Lower Body Blast

Hi, everyone. Welcome to day 3. Lower body blast. We are gonna get started standing on the reformer So we're gonna drop down to one blue spring and lower the foot bar just to get it out of your way. And we're gonna step up onto the frame with one foot, and other foot is gonna come up basically right to the inside edge of your carriage. We're gonna bring the hands to the hips and take a deep breath in. As you exhale, you're gonna go into a low squat You're gonna send your tailbone out.

There's a little spirit of a swan here. Send your shoulders back and down. The left leg is not gonna change at all. The right leg's going to extend out. And you bring it and stay low out to.

Bring it 30. And 4, and in 5, we're gonna do 8, stay low, 6, and in 7, In 8, now we pause. Here's where right leg doesn't change, left leg does. You almost have to give a little bit of a push with right heel and then bring it in. Don't let the right heel lag underneath you. Keep it right under the bone.

Think it's under your sits bone, not your tailbone. This is for bring it 5, and then stay low. 6, 7, Last one is 8. Bring it in. Now we're gonna stand up. You're gonna take your right foot. Send it just to the middle.

We're staying on the same spring, but we're gonna hold, hug the carriage in towards the stopper and just pause there, breathing out with an inhale, slide the carriage out, go to a nice range that feels safe for you, then bring the carriage in, hold it there, 3, 2, and 1. Don't rush that. Take it out again. We slide the carriage out, then bring it in. And hold 1. Hit that stopper. Pull a little further.

2. Hold 3. Do it again. Slide it out. Bring it in. Hold it 1, and 2, and 3. We're doing 5 of these. This is 4. Take it out. Inhale.

Bring it in. Hit the stopper. Once you hit feel it hit, pull harder a little bit more. Again, last and best. Slide it out and slide it in. Hit that stopper. Hold one hold 2, hold 3, bend your knee that's on the frame.

Sugar foot your other foot in, and we're gonna turn around for the other side. I'm gonna choose to step to the carriage today, I'm gonna bring my right foot over to the frame, left foot close to the inside edge of the carriage with my hands on my hips. I breathe in to prepare And does that breed out? I'm gonna send the tailbone back, find a little spirit of a swan. Right leg doesn't change.

Left leg goes out. And 2. And 3. 4. Keep a connection to your center.

6, 7, and 8. Bring it in. Now the right leg doesn't change. Sorry. The left leg doesn't change. The right leg extends out and bring it in. There's almost just this little push out with the left heel to initiate that 1st inch of range.

4 and 5. 6, 2, more, 7, and 8, We're gonna bring it in, stand all the way up. The left foot goes to about the center of the carriage, and we're gonna slide out. Exhale. We're gonna slide in. You're gonna hit that stopper and hold for 1. Pull a little harder too.

Think right thigh to left thigh, left thigh to right thigh, again take it out. Bring it in. So there's a feeling of both legs pulling to center line. Don't just think to the right. Think, pull the right to the left. Again, 3. Bring it in. Hold it.

2. 3, 2. Out. Bring it in. Hold it. Last one. Take it out.

Bring it and don't rush this. It's not over till it's over. Hold it 1. Hold it 2. Hold it 3. Bend that right knee. Walk the foot in, and we're gonna step down to the floor.

It's time to grab the box now for some more lunges. So I'm gonna bring the box around to the side of the frame. I'm gonna line just about the center of the box up with the edge of the carriage here. And I'm gonna come up to standing on the box. My right toes are lined up with the carriage.

My left foot is back against the shoulder block. I'm gonna stay on the same spring, so I'm still on that blue. Growing tall here, let's get that carriage closed up nice and strong. Connect to your core, arms are gonna come down. We're gonna breathe into prepare.

As we read out, let's raise the arms into the air, go into a low squat lunge, circle the arms around, inhale, bring the carriage back to stop to the stopper. Send it back to and bring it around. Now I want you to really get your weight into your right heel. So with a flip that's on the box, can you send your weight down into your heel and send that connection up to your glutes, bring that around. This is for Inhale brings it around. This is 5.

