Extend Reformer

Hello, everyone. My name is Angela Brewstian, and welcome to this extension reformer class. Today, we have Sally Anderson joining me for today's class. So today, what I thought I'd do is design a class around the extension buyer. So for some people, perhaps flection of the spine might be either contraindicated or just not recommended. So for for you and for everyone else, have decided to design this reformer class with an with a bias and a focus on extension. So let's get started.

So I've got a balanced body reformer here, and I have it set to the footwork spring. So whatever your footwork springs are on your machine, feel free to to set those up. What we'll do to start with isn't going to ask Sally to just come onto the reformer in a 4 point kneeling quadruped position, but we're coming over across this way. That's it. So what we'll do here is just a couple little cat stretches, and, we're going to focus on the extension portion of the cat stretch.

In alignment here. So the back of the head, middle, thoracic, and sacrum are kind of all in one nice line. Now as you inhale, what I'd like you to sell you is just push into the reformer with your arms and just lift up into that extension, opening up the front, connecting through the back, and the legs have just come back to that neutral position. Good. And as you inhale, pressing the carriage away, the foot bar, 4 mile away, and then coming all the way back in one piece of the piece. The piece will coming on at once. And as you inhale progressing away, lifting the chest, that's it.

And then exhale coming back to your neutral. Few more here. Let's do 3 more. So what you wanna focus on is try not to just dump through the low back as well and let everything kind of just fall down with gravity, work still against that gravity so that you get that lift through the abdominals as well as the work through the back one last one. So as you inhale, arms will outwardly rotate as you lift good, and then coming back all the way to your starting position. Awesome. Alright. So now take a seat selling on the reformer with your back up against the football.

That's it. You'll have your feet just in front of the shoulder blocks and flat onto onto the bed here. So that's why I like the the the foot bus springs to other footwork, sorry, springs to be on now. It's just that it keeps that carriage nice and still. Hands behind your head, Don't go for a little thoracic extension over the foot bus. So take your breath in as you go over, and then as you breathe out, just coming back to your neutral Just allowing a little bit of mobilization through the spine.

Feel free to close your eyes. Look up towards the ceiling. Enjoy that lovely length. Inhale. It's hard to come back up one more time. So inhale lengthening over, try not to let the elbows go too far behind that shoulder blade.

And then coming back up. Good. Moving on. So what I'd like to do now is activate into the back of the legs and abdominals. So working into a pelvic press. So staying in that neutral position. You're just gonna lift the hips up off the bed.

That's it. And then lower them back down. Easily enough. Now what I'd like you to do is go into that thoracic extension, lift the hips up, hold this position for just a second. So pull the carriage back in with your heels. Find those hamstrings, lifting the hips.

Got the abdominal connection and the stretch through the legs. Stay in that extension, so kind of weight it with your neck and head as you come down. So allowing you to be open through that extension. Let's do four more like that. So as you breathe out your lift, still finding the full flat foot on the bed and then coming back down as you breathe out. Good.

Allowing the spine to articulate on the way down. So we're still working through an articulation phase or an articulation moment here, but working is through on the opposite side. So working in, like, I call the extension bias court. One more after this. And as you breathe out, you lift the hips up. Now find the back of the legs here into that nice contraction there, and then coming all the way down. Excellent work. Okay.

So they just place your feet onto this side of the reformer for me. We're going to work into some abdominal warm up. Now I know we're not working into flexion here, so we're going to work into our extension bias. So, Sally, just laying yourself down onto the reformer bed. Shoulder blades kind of on the end. Okay? Hands will go behind the head, supporting the head and neck. You've just got that slight elbow in front of the shoulder here.

So we're in this neutral position. So work into the extension bias. So as you inhale, you lengthen over the back of the reformer, now working against gravity activating abdominals as you come back just to your neutral, inhale lengthen over. Good. Eggs are coming on back. Now don't forget the hamstring complex as well with the abdominals.

So you inhale over. As you come back, push onto the floor with your feet and give me a little tiny pull, which will activate those hamstrings in howl over 3 more. Eggs how to lift, just finding that nice nodule. Maybe I've just an inch. There we go. Beautiful. 2 to go. So really still working into that Flection, but stay in the starting extension position.

