Glute and Adductor Strong

Hello, everybody. Tracy Mallett here. Excited as always to be back on Pilates anytime. At every time I come, the sun comes out. Maybe that's a really good omen.

Look at that beautiful sun behind me. Wow. We've got a great workout lined up for you today, and it's all about the lower body, the lower body. So don't worry. We're still working at core. This is Pilates, but it will be all focused around the lower body. So to start with, we're gonna warm up.

So we're gonna get down, and you can see I'm with my favorite reformer, the balance body, allegro a 2. So I'm very excited today. I get to teach on it for the first time on flies anytime, so excited. Alright. We're gonna get, make sure this bar, we're gonna lift fire up and bring the bar down, and we're gonna start with let's start with one red and one blue. That's one and a half springs. And we're gonna have that head rest down, and we're gonna get down onto our reformer.

Pop your feet down onto your platform, and let's roll down. There we go. So make sure your shoulders are not too jammed up against your, shoulder rests here. So you got like a little gap. Reach your hands out.

Now let's try and get our head nice and neutral. And we're gonna look up to the sky so you've got that natural spine I'm gonna reach that hands down towards our feet. Now from here, we're gonna do a little pelvic tilt drawing the belly button to the pubic bone. On the exhale, and then we inhale come back to neutral. Let's try that again.

Exhale pelvic tilt. And we are breathing just because you don't hear me breathing, I should be breathing, but I'm talking at the same time. So we exhale. Inhale back, think of sliding your sit bones underneath you and feeling that lower abs. Now we're gonna continue our journey.

We start with the pelvic tilts. We continue that journey. We roll all the way up into our bridge. And then we cool back down again. Think of each vertebra going down onto the mat 1 by 1.

It's kinda like a string of pearls. Breathing space between each of the pearl. Inhale, exhale, scoop, send the sit bones underneath you, curl all the way up into that bridge. Now press your pubic bone up, press your feet into the platform in our position Feel your back body, feel your posterior working, and then rolling down. Let's just do two more.

Remember we have to warm up the spine, spinal articulation, getting ready to work, the lower body, but the core is always integrated into every movement we do. Let's do one more. Curl all the way up into your bridge position. Hold it here. We do a little pelvic tilts. Just to awaken that back body, the hamstrings and glutes.

Trust me. We are going to be working those hamstrings and glutes. So don't think these muscles are not going to be worked just to give you a little warning before the workout. We can do 4 more of these, 4, and 3, and 2, hold it there. Let's see if we can float the hands up, see your wrists over your shoulders. There we go. Hold it there.

Back to pelvic tilt. 4 more here, 43, and 2, and 1, hold it there. Now slowly curl down your upper spine, the middle of your spine between your shoulder blades. Now in that pelvic tilt and the arms press down. Bring your feet together so you're in the size of connected. We're going back up into your bridge.

Now we're gonna start working those hamstrings. Lift that right leg up. We're gonna push away, bring it back, push away, bring it back. So it's a little push away and back. Think of the heel moving towards the sit bone, And we push out and in. Okay. Can we do four more? Oh, I feel those hamstrings.

And three, And 2. And one, hold it there. Drop your seat down and pick it right back up again. Drop your seat down, pick you back up again, down and up, 7, 6, 5, try and keep that carriage as still as you can. That's the hard part.

3, 2, And one more, hold it, curl down, grab that leg, pull into it there. So you stretch, reach the opposite leg and draw the elbows in. We press press switch. Press press. Switch. Now think of elongating those legs away from the center of your body, that long length. And you're drawing using your upper body to pull the leg towards your chest.

Use it. Use the upper body. Just stretch out those legs, warming up those legs, and let's do 4 more. Are we ready? We go. Duh. Duh. Dah, dah, dah, dah, chair position, drop the feet down, head comes down, pop the feet together. Palfic bridge.

Curl all the way up. Press the pubic bone up and press the heels down in our position so you got that opposition working. Feel those hamstrings. Feel your glutes. This time, lift the opposite leg up, reach the toes up to the sky, and hold it there.