Ring it around. We're doing 8, 6, and around. 7. Now on this eighth one, we'll add a little icing on the cake. We go down. We're gonna hold here, stretch that back knee long and straight, pulse, 5, 4, 3, 2, hold on 1, circle your arms around, curl into a ball like climb the mountain on the chair, 8 here out and in 1.

Now don't worry about stretching the left leg straight. Keep it underneath you more like knee stretches. 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8 come on up. And we'll do the other leg. So let's pick the box up, walk it around, and we'll step up.

The left foot, the toes, or at the edge of the carriage, right foot, back on the shoulder block. We're gonna grow nice and tall. Inhale to prepare with an exhale. Send that leg back. Now really activate through the right glutes.

Send weight into the left heel. Circle the arm around. 2. Inhale brings it around. 3.

Bring it around. Sending the weight into the left heel, so the left seat is working on that low part of the range. This is 5. 6. 7.

And then on 8, we go down and we pause. Hand pulse, 5, 4, 3, Backney Street, 2, One circle the arms, bring it into, climb the mountain. 8, keep the knee under you. 7. 6 ribs up. Waste up. Really curve.

6 7, and 8. And we come up. Alright. Next exercise. We're gonna take the box and just slide it forward a little bit. So we're bringing the edge of the carriage, in alignment with the edge of the box here. I'm gonna come onto my hands and knees on the box for a moment, try to square off through the shoulders as best I can. Bringing the right foot up onto the headrest.

Raise the knee up as high as you can and send the carriage back, and I want you to hold here. Try not to let the springs push you forward over your hands. I want you to go back, activate your glutes as strong as you can in send that carriage away from you as far as you can. Bend the knee. That knee raises up really high and send it out. Bend it 3, extend it out. 4 knee high glutes alive.

5, reach it out. 6 strong. 7 reach. 8 reach and hold. Find that connection to your seat.

Can you make your spring longer? Now slowly bring the carriage in. We're gonna take this leg now bring it onto the frame. Using the frame as a guide, exhale, raise your leg into the air, inhale, lower the foot. Raise the leg too. Lower the foot.

Raise it 3. Lower it down. 4. On 5th, when we lift and pause a little pulse here 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. Draw the knee in. You can sit back on your heels, get a moment of a counter stretch, and then we'll get ready to do the other side.

So we'll pick the box up and bring it around to the other side. On to the hands and knees. Just taking you a quick second to get connected through the shoulders strong through the belly and squared, then take the left foot up. Now that hip active or, the left hip is slightly elevated. The knee is really high.

Push the carriage back on your first rep. Just take a second. Make sure you're in control of the spring, and it's not controlling you. Roll it really far than bend any inhale. Exhale press it too.

Bring it in. Press it 3. And feel free to play around with those springs a little. Heavy this up if you feel like you want a little more spring tension. And bring it in. 5.

6. 7, and 8. Hold it. Roll it. Activate through those glutes. Bring it in. Now carefully extend your leg back. Just rest it on the frame.

Draw up strong through the middle. Breathe in to prepare. Raise the leg. Up, lower it down. Lift it to, lower it down. 3, 4 and on 5, we hold and a little pulse 5 or 3, 2, and 1, bring the knee in. And you can sit back and take a little moment.

Alright. Let's come off of the box. We'll go ahead and put it away. And then we're going into footwork next. So I'm gonna go ahead and load up my springs. Now this is our lower body workout.

So go ahead and load those springs up And on your back, you're in Pilates, the stance. Now take a moment and try to find a connection to everything we just worked. So find those inner thighs. I'm already shaking like crazy. Find those inner thighs from the standing inner thigh work. Find the seat from skater and the lunges.

Use all of that to push and come in. 2, and 3, 4, 5. This is 7. 2 more. 9.