It's hard to come back up. You gotta hold this neutral. Maybe I'm just a fraction high. There we go. Going to a little leg lift series here. So exhale lift your right leg to tabletop. That's it.

Come a fraction more. There we go. In her letter come down. Eggs how lifting up the opposite leg. So just working into a little single leg kind of march here, eggs how to lift. Good. So finding that disassociation through the hip joint, working through the lower abdominals to support and stabilize the pelvis.

One more sit on each side, then we ramp it up a little bit more. What do you think? And then inhale, let yourself come back over. Had that little moment there for a little bit of rest, As you breathe out, you're going to lift up into the neutral, but also lift the right leg to tabletop. So it all happens together, inhale lengthen all back out together. Good. Eggs hearts for lift.

Now as you go over the edge of the reformer, try not to think about lifting the ribs as you go over, Think about, you know, water kind of just sort of flows over a rock. Yes. A nice little sort of laminate flow. Same kind of thing here. So you come up. So just think of yourself weighted in length and last one here. Eggs hard to lift.

Lower down, beautiful, Sally. Come back up into your neutral hold that there. One leg to tabletop, other leg to tabletop, now we've even more. So who said you can't do abdominal work in extension? So let's go for some spine twists. So a little bit higher through the abdominals. There we go. Exhale back to center, just for 2 each side.

Inhale across, exhale back to center, lovely job. One more time each side, That's it. Last one in Hall across. Ex held back to center one foot down at a time, flow over the edge of the reformer. Have a little rest.

Nicely done. Okay. Coming on up, Sally, let's go into some leg and footwork. So nice and safe to come up. Spinning around onto the reformer, laying yourself down. Now just watch as you come down that you don't work through that reflection too deeply.

So Feed on. Start with the heels. Make sure we're nice and aligned here. Lovely work. And when you're ready, Sally, just press on our exhale to press in how to return. So we can add a bit of pace to this footwork out and in and out good.

So we're just keeping that flow. That's why, again, I've set the footbar, the footwork springs up first, just so we can jump straight into it. So there's not too much kind of faffing around. I think that's an Australian term. We don't wanna faff around too much. Alright. 2 more here.

Yeah. One on. 2. Last one. Good, Sally. Just pull both knees in towards your chest to change footwork positions onto the balls of the feet and pressing out again. So again, just keeping it nice and moving nice and flowing through and all those usual things that you know already. So keeping the pelvis stable, trying to work through that disassociation of the hip joint, 2 more. Eggs hard press away.

Last one come all the way in. Let's put the knees to the chest once again. Place the feet in a v back onto the footbar and press out good. That's it. Nicely done. Keeping those heels nice and together as much as you can. Good. Let's do four more here.

4 and 3. Good. 2 to go. Last one come all the way home. Just got a parallel position. Press the carriage all the way out for some calf phrases. With the calf phrases, I want inhale to lower lift, eggs, how to lower lift.

So so making that kind of flow in this little sort of cyclonic kind of feeling here. So there's no real break, no holds, or anything like that. Kinda like it to continuously move. Do 2 more sets inhale eggs, how one more set inhale Exhale is just some prancis. So again, 2 heels on an inhale, 2 heels on an exhale. So again, keeping it nice and even, as you go through.

You can get work onto a little bit of tempo here. Love the princess because it really does show up any of that kind of instability in the pelvis to offset inhale x 1 more and in hail, exhale, and return. Beautiful work, Sally. Alright. So I'm changing the springs now. To some abdominal springs.

So whatever you wanna work through there, I've got Sally set to 1 to 1 a half springs, just kind of as as your body is feeling this today. You can earn going a little bit heavier, so I'm just gonna load you up just fraction because I'm taking out that flexion element, you can sort of ramp up the springs just that little bit more as well. Okay. Let's I'll show you what I mean. So come to your tabletop position here. Good. Lower abs are holding nice and strong and just exhale, lower the arms down towards the waist.

And then inhale to return. Nice and easy. So what I want you to focus on here is the breath. So remember, with a little forced exhalation, we add secondary respiration muscles of the obliques, the transverse abdominis, all of those abdominal complex muscles, come into play when we do our forced exhalation. So what I want you to think about, that's why I want that little bit heavier spring. So use this as abdominal work 2 more eggs, how to press.