We're gonna push out and in. Oh, there we go. Those hamstrings. It usually start to cramp a little bit because they're kind of just getting used to being worked. It is normal. And in and out.

Woo hoo. Think of the heel drawing to the sit bone. Can we do 4 more? Absolutely. 4, 3, 2, and one more bring the carriage in, so close that carriage.

We got it there. Sit the butt down and bring you back up again. Sit down and bring you back up again. There we go. Keep the carriage as still as you can.

We're closing that carriage off. There we go, and we work in that opposite leg. Alright. Let's do 4 more. 432 One, hold it there. Amazing.

Drop the leg down if we can, and roll down, roll down, roll down. And just bring the knees into your chest, a little bit of a hug here, and we are ready to go. So from here, we're gonna slowly turn over to the side. Now we're gonna start with we're gonna grab a mat so everybody make sure you've got a mat here because we're gonna do some kneeling adduct to moves. I'm gonna be working with some arm weights, which are optional, of course, But if you like me, I like to work everything together and I'm gonna work out upper body at the same time.

Now I'm gonna go for a yellow spring because I have one. So a blue spring or a yellow spring, the lightest spring that you have, and we're gonna work those adductors in a thighs. So I'm gonna put my knees there and my other knee right at the edge nice and tall. And we're gonna open and close. Now, obviously, for those that are super duper strong, there's always that no spring. I am not on a no spring.

Just to clarify there, I'm on a yellow spring. Now I'm doing my sliding splits. The work is here is the adductors. Your pelvic floor is lifting up. Now I'm gonna add the arms.

Here we go. So we can work those shoulders. What I love about this exercise is that it's closer to the ground, It's not quite as intense as a standing version, but it just means we do a little extra reps. We add the arm weights, and we get some arm work. And let's do 4 more.

3, 2. Now hold it out. Hold it out. We go in and down, in and out, in and out. So we're holding it right in that little section there that you can feel the burn. Fantastic. Let's do 5 more.

5. 4, 3, 2, 1, bring it in, elbows facing forwards, palms facing in. We go out. And and out. It's kind of like a little sexy move here. I always feel like I'm doing the Jane Fonder move here.

Right? I'm channeling Jane Funder right now. We go in and out. Don't worry. This is your warm up for you in the thighs because wait till you see what's coming up next, and it all builds so nicely on top of each other for pure toning of those legs. Now we got those arms going. Keep going. How are we guys doing? We're doing amazing. Good. Let's do 4 more for 3.

Woo. 2. And one more. Now bring the hands in. Now we're gonna sit down, punch, sit down, punch.

So now I'm incorporating the quads Woo hoo. Pinch out and in. Out and in. Amazing. My focus here is my inner thighs. Obviously, you can always make this a little challenging for your glutes. You can the weight, and then you would take the focus into the glute.

4 more, 4, but right now is adductors. 3, 2. Give me one more for good luck, and then bring it back. Amazing. From here, we're gonna step forward, and we're gonna bring it now onto here. So now more adduct to work.

So we're gonna get onto your carriage inside leg forwards against the shoulder rest. The other leg is externally rotated If you don't feel comfortable here, you can place it on the floor. Now what I'm gonna do is bring the carriage and it's gonna hit somewhat close to that stabilizing leg. So what is working my adductor? Now if this feels uncomfortable, or you feel your balance, just take your foot down.

You got it. So find where you wanna be. Let's go together. Now we're gonna add the arms, optional arms, circle up, circle down. Circle up. Circle down.

Oh, you feel see my heart rate is going up. I told you. We always start calm, or do they all say the calm before the storm, and then up, and then down? Are we breathing? XL draw in. Feel those inner thighs and the arms You've got 2 more here.

Beautiful circle. Alright. One more for good luck. And then bring it back. Now this time, put the hand on the hip. We put the hand here.

We go. Overhead, cross, overhead, cross, overhead cross. So now you're incorporating your obliques here, overhead cross, da da da, cross to more and across last time, and across bring it back, step that foot down, woo. I don't know about you. My legs feel a little yellow. Guess what? We get to do that on the other side. Aren't we lucky?