Now come in close to the stopper and just do low pulses. And really try to think back to that skater. Think about the way you are using your seat. And to 5, 6, Then it goes halfway back. We're gonna pause right there.

We pulse above the halfway point up. 2, 3, 6, 9 and all the way up on 10, Ben Journeys come all the way in. We do the same series in bird feet. Inhale guides you up, exhale brings you in, wrapping those toes over the bar. Now that you're parallel, you can really work that inner thigh connection.

So think about the way you did the standing, sent inner spy splits hugging the carriage into the stopper, Get that same sensation here hugging the thighs towards each other. This is 9. 10, 10, pulse low again, thigh to thigh. Think heal to heal. Knee to knee really activate the insides of the legs.

Take it halfway back. 10 high pulses. 2. All the way to the top, all the way in. Walk up to your heels.

Same series on the heels. Cool thing here, though, is you can really think back to that skater and that feeling of being in that low lunge, send the energy from your heels up to your seat and find that connection, particularly when you're really low, 6 still the inner thigh connection from the standing inner thigh work. 1 more. Now pulse low again down. 2, 3. Find that connection.

Strong through the glutes. 5 to 5, halfway back, high pulse up. All the way to the top, come all the way in. Transition the position of the feet back to Pilatesbee. Slide up to the top with an inhale.

Just five heel lower lifts. Take it under and up to and up 3, 4, 5 is enough will bend the knees to come in. Alright. We're gonna come up and do more lunches. So these are really fun, though. This is a series of lateral lunches.

So I'm gonna bring the blue back on, take off all of my reds, And we're gonna leave this foot bar up. We're gonna come to a kneeling stance. With the right knee about at the center of the carriage, and the left foot is gonna come up onto the bar. You can see my knee's really high. I'm gonna bring my hands behind my head.

And I'm gonna push out with this left leg. So I inhale send the carriage out and then I exhale pull that carriage in. So working balance, but I'm also working this external rotation on this left leg, really trying to open that knee behind me, to find a little extra work in my seat. So this is 3, and I bring it in. 4. All the way into that stopper.

5. 6. 7, keeping that balance. Last one is 8, and I bring it all the way in. Okay. So now the left foot is gonna come down onto the floor. The right knee is gonna go against the shoulder rest. I'm gonna bring my hands to my hips just for the first one.

Organize the shoulders back and down, breathe into prepare. As you breathe out, you're gonna slide the carriage out, lowering your torso straight down and then roll the carriage underneath you. Let's hold the arms out to the side now. Exhale. Down 2. Inhale brings in. So we got a lot going on here, a little bit of inner thigh work, but also a nice inner thigh stretch and a little bit of work through the hips.

This is 4. We bring it in. 5. Bring it in Make sure the standing leg, the knee is pressing open, and you've got the back of the shin pressing into the frame. 7?

Bring it in. Now on 8, we're gonna go down and hold. We pause right here. 5 pulses. Go 1, up and down, 2. And 3, 4, and 5. Bring it all the way in. Now you're gonna put your left leg up on the inside of the shoulder rest.

Right foot is going to go onto the frame. Sometimes it's nice to get a little sticky for that foot. Grab one if you need it. We'll organize the shoulders back and down, and we pull in and move away. Now I want this left leg to stay right underneath the hip. It's real tempting to start to pull with the right leg and leave the left leg. We're not gonna do that.

We take the left leg with us 3 and send it away. 4. Send it away. This is 5. And out this knee is pushing back Think open to the wall behind you.

7. Don't don't don't worry. There's icing on the cake. Here's 8. We hold here.

This doesn't move. Left leg goes out a little. Pull it under you five times to pull it up and under. 3 up and under, 4. Last one. 5.

Hold it. Roll. And get ready for the other side. So we come around. You're gonna bring left leg to about the middle of the frame right foot comes up onto the foot bar, hands go behind the head.