Last one. Now, let's load up the lower abdominals now by standing the legs as you press that sword, almost like a little 100 preps. Yeah. We're gonna keep those head and shoulders down. Have it. Have it. Have it. Good. Pressing out and coming in.

If you wanna marry up all those joints, you'll notice that the feet don't really move. From position here 2 more. That's it. Last one. Now we're gonna have a little bit of fun here. You can add as many or as little as you like.

Come back in, Sally. Now as you come up, you're gonna extend the legs up towards the ceiling. Hold that position. Now go into a little v, That's it. You're gonna think about little frogs like we do in leg strap work. So bend those knees here.

So as you breathe out, stretching the legs. Now it's up to where your body is, how low or high you have this position in how to come back in, it's how to press. Now don't want them too low, But I also don't want them too high if the hamstrings are gonna force your pelvis and lumbar spine into that flexion. So keeping a nice neutral, wherever that fits well for your body, 2 more, eggs are pressing forward. Last one, reaching through on those straps hold the position.

Now what we're going to do is we're gonna write some numbers. You're right. So we're gonna write them with the feet. So what we're gonna do is gonna write the number 1. Now don't go down too low only as always, you can maintain that neutral pelvis. Then write the number 2, Sally comes around and across. We're gonna write the number 3.

3. Good. Let's do up to 5. And 4. There we go. Oh, yeah. Reverse 3. Mirror 3.

5. You go. And back to the center, you can bend your knees, rest, and come back in, and then return all the way home. Good. So that's a bit of fun you can have there. I remember when I was younger, the the teachers to make us write our phone numbers with the link, so that can be kind of fun if you wanna Alright. Let's go into nicely done, though.

Let's go into some Lakes Trappwick. So pressing the carriage back out one foot in at a time, be nice and safe. And we're just gonna work into our usual series, little frogs, circles, and openings. So what I'd like you to do is just 10 little frogs and 5 circles in each direction, working through keeping the abdominals on, keeping a little co contraction happening between the lower back and the abdominals, just to keep everything nice and stable. If you're feeling a little unstable through the the lumber section, add a little bit more spring.

So the more spring you add the more stable this will will become for you. Circals will start down around and up. Now, once again, just keeping the range accurate for your body. So if you find that some ranges too big, through the lumbar spine, just bring it down a little bit Good. Let's reverse. Activating inner thighs now as we work.

Good. 2 more here. 3 more here. The counting. Last one. Yes. That was the last one.

Look at that. Low opening. So let's lower the legs as far as your body will allow, inhale to open that. Get yourself a nice bit of stretch here, a bit of length, as your weeks are closing through the middle. Keep it nice and low. I like to tell by my clients as well, as you close the legs, try and actively release the glutes to release the glutes and just find the eggs how coming through the inner thighs and adductors.

Hear 2 more eggs, how to close. Good. Last one. And then eggs, how to close. Nicely done. Take a moment, have a little stretch. If you would like to, take a few breaths there.

And then we're gonna reset. So when you're ready, Sally, just coming on through, yes, bending the knees first, take one foot out at a time, We're gonna keep this 1 a half spring load on. We're working into a little bit of a hip flexion series here. So let's put the straps back onto the pegs, come on up, Good. So we're gonna kneel onto the carriage here for a knee stretch. I'm gonna use the flat back version. So even though we're we're talking about a flat back version here, it doesn't mean I want you to flex through the lumbar spine.

I do want it to be in a neutral So let's bring you down just a fraction. So there we go. So I'd like to say keeping the back of the head, the middle of the thoracic spine, and the sacrum kinda in one nice, long position here, arms are forward, a little external rotation of the of the humerus. Just press the carriage back as you inhale, eggs are coming home. Now what I want you to focus on here is all of this is gonna start to become a little bit unstable and a little bit kind of, open chain. What am I gonna do? The body to do. So this is where the co contraction comes in again.

So abdominals and lumbar erectors or lumbar spine, will start to contract together to keep it nice and stable as to 4 more. And 4, 3, nicely done, 2, Last one coming home. Okay. Now moving on to a little down stretch position. So coming all the way forward over the foot bar, lifting through that thoracic spine as you breathe in using the heels to press back, eggs are coming up nicely done. We're going to do 6 here.