So let's turns. I know you get to see my booty now. We're gonna get up onto the top here. Okay. Put your other foot. Now gonna make sure your knees close to the edge here. Alrighty. We open and close.

So we first are going for your shoulders here. Now remember, we need to do both sides. Our body is not symmetrical. Our goal with Pilates is to work on an a our asymmetries of our body to make the body strong as a whole So when I say this is about lower body, it really isn't. It's really with Pilates, it's always going to be your total body with a little focus with that lower body.

Okay. 4 more. 4. 3. Two more. Now this time, hold it out. Press out.

And if you want to add, absolutely. Add those arms. Woo hoo a little bit more burn with the shoulders. There we go. Are we feeling it now? Absolutely. Let's do 6 more, everybody.

Palms down. Draw the shoulders away from your ears, connect to your apps, your mind is connecting to your core, Couple more. One more and bring it back. Oh, alright. Set your hips back here.

Albows kind of close to your body. Now we press, thrust the hips up, and then we come back down. There we go. And down. Up and down.

And back. Press out so your hands are in line with the shoulders. And back. Keep going. Are we breathing?

4 more here. Draw the shoulders away from your ear. Sit the hips back. Your hips are going right to your heels. Alright. Can we do 2 more? Absolutely 2.

And one more. Amazing. Come all the way up. That step gracefully off of your reformer. Alright. We're gonna place our leg, the outside leg against the shoulder rest.

So I'm gonna go all the way and pop that leg out Can you see how I've got that inside leg against the shoulder rest? Remember you can pop your foot down, but before we do anything, Let's just see how we get, remember one side is always gonna be stronger than the other, so you can adjust that front foot to where you need to be. Alright. Let's work those arms now. So we're gonna go in and out. So we circle circle and back. Circle and back.

It's that nice big circle, in front of your torso so in your peripheral view always. Now look where your shoulders are in relationship to your hips. You were stacked. That's it. Duh.

Duh. So you're not quite closing the carriage. Keeping away from the end of your carriage, and we're brewing it all the way in. Feel those in the thighs. Woo hoo.

Let's do 2 more. 1 more, everybody, you have beautiful arms here. Now ready. Albo here. We go over Cross over.

Cross. Over. Cross. Over, elbow, jab across. So it's in that side bend and then jab rotation.

Side bend, jab rotation. Good. Cyben, jab rotation. Can we do 2 more? Pretty intense.

Last time, and jab across. Woo hoo. Be careful. Bring it all the way down. Close the carriage. Step off and step off. Amazing.

Put those lovely weights down. Now we're gonna grab our box. We're gonna play a box long ways here. So see what I've got my box right at the edge here. Gonna keep the bar down. What we're gonna be doing is going forwards on that box. So you wanna sure your box is kind of leveled so you can go forwards into a plank.

Now I'm gonna take it at 1 half spring, so that'll be a blue spring. We're gonna step up onto the platform first and come up so we're standing. This is gonna be working your outer glutes now. So look where that stabilizing foot is, just to start with here, put your hips back, Now feel that motion. It's pushing out and in. Right? Can you see where my foot is right on the edge? You're pushing out so you work in your abductors, your glutes.

Now it's gonna get a lot more challenging because we're gonna be down forwards in a plank. So keep that foot there and a size, scoop through those apps, grab that lovely box in front of you, and come into a quadruped position. Can you see him in that quadruple position? I got my toes against the end of your reformer, and we're gonna push out See you felt light standing, but when you're in a quadrupe position, a half spring is quite adequate. Because now you're holding against gravity, your core is engaged, your upper body's engaged, and we're pushing out and in. Now slightly tilt the pelvis underneath you, your lower abs are working, and we've got 4 more, 4 3, keep steady.

2, your whole body is still accept. You're disassociating at the hip. From here down with dog, stretch it out. Now we go back into our quadru pad, extend the leg back to downward dark. So that's the combo. Ready? We go down, push away in extent quadruped, push away, in, close the carriage, quietly, and extend, bend, push away, Bring it in. Close it gently.

Lift yourself up. Dah. Out in. Two more everybody. Whoo. Out in.

