Athletic, Traditional Flow

Hi. I'm Courtney Miller, and I am here with my friend and fellow Pilates Republic instructor Sydney. And we have an athletic style traditional class for you. So you'll know a lot of these moves, but we have an intentional pace and tempo. We'll be using the box but not yet. All you're gonna need to get started is your footwork settings and your footwork springs, and we'll begin today's class in a standing position. So standing on the floor, facing your foot bar, take your hands behind your head, and just kind of feel your alignment.

Push the head into the hands, and align your head directly over your hips and feel energy down through your heels. Now nod your chin towards your chest and begin your standing roll down, rolling one bone at a time, as if you're peeling your spine off of a wall, keep your hands behind your head, and let your head just kind of feel heavy. Take a moment, soften your knees, and shift weight a little bit more forward towards those toes. Exhills, you rebuild your spine. Come all the way up one bone at a time. Stay at the top and find that posture check again.

So so many of us have this forward head posture pushing your head back into your hands as that reminder of that vertical alignment. Let's do that two more times. Nodge your chin. And then just peel down, upper spine, middle, lower, little bit more weight forward. Good. Hold on to the head. Let the weight of the arms kinda pull you down, let gravity do what it does, and then soft knees center your weight over your feet and rebuild lower middle.

And upper, stay at the top one more time, take a big breath in, get really tall, nod your chin to begin, and then exhale peel. Pull the ribs back, pull the abs in, Think about each sex section of the spine moving independently of the one above and below it, and then soft knees centered weight, rebuild, up, up, you go. Awesome. Now this is what the reform work here just gonna help you maintain while you're doing footwork. So let's lie on down. Head is gonna go on to the headrest, feet onto the footbar.

We'll start with Pilates V toes on, heels together toes apart. Remember to keep your hips down. Big breath in to get ready. Big breath out before you move empty and now inhale to press all the way out. Inhale lengthen exhale close ten times.

Inhale lengthen exhale close. Keep your heels squeeze together, inhale lengthen, and then come right back in Sydney. So it feels like it's a continuous movement. Almost like there's no end and no beginning. Footwork is very much like the infinity symbol.

When I do it, I'm thinking just flow and flow. Inhale push, exhale pull. Good hips are staying level, tailbone staying anchored, fronts of the thighs opening one more time, makes 10. Bring the carriage all the way in and change the feet, feet and knees together, toes together. Good. Heels are lifted high. Press all the way out.

10 times inhale to push, exhale to pull. Try to keep those heels lifted. Knees squeeze together. Good. And feel an even amount of tension through the big toes and baby toes as you push ankle stability, quadricep length, hip extensors working to push out, Last two. And one more time. Find that long line.

Bring the carriage all the way in. Stay on your toes and separate your feet as wide as the foot bar allows. Find your second position. Heels stay high. Push all the way out.

Zip up through the thighs and bend your knees to come in. So keeping the heels lifted. When you push the carriage out, there's a sensation of bringing the legs in towards the midline. Now the feet are not drawing in, But that sensation of the upper inner thighs is gonna help you to feel more core as you do this series. That's 3. Finding that long line, both legs straight 2, push evenly into both legs one more time like this all the way out and bring the carriage in.

Let's go to heels on feet separated hip distance. Parallel position, press all the way out. Hip distance isn't that wide. So if you can take a fist and fit it in between your heels, you're right where you need to be. Good. As you press out, keep the toes and the shins relaxed and focus on pushing through the backs of the legs. Press and come in.

Press and come in. Take this time to check-in with your upper body too. Shoulders are wide. Arms are straight. Risks are flat. Maybe even narrowing the arms a little bit. Yeah.

Collar bones open. Good. One more time like this. Bring the carriage in and now drop down to your toes again for tendon stretch or cap phrases, heels lifted high, press out, and hold. Keep the legs straight. Drop the heels under the bar. Lift the heels. Bend your knees to come in.

Next time, we'll do 2. So press all the way out. Drop the heels under lift. Do a second one. Drop the heels under lift.

Bend your knees to come in. Next time, we'll do 3. 3 calf raises, letting that heavy spring load really pull your heels under the bar, finding that length, next time we'll do 4, pressing out, for calf raises. When I do these, I'll tend to put my hand on my abdomen, one under my low back, and just make sure my core is connected. Good. Last time is 5.

Drop and lift. 5. 4. You're going for a maximum range of motion as low as you can go as high as you can. Last two. And one. Good. Change so your heels are on.

If your headrest is up, now's the time to put it down. Let's go up into a bridge position. Hold the hips nice and high. Good. Little reminder, hug the knees in a bit. Remember when we said one fist between the heels for hip distance, will also one fist between the knees.

Take one leg up towards the ceiling for leg circles. So this is not a big movement. The leg is gonna make a small circle coming in towards the midline down and around, hold the up. Do one lower lift with the pelvis down up and then repeat the circle. So in a round hold down and up 3 more. In a round hold drop, and lift 2 more in a round hold, lower the hips, lift 1 more in a round hold down, reverse the circle. So go out around hold dip and lift 4 more.

5 times is our goal. Good. Little coordination. Intentional pace, just working our way through these moves, last two. Nice. This is a flat back hinge when you go down and up. One more time and down up. Bend the knee plays the foot, pause, and reset. Just fine center again. Knees hugging in.

Arms straight. Rigs are closed. Take the opposite leg up. So the flow is a small circle in the ceiling into the midline first, around and hold. Lower the hips.

Lift the hips. Repeat. In a round drop and lift. 3 more. In a round drop and lift. 2 more in a round drop and lift 1 more in a round drop reverse out in and up. There you go. 5 4, that stabilizing leg is staying strong, knee in line with foot 3.