It's hard to lift. Now the arms will gently rotate inwards as you come out, then really find that you press yourself up over the footpath. Think of, you know, maybe coming out of a swimming pool, right, that last one inhale back, eggs are beautifully done. So coming up into your up stretch position. So standing up onto The carriage heals halfway up the shoulder rest, and once again finding this neutral spinal position. So shoulders stay nice and still as you inhale chest comes through the arms as the hips come down into your plank position.

And then as you breathe out, you return. Good. Inhale lengthen through the chest as well as through those heels. Chest this way, heels this way. 3 more inhale. Think about hugging your ribs with your arms.

So I think I like to go a little triceps to rib connection here, one more, and then lengthen out inhale, hold going into your long stretch. So coming all the way forward on the breath out, I'm gonna get you to come inhale on the way back. So a little change the exhale to come through really finding that squeeze of the ribs. Just two more. Ex hard for it.

That's it. Nicely done. Pressing back on the last one. Press through hold this position. Try and get that carriage in, then hips up to your up stretch position and hold good. Now let's put those 2 things together and do a little up stretch number 3.

So we're gonna work in that extension bias once again. As you inhale, I want you to press all the way out this time a little different there. Now exhale as you press back. Good. And then return the carriage all the way in. In her length in the body over, exhale press the body back, leave the body where it is as the carriage comes back in just 2 more inhale, connecting through the heels right up to the hamstrings, pressing back, good, and return.

Last one lengthen out coming back through good and lifting up nicely. Don't have a little rest. They're beautifully done, Sally. So coming off their carriage when you're ready for a little little lunge here. Your choice, whether you wanna lighten or keep the spring load on, just one foot on the grounds, little basic lunge.

Yeah. So just a little hip flexor stretch here, so you'll just press the carriage away. Again, try and keep that nice neutral spine there. Sally's keeping her knee over the front, ankle, and she's pressing again through that back leg. So there's that two way pull happening here, which is gonna really encourage that that lengthening through the front. Just one more will be enough. And then pressing away.

Now as Sally comes back, she's giving herself a nice little lift through the front, which again opens up that in higher area through the front of the body, beautifully done. I did say through beautiful. Yes. And progressing away, Now just really pay attention and watch how when Sally comes up. She's not flexing over the footbath. She's gonna keep that nice lift So now she's opening up, like I said, right through the front of the pelvis into the quadriceps and hip flexes there and lifting as come home last month.

She's also keeping it quite low, which gives you that encouragement once again of the lengthening of the muscles there as you come all the way up. Nicely done. And you can rest there. Beautiful. Okey dokey. So now we're going to work into a little bit of a lateral flexion or a little bit of, I should say, oblique work. Yeah? So, yes, exactly, kneeling up onto the carriage here, grabbing onto your front strap.

I've got selling on one red spring, again, feel free to lessen the load or or, add some load. Sally placed both hands into the strap, Yep. One hand on top of the other, and rotate to your right shoulder towards the rails there. This will be your starting position. As you breathe out gentle rotation of the spine and then coming home in hail. So this is going to encourage that ablete connection, again, taking away that flexion element if that is what is contraindicated or not recommended for your spine. So Sally's just adding some rotation. Keep these rotations small.

If that's what your body calls for, you can also add like I said, more load and make this really, really super, challenging. Excellent. We'll go to the other side after this last one. And return over. I think that was 5. 6. Look at that. Alright. Spinning around to the other side.

Yes. That's it. So Sally's also got herself just off away from the shoulder rest as well. Which gives you again a little bit more range. So if range is something that you're really considering here as as an element of concern, then these are the things that you can do to to help mitigate that. So, yeah, moving towards the shoulder rest, lightning the spring load, because we all need a little bit of this rotation as we go through our daily lives. Think about putting on your seat belt.

Yeah? So we need this work here. Set the last one. One more. Rotate and come back in. Fantastic work. Okey dokey.

Good job. So I'm going to going to a little glute series now. So I'm gonna put the foot bud down. Springs look. That's I'm just gonna put a couple of springs on just to stop the carriage from moving, because following that, we will go into a little bit of box work. So It's good idea to have either all your springs on or just enough that you're gonna stop the carriage from moving. So, Sally, just come onto your knees facing the foot bar, You know, I have your four arms on the footbed here. So it's a little bit of a lowered quadruped position.