Lift up. This is your last time Make this a good one, out and in, and then lift back up again. Walk your feet back just a tad and walk forward and see if you can get yourself into a plank position, hold your plank position, and just abduct that leg. Reach out to the crown of the head. Imagine you've got that beam going out the crown of your head and your beam, that laser beam, is going straight forwards, and you're pushing out an end, disassociating at that hip, and I was absolutely working super hard. Come on. You got this couple more.

One more. Bend your knees. Walk the hands gracefully back. Slowly put your hands forwards, step back, step back, push back stretch. Now I'm gonna take it down to a lighter spring, but you can keep it at one spring is fine.

We're gonna come down into your plank and push out and in. Now we're gonna add a little push up. 1, push up, reach bring you back. One push up, up, and back. So you're saying, well, this is more upper body. Actually, it's not. It's total body.

Your core is working. Your upper bodies all integrated together. I have a much stronger lower body than my upper body. So I know that we all need to add more upper body strength into our workouts, specifically as we age to keep that muscle mass. 1 more Whoo, and then Boireenghi back downward dog.

Fantastic. Royal yourself all the way up. Great. Oh, gotta be sweat going on there because guess what? We go to the other side. Yes. There's always two sides. Alright. Ready to pick up that box?

And we're gonna go forwards. Remember to align your box up because you're gonna go straight forwards into your quadru pad and your plank work. Alright. So getting back, I'm gonna do your blue spring. A half spring works well. If you're super duper strong and you wanna up your weight, absolutely, but I'm giving you guidance on what I think works for me and for most of you out there.

So put your foot on the stationary side. Alright. First of all, remember what we did the other side? We just did that slider move out and in. Feels really light, but when we're in that quadruple position and plank position, this is quite adequate.

Alright. So see where my foot is when we go down is this gonna be on a toe, just exactly where it is. So scoop those apps, curl down forward flexion, walk forward into your plank, and we're in like a quadruped position. I'm gonna adjust myself so my knees are underneath my hips. I'm gonna start to push out and in. Out and in. Now really important is that head I have a tendency to always drop my head, so I know you have to reach out to that crown of the head.

Your head is a natural extension of your spine. So no dropping of the head, lengthen from your head, to your tailbone, and your spine is in a neutral or your natural spine, and you're tilting slightly tilting that lumbar spine with your core, with your abs. Okay. Let's do two more. One more, and then slowly lift up. Now what we're going to do is go into your quadruped position and push out.

So quadruped, push out, bring it in, close the cabbage gently, push out in, lift, quadruped in. Push out. In. Left. Come on. Think strong. You will be strong. It's all the matter of your mind connecting to your body.

2 more. Listen to me. Keep with me. One more. You have this. One more. And hold it here.

Walk your feet just back just a tad if you can and go into a plank position. Hold it here. I'm just gonna abdook that leg. Watch that head. Oh my gosh. I can see that beautiful blue ocean there. There's my inspiration to live a beautiful life with so thankful every day To wake up, breathe 4 more.

4, no crashing, 3, 2, and 1. Bend your knees. Woke the hands back. Slowly. Slowly.

Take your hands onto the platform, step back gracefully, step back with a control, I'm gonna take it down just a little lighter to your choice. You can stay as you are. Hands on the platform, hands on your moving carriage, Push up position here. Ready. Open it in. So we're keeping stable. Now if you want, we can open Push up, extend, draw the carriage in.

Open, bend, bring the carriage in. Out, down. Ugh, gotta keep that core nice and strong. Reach out to the crown of the head. As you push up, don't drop your head.

2 more. Keep your scapular as still as you can. Last time, Oh, and downward duck. Hold that stretch, everybody. A lot of strength work here.

We're gonna roll ourselves all the way up. Spine, vertebra by by vertebra. How are we all doing? Am I using right? Alright. We're gonna move the box away. So I'm just gonna put the box where it started, which is right here.

Now we're gonna be moving the bar up now. So let's put our bar up. Here we go. Now I am going to be working with 1 red spring because we're gonna be building on the intensity. So let's go for one red spring. Of course, if you wanna always add more, you can. You could add a yellow or add a blue, but let's stick with the red for today.

