's a little better. I'm looking as this working and out and in like that. So now we're really making the glute and the hamstring hold the leg. The other leg has to work a lot harder.

Beautiful work. Let's have you do the same with the other leg. And again, So it's not not looking great, but it's kicking in the hamstring and the glute very, very So later when she works with straight legs, she doesn't use her lower back. Let's have you come down and just do knee stretch round back just to release all of that, control and holding. So you get a chance to be rounded out in and with your legs a few times.

Just softening up, loosening up, getting energy going, you want to just have that nice, open low back, and keep the stomach working. This is looking very nice. One more time. Come on in and lie out to Anya back for running to finish and to cool down. So very detailed work. A lot of very specific work.

She's still on 2 Springs. You can have as many springs as you like now. I don't recommend no springs because this is more to stretch things out. And just to have a real final decompression pause with one leg bent and really sink into it. So use this moment when you're hanging out with one leg, check your own kneecap.

Is your kneecap straight, or is it rolled in or rolled out? We each have our own unique patterns. If you have a chance, you and you're working with a client or you're having somebody help you, you can take that heel and pull it, change sides, sink. So you know that That leg, her kneecap rolled right in as she went down there. So you want to watch that. You want the knee in an ideal world going straight up, even if the foot is rolling out or in. So first, you organize closer to trunk.

And then later, you organize further away from the trunk in the limbs that are more flexible. Nice and long stretch. Lengthening everything out and then lift up and bend your knees and come back in. So hard work. I hope you enjoyed the work Jillian. Thank you so very much.

This was excellent. Thank you.