So just place those four arms onto the footbed. Yes. So we're in this position here. Maybe you can move your knees forward just a fraction. Yes. So what you'll do is just bend this front knee up here and find your balance to start with, then as you breathe out, the heel comes up towards the ceiling, and then it lowers back down. Nicely done. So what you wanna avoid here is too much range is going to send your phone into an extension. Can we see that just for a sec?

Yeah. So see that how it kind of comes out, and it's not very it's not very useful in that position. So Sally's really working that range. To get the glutes working and firing in that neutral position. One more here. Good. I'm gonna add a little rotation to that.

So you'll lift up the leg externally rotate bring it back to center and lower. Nice little variation. We'll just do 5 on each. So nice little variation here. Again, working into the obliques to keep the body nice and stable and not sort of shifting off to one side. The last one in the series is a straight leg extension.

And the beauty of doing it here is that we get to use the shoulder rest as a little guide for where the hip should be that. Now lifting that pelvis up. There we go. Eggs hard to lift that leg into straight leg extension, and then just tap the shoulder rest. Good. And we've got 3 more here. 3. Good. And 2.

Last one and then you can just place that knee back where it started from and bend the opposite side, and we can start up again with the other way. So we just got 5. Just might lift this leg up just a little bit for, and feel free to use as many or as variation, repetitions as you as you like. And one, put adding the rotation once you've done that first 5. So that little bit of rotation is really gonna fire glute max into that area of the way that the fibers run, you know, into that position.

Good following that one. We go into the straight leg extension where we work into pure hip extension here. So onto the, yep, onto that shoulder rest. And then lifting up. So you're not gonna go too much higher are you than your hip level.

So you just lift that up too high and just show everyone what happens. It it's possible. You can do it, but you have to sacrifice the new the the neutral spine to do that, which I don't really wanna do at this point. Wanna do a nice little firm isometric hold of those abdominals good. And once you're done, you replace the leg and then just maybe sit down, have a little stretch that's it, and then come up into it. Actually, stay there with your hands onto the foot bar, and just give me a little bit of lift here through the the body and just widen the knee Yes. You can get still get an opening into the into the front of the hips there and a little bit of a stretch.

It's nice little add on as we get going. Alright. So moving on, I'm gonna grab the short box and do a little short box series. So grabbing onto your foot strap, add all the springs on, or just like I did before, just enough to stop the box from the the carriage from sliding, taking a seat onto the box feet into that safety strap. Beautiful. Little flat back. So hands behind the head sitting on the front half of the box. That's it.

You're going to have your elbows just slightly in front of the shoulder blades as you inhale lengthen back as your eggs are bringing it forward. Good. Now as you pull back, think about taking off your shirt off the back of your head here. So you think about that lifting up through the spine. Not a compression. We want space.

This is a little bit of a progression for those clients that are able to do this position 2 more. Eggs had to come home, a nice little tremble of truth going on there. Last one, and then returning. Good. Now, again, I'm going to do a a side over.

I know you're probably thinking, oh, hold on a second. How do we do this side over? When we're going to come straight from this position to turn around and face the front. Yes? That's it. Good. It was doing a nice little stretch there of the of the spine, which is perfect, but we wanna go into I wanna take you into this position here. So I like the front chin kind of working along the front of the box. I like the thigh band kind of working along the side of the box.

Give you a bit of something to, something to measure up. When you're sitting here, just a little something, when you're sitting up in this position, have the leg externally rotated like that? Okay. The way that the hips design, that if you sit if you've got your foot facing foot facing the other way and you sit up here, it's gonna impinge at the hips. So Just a little tip. Keep the the knee lifted or the external rotation when you're sitting upright.

Now when we go into the side position is when you turn the foot in. So, Sali place your right hand on the headrest. That's it. Now use that right arm to lever yourself over the box Then you can rotate that foot around and really hold into that strap. So now cell is in a nice neutral position for that hip joint, and then you'll place this hand behind your head and you'll hold this position. So give me a little lift from underneath here and a lengthening position. Now we're gonna keep this beautiful isometric hold as you exhale lifting the right hand up behind your head without moving the body in how place the hand back down six times.

Eggs how to lift in how to let it go. Good. So we're really working isometrically into the obliques here. Good. 2 more. There's a little question mark in there in that inflection. Last one, nicely done.