And for this control of your balance, you roll out with an inhale, and then open that knee as you come in. Inhale takes you out too. Exhale. Pulls it in. And 3.

And 4. 5. 6. 7. One more here. Open the knee. 8.

Knee opens behind the shoulder. Take a rest. Alright. The foot on the footbar comes down to the floor. The left knee goes against the shoulder block. We'll open those arms and slide down low.

And bring it up and underneath you. And to bring it under. Really press the right calf back into the frame. 4. Bring it in.

5. And then 6 and then Now on 8, we go down. We hold and we pulse 5, 4, 321. Bring it all the way in. Now right leg goes against the shoulder blocks.

Left foot comes up onto the frame. We'll hold the arms out to the side. And pull under and roll it away. So taking that right knee with you Just think of, like, the right knee sitting right underneath that right sits bone. So not at center line, just straight down.

4, and out. 5. 6. On the 8th one, we pull and hold. Now nothing changes on this left knee.

The right thigh slides out, but slides back under 1. Out. Slide it under 2. Out. 3.

4. And on 5, we hold and roll all Bowway in. Alright. So what a nice series of a combination of, like, opening up and stretching, but working hard and challenging your So I hope you enjoyed that. Let's move on to leg circles and frog, and we'll do a variation I like to call prayer sheet as well. So we're gonna do 2 red springs for this exercise, adjusted home according to what feels right for you. And then go ahead and lay on your back.

Bring your feet into your straps. Pull your heels to your seat and just send those legs out. Alright. Let's start with frog. I want you to think about all of this work that we've done thus far. So as you bend the knees to come in, use the inner thighs to keep the heels squeezed together, but feel a little pressure out with the knees similar to all of those lateral lunches that we just did. So if you're like me, you're already shaking because all of that work has already informed those muscles.

But just really try to think about how can you get more out of this frog than you've ever gotten before because of all of the work that we have done so far. Let's do two more. Now send the legs out and then go into flowing circles. So let's just come back open around and together. So we'll go through 6, but I really want you to honor the moment when the heels touch.

Squeeze those heels. Think about those standing side splits. So don't just let the legs have hazzardly be kind of hanging towards each other. You intentionally squeeze those heels together, making these leg circles more special than they ever been before. Do 2 more.

7 around together. 8 around and together. Raise the feet up over the hips. Start the reverse down. Around and honor that squeeze of the heels at the top each time.

Really make that connection. 3. Around. 4. Around 5.

Let's do 2 more. Last one. Alright. For this prayer feed series, what I want you to try to do is lee bring your feet over your hips first and then try not to let your carriage roll. As you bring the bottoms of your feet together, think open your knees to touch the foot bar and squeeze the heels firmly together. The feet are gonna draw a little circle keeping the feet together go upward, forward, downward, and, and upward forward downward in and the whole time you're doing this, you're squeezing those heels firmly together and thinking little toe to little toe.

Even if you can't get your little toes to touch. 6 around, 7 squeeze. Open the knees. 8 and reverse that. Take it around 1. 2, 3. Keep those little toes you're earning together. 4, 5, 6, 7, and 8.

We're gonna reach up take the feet out of the straps and hook the straps on the poles. Now I'm gonna sit up and change my springs, and we're gonna go into 2 different variations on bottom lift. First variation, I want it to be heavy. So go to the same springs that you used for your footwork. Okay. So a heavy spring, at least 4, if not 5 springs. Beat out to the corners of the bar and let the knees just release open for a second.

Get a little stretch there. And then we're gonna take the knees and thoughtfully reel them in about 3 inches. Let that activate your glutes just a little bit more than they were when you were in that flopped position. And then breathe in. Sustain that connection to the glutes, curve the tailbone up, and let's go to a very high bridge just to find the extreme. So I'm really lifted up on my shoulders.