Now it's a curtsy lunge, and we're gonna stay closer to the ground. So the outside leg is here, and what we're going to do is switch the legs So it kinda going like this. Right? So your inside leg is close to the reformer. We're gonna go diagonally out this lag is gonna go here. So you're in, like, a little courtesy position here.

Can you see that? Now I've got the bar there, which kinda helps for stability, but I know you guys are rock stars, so you can bring your hands to your hips. There we go. Hands to your hips. Now I'm using this as your setup.

Now take the hands behind your head, Now working through the glutes, we're gonna be adding on to this. 4 more here. 43 2, 1, bring it in. Now look, it's like as extended. Bend extends. So now you're working on the stabilizing leg to lift you up. So you gotta really resist the courage because the carriage is pulling you back, but you're resisting it.

That's what makes the exercise challenging you're resisting the spring. Otherwise, it's gonna pull you forward. But you're using your strength of your lower body, your legs to stop that from happening. And, of course, your abs Yes. Woo hoo. 4 more.

4. Breathe. 3. See, I'm shaking. My legs are shaking too. One more, it's all on that resistance right there.

That's where all the work is happening. Can you feel that? Turn around. Perfect position. You're right here. More glute work.

Fantastic prayer position. Push your hands in. There we go. Now we stay in low. We're not bobbing up and down.

Just pushing that leg out. Towers are pointing forwards. And this is for the hands to prayer position because it's just easy to hold it there. Let's do five more. Five.

4, 3, 2, 1. You know what's coming. Exactly what we just did before. Straight leg. Bend.

Who is this? Did you come in? Push out. Who is this? Did you come in? In how push out with power, slow it down with control, push out with power, slow with control. Feel the difference you're working with the resistance of your spring. And hips go back, a little bit higher with the upper body, woo hoo, and squeeze and pull in.

Two more. Oh, one more. Hold it here. You knew I was gonna do it, and I am. Because we can't. We're strong. We're gonna push it out bad. 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. Oh my.

Come back. Nice bent. Hips back. Sit down. Sit up. You didn't think I would let you sit down, did you?

Hold on. You've got 8 more minutes left. And up. Only 8 more minutes. Down. Down.

Form on. Sit down. This is all functional. We should be able to do this with the breeze. If you're doing this workout every day, trust me. He'll do this with a breeze. One more.

Holder here, tilt the pelvis underneath. Is that irrelevant? Oh my gosh. Shicky, Shicky. And we balance in for 5, for 4, for 3, for 2, and for 1. Drop the heels.

And let's walk it forwards. Alright. Guess what? We got the other side to go. So let's move it to the other side. Okay. Alrighty.

So you're in that curtsy position here the only thing I can tell you, which really helps me and my clients, is going diagonally forward, you're externally rotated on that stabilizing leg, put the hands on the hips to start with, maybe even here on the bar and pitch forwards and then push out and in. So it's always good to put your hand on the bar first just so you can make sure you're in the right position. There's no tweaking in your lower back. You got that length. And then when you feel that you're in the right position, then it's time to take away, put your hands on your hips, or we can go a little bit further and place the hands behind the head.

Now my body slightly pitched forwards from the hips but I'm being mindful to keep that distance between my ribs and my hips my torso is stacked and it's stabilized, but I'm disassociating. That means I'm pushing out from my hips my glutes and my hamstrings, but everything else is super stable. That's what makes it challenging. Can we do a couple more? Let's do one more for good luck.

Just one more. We always got the extra one more with me. And then we go all the way up. Whoo. If you wanna push your hand down to start with, you can. Ready. Push away. So resist the carriage in. Push away, bend.

I always like to say this is like a single leg squat. So there's a huge amount of balance. You can put your hand here If that just calms your mind, just a little extra stability goes a long way just to help you feel secure Resist, resist, resist, persist, pitch your body forward, resist as you bring that Springs back. The carriage comes back. Can we do 2 more?

Duh. Who is this? Assist? One more. Where is this? Oh, turn around. Use your little bar here. Alright. Hands in. Pray. Push out and in. Now everybody hinge forwards from your hips.