Now hold that position, place the left hand onto the knee, bending the opposite knee to get yourself back up. To a seated position. Let's flip it around. Good. So same thing. So it's really important. I'm I'm really sort of I like to go through this setup, in this way. Just bring your knee across fractionally.

That's it. And then you've got the right, the toes pointing out at the beautiful ocean, hands behind your head. Good. A lift up from that underneath side as your ex, how hand comes up and down. And 5? Good. And we have 4. That's it. So want that body going this way, but the foot gonna let going that way. It's got that 2 way.

Pull last one. Press one more and then come all the way back up bending that leg as you come up. Nicely done. Thank you. Alright. So come off there. Alright. Let's go into a little bit of spinal extension. So long box arms pull straps 1 and 2. So coming onto the box laying on to your stomach, one spring on, chest just off the front holding onto the rails 6 of each. So starting in a neutral position.

So you're gonna lift the head up in line with the back here holding that position. Let's do 3 in this neutral. So just maintaining the neutral. This is sort of stage 1. If you just wanna maintain that neutral position without mobilizing the spine to keep it into that isometric hold. Now feel free as you come up for the next 3 to extend the spine. This can kinda be stage 2 of this arm pull straps.

So you got 2 little variations there. One more here, lengthened to lift. Now as you come down, open the arms out to the side, hold that neutral. Good. Again, you can press into hands to the legs, staying in sort of that neutral position. I'd prefer it to be lifted into extension. Whatever your body is telling you at the time, things turn them through the goalpost there, 2 more here, nice and active through the back of the legs, last one, and then you can rest all the way out of that.

Good. Alright. So the big finale. So what I'd like you to do is turn around onto your back on the box so that a good way to I like to do this is take a seat at the front feet onto the footbar, keeping this nice and safe. Using your hands onto the box here, just lay yourself down onto your back. Find a bit of shoulder blade off the back of the box. Good hands behind your head.

In a neutral position, lift one leg to tabletop, lift the other elected tabletop. Now take a moment here to, readjust if you need to readjust at home. Good. Staying in that neutral. So what you're going to do is just like we did at the start. So in her length and over the back of the box, still holding on through the abdominals, eggs how to lift back to neutral. Good 4 of those. In, how over.

Eggs, how to switch. I'm just gonna build and build and build on this exercise, feel free to stop at any stage that you'd like to last one lift and hold. Good. Now place both hands in front of your forehead here. What you're gonna do is is do both arms and legs up to the ceiling and then just bend both arms and legs back to the start to that four times. And three, and back. 2 more. 2 and back. Last one and back and rest if you desire. Just come into a little rest position.

That's it. Hold that. Now, we're gonna add a little bit more to this. We're gonna do almost like a double leg stretch kind of prep here. So neutral position once again, so no real ex no reflection here to come down just a fraction. Yes. Keep the hands behind their head to start with. So in her length and the legs long, exhale pull them back in.

Just do 4 like that. 3 and pull 2 to go. 2. And in last one, now let's add some arms. So bring the hands to to your knees in how to the hundred position.

Eggs, how lift the arms go into extension over the box, circle just to neutral, pull the knees back in 2 more like that in, to the 100. Now This is a little bit much for the neck. I would tell you to go back down to the other exercise just into the prep, but feel free to take this progression if your body is calling for it inhale to the 100 and then exhale to come back in nicely done. Last one, circle around find that extension just to the neutral position and recover nicely done now. To come up, place both feet down onto the foot bar, hands onto the side of the box and press yourself all the way up. Nicely done. Okay, Sally.

So just coming off, might just finish off with the front of the foot bar, hands onto the corners here of the box. So just taking a stand there in front of the foot That's it. Seeing in a neutral position, once again, you're just gonna press the box away, taking a nice little stretch through the arms, shoulders, back of the legs. And then as you come back up, allow the chest to lift. We'll do that four times. And then progressing away, feel free to lean into the footpath.

That's fine for this at this stage, but just using this to get some nice length into the body. Good. And then we have one more. And pressing away. Take the link through the lats. That's it.

Yes. Nice little reach of the shoulders. And then come all the way back up. Thank you so much, Sally. Thank you everyone for watching. I look forward to seeing you soon.