What I'm gonna try to do now is keep my bottom, this lifted, pull my sternum away from my chin, roll through my back can hit where the bra clasps right on the back of my body. If you don't wear a bra, I bet you know where one goes. Holding here. Those knees press out. The belly pulls in the tail tucks up. You're gonna slide back and take a deep breath in.

Hold at the top. Don't rush this moment. Activate that glute max. And then as you come in, you're gonna pull the abdominals in. You're gonna curve that tailbone up, hit your stopper, and you're gonna hold here for a moment.

Really honoring the lowest point and the highest point every time. We go again. Reach back. Hold. Find that squeeze through the glutes and then come in. Keeping the knees slightly reeled in so you can really access those seat muscles. Take it back. This is only 3. So if you're at, like, 5 or 6, I want you to try to slow down and work on the hold at the bottom and the hold at the top and take it back.

4. Exhale brings it all the way into that stopper. And this is 5. Hold. Bring it in.

Continue for 8. This is 6. Each one gets just a little better than one before it. How can you improve with each repetition Could you engage in your core more? Could you tuck your pelvis up a little more? Could you press those vertebra down into the mat a little more? Last one. Take it up with an inhale. Bring it in.

Hold on that stopper and then slowly roll all the way down. Now let's change it up a little bit. We're gonna change the spring. We're gonna go to just two springs. I'm gonna do a red and a blue, lay on your back, and adjust the position of your legs to parallel. So the knees and the feet are gonna come together.

The arms are reaching long. You're gonna exhale, pull the belly to the back, and raise your hips up into the air. Inhale slides you back. Exhale brings you in, and you're gonna feel the backs of those legs and glutes working. Inhale takes you back.

2 exhale try to close all the way up to that stopper. It's the same position of the back. So we're trying to pull that bra line down, but lift the bum up. Innail takes you back 4. And again, 5. All the way to the stop, it's hard for me to try to get all the way in.

And 6. 2 North. 7. And last one is 8 all the way. Enroll all the way down.

We're gonna come up now and get a much deserved stretch. So we'll do just two of the three variations of front splits. I'm gonna stick with the red and the blue. I'm gonna bring my head rest all the way up and come up to standing on the carriage. From here, let's bring the left foot up onto the foot bar and then just a thoughtful articulation down to put the hands on the bar.

Now from here, I'm just gonna hop my right foot back so that my heel is elevated on the headrest and my toes are right in front of the shoulder rest. I'm gonna find a nice low lunge and just send the carriage back. 1, and bring it all the way in. Inhale sends it back to find the stretch of the springs. Exhale to the stop.

3rd time, send it back and bring it all the way in. Now we're gonna stay on the stopper, but raise the heel up to the shoulder rest and lower the knee down to the mat. Now let's hold right here. I want you to bring your torso as vertical as you can and think to yourself pull my tummy, tuck my tail, and just try to almost get into a posterior tilt, even though it's not really possible. From there, take your upper body bring it over your leg and then send your carriage back with your inhale and then exhale. Come on in. Three times. Inhale.

Send it back. Exhale. Brings it in. Last one. Send it back. Let your arms help you.

Push those springs long and bend to come in. We'll bring the left foot down, come up to standing, and we get ready. For the other side. Right foot comes up. Exhale.

Reach down. Hop the left foot back. Find that nice, low lunge, and send it back and come forward. 2. Stretch feels really good after all that hard work.

And bring it in. Raise your heel up. Lower your knee now. And before you slide back, come as close to the stopper as you can. Think pull up through the tummy.

Tuck the tail. Oh, that's a big stretch. And then Kind of round into it and send the carriage back. Deep stretch. And come in.

Send it back to. Let your arms help you. Bring it in. And on that third one, you go back. Stretch those rings, stretch, and then to come in.

And that cooks you for today. Thank you so much for joining me for lower body blast. I hope you got a great workout, and I'll see you next time. Thanks so much for joining me for that lower body blast workout. Day 4 is small ball, big results.

Get ready for a lot of creativity and a lot of fun. I'll see you next time.