Prayer position. Be mindful right here. This is stabilizing. This is working. And we're stable right now. This leg is bent, and it's stable.

You're stabilizing leg. Alright. You got 5 more. And then we're gonna do our last one, which is the extend and resisting on the way in. One more lift up, up, up, up, You can put your leg against your reform, which gives you a little bit more stability too. So step back if you want. Go.

Push resist in. Push or resist in. Inhale, exhale as you come up. Inhale. Come up.

Keep that hip down as you come up, that long waist. There we go. Be mindful that you're not hiking that hip. Can we do 2 more? Out resist. Resist one more, and we've got it there. You've gotta do the same.

Push out. I know you all toast right now. One last little bit. Come on. 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, and 1. Oh, and ring you back. And turn around.

How are we feeling? Good. Let's roll down. And then we're gonna roll back up again. Alrighty. We're not gonna go to squats. Don't worry. We're gonna come on to the reformer.

You can have 2 red springs. We're gonna go into some strap work now to work the back body. So let's place our head rest down And let's come down. Okay. Let's grab the straps.

We're gonna pop our feet into the long straps. There we go. And before we start, just a little stretch to those hamstrings, and then we're just gonna pull in. And then come back down. Now from here, you're gonna turn your feet out.

We're just gonna go up and just do some circles. Just some circles just to free out the hips because we're gonna be going into a version of long spine. Which, as you know, it's all about the back body and control through your core. Let's reverse the circles. Just release those hips.

Inhale, exhale. A couple more just feels good to release those hips. Last time. Are we ready? So we're out feet are parallel. We go up to 90 degrees, and we pelve it, tilt, and roll all the way up.

We hold it there. We open our legs. Now I want you to push your feet into the straps. Keep pushing. Keep pushing. Feel those hamstrings. Keep pushing until you can't push anymore, and then your upper body curls down and do a little circle and bring it back together.

Just kinda like the pelvic bridging we did it right at the beginning. Right? So inhale 90, Push your feet into the straps and come up straight up. Open your legs. Now press. Go. Oh, into your hamstrings.

Into your hamstrings. Those legs are shaking. Look, keep going. Now you crawl down. Lot of control here. Let's do that again.

I'm slowing it down. Curl the way up. Open. Press, press, press, press, press, Curl down one more time inhale 90, pelvic tilt, that first pelvic tilt is really important. Open those legs. Press.

Scroll down. And now open the legs. We're reversing it up to 90. Straight up. Close.

You ready? Press out. Press out. Press out. Press out. Those hamstrings are shaking. Upper middle, lower tailbone, circle open, 90 feet in those straps, pelvic tilt, slide the sit bones underneath you as you come up. Lags come together, kind of airplane that magic circle, and then back.

Imagine there's a magic circle in between your legs. That's what I was trying to say. So you feel those adductors as you go up, squeeze imagine you've got that magic circle there and you're squeezing it tight. Reach out, out, out. Curl down. Do we have one more in us? Yes.

We can. 90 degrees. Cur, curl, curl up. Together, progress those legs out. Crawl down and open those legs. Amazing.

There's those hamstrings working super hard. Who's gonna finish off with a little stretch, hold on to your ropes, internally rotate, and just drop that leg down. Bring it back, internally rotate with the other leg, just a little stretch, how you guys feel in, I hope you're feeling worked out, which I'm sure you are. I know I am. Come back to center.

Frog, push the knees out. Take a deep breath in, inhale, and exhale. Grab hold of those straps and place them down onto your reformer here. We're gonna curl to the side And we're gonna sit up nice and tall. We're gonna put your feet, hit with the part, gonna roll all the way up.

Let's roll down. Amazing work you guys today. You definitely feel those legs tomorrow. You were super duper hard, some new things there. In how here, chincher chest, align your smile, Your beautiful smile is always going to be with you.

Remember, use that smile. Like this. Smile. Good job, guys. Thank you for joining me. I hope you had a fun class.

I know I did. I see you back here either on the mat or on the reformer. Take care.