Narrow your elbows and arms. Good. 2. Use that upper body while you're in a bridge. One more time, small circle, lower lift, bend the knee, place the foot down, hips lifted high first. See if you can roll down one bone at a time, upper spine first. Find length, pulling your hips away from your shoulders.

Nice job. Drape your legs over the bar, we have a spring change to do. Lift your arms first on an exhale roll all the way up. So we had a lot of tension on for our footworks. I had 3 springs, and, three and a half, actually. 3 reds in one blue.

So take off 2 red springs. You'll be left with 1 red and 1 blue or whatever you like to do the 100 on. Roll yourself halfway back. Hold your half rollback position. And windmill. 1 arm reaches back, exhale return.

Reach and return. So each machine is gonna be different depending on how the springs work on your machine depending on how new your springs are. So it is important that you try and exercise. If it doesn't feel right, change it up. I want you to find your edge in each move. Remember in Pilates, we're usually doing one set of an exercise. So you wanna find that tension so that you're fatigued.

Do you feel challenged within that move at that time? One more windmill each side? Nicely done, fine center, roll yourself back to the mat, and then bend your elbows reach back behind you and grab your loops. I like to use the short loops for the hundred. Hands in the short loops, arms over the chest extend the legs long. Good.

I'm usually in Pilates V. On an exhale chest comes up. Arms come down. You're in your curls start to pump the arms in healing and exhaling. That's 10. In 2, 3, 4, 5, exhale.

That's 20. In 2, 3, 4, 5, find your turnout. That's 30. In through the nose, fill it up, out through the mouth, let it go. That's 40. In 2, 3, 4, 5, exhale. That's 50. Arms pumping with purpose. That's 60 energy through the toes and through the fingers.

70. Now is your time to fight for and curl up higher 80. That's 90. Open the chest. Press down through the pinky fingers. And that's 100. And you always wanna hold, hold, bend your knees in, drop your head down, and lift your arms up. Next move is overhead.

So if the headrest Made its way up. Put it down. Pull your arms all the way down to the carriage and extend your legs low to the foot bar. Press into the arms as you exhale, roll the legs and hips overhead. Stay here, separate the feet. The width of your carriage, flex your feet, and roll down slowly.

As you roll down, keep those legs straight. Keep the legs low. Just zip them up together. Lift the arms. Pull the arms back to the carriage. Once the arms are down, legs swing up and overhead. Nice.

Separate the feet. Flex the feet. And even if you have the flexibility, you don't have to go too low. Parallel to the ground is a great place to be. Roll your spine down. Good legs together.

Arms go up. Last time like this, big pull down on the exhale. Press into the arms, lift, and scoop. Parallel to the ground is perfect. Separate the legs, flex the feet, and roll yourself back to the mat. One bone at a time, leave your legs low and leave your legs apart with your feet flexed.

Lift your arms up. Here's the reverse. So pull your arms down first. Press into the carriage, lift up. It's challenging to get that lift in this leg position. Draw your legs together. Find your pilates v.

And plantar flex. It means point at the ankles. Now look at your legs, your knees, and find that turnout, and really squeeze the backs of the knees together as you roll down. Straight, straight, straight, and long in the legs. Good. Separate the legs. Next, the feet. Arms go back up. Arms pull down first.

The trick is get those arms down. Hips come up second, zip up the legs together, find the pilates v, roll down as you reach energy through the toes, energy through the hips, energy through the spine, One more time, arms go up, legs of heart feet flexed, pull the arms first, lift the legs, and hips, second, roll all the way up. Squeeze the legs together, point the toes, and then articulate down. You can count the bones in your spine if you want. Take your time. Go ahead, bend your knees in.

Lift your arms up. And hook up your straps. Drape your legs over the foot bar, 3 reformer roll ups, exhale all the way up, and inhale down. So take your time and just reconnect to an intuitive breath. Find the same sensation of complete breathing that you had during the 100, emptying the lungs on the roll up, and filling up on the roll down.

Good. One more time. Do your best to relax your shoulders? You don't need any tension there. Roll all the way up. And you're gonna stay up, swing your legs off to one side. We are reducing our spring tension for our back rowing.

So I'm gonna take the blue off We have one red. Make sure it's right for you at home. Sit onto the carriage facing the back of the machine, legs for the shoulder blocks, unless you have to cross your ankles, I usually like to uncross them, but do what's best for you, reach forward, touch your toes, take a stretch, and then grab a hold of your short loops. Nice, and then roll up sitting nice and tall. So short loops in the hands, beautiful vertical alignment, on an exhale, roll your hips back, and draw the hands towards the chest opening the elbows wide like this. Good.

So think of your fist right below your chin. Elbows up. Now hold the shape. Open your arms out to letter t, palms face back, pinkies are up. 2 things happen. You're gonna push with your arms and dive forward with your head. Keep reaching your arms back behind you as close together as you can.

Now circle your arms up over the shoulders, reach to the toes. It's normal to lose tension, then rebuild the spine into vertical. The whole thing starts again, roll back on an exhale, bring the hands in. Elbows are wide. Open the arms out to a tee, palms are up. Push with your arms, push with the shoulders, dive forward, circle high, up and over.

That's the shoulder mobility we're looking for. Think about the backs of the knuckles coming together in the stretch and then rebuilding the spine to come up. Gorgeous. One more time, roll back. Pull the fist to the chin, open the arms to a tee, push as you dive forward, try to get those arms really close together, circle up and around to the toes, knuckles to knuckles, rebuild the spine. Well done, flat back, turn your palms up.

So use your core to stabilize the spine, lean back as you bend your elbows to a bicep curl. Turn your palms in. Sit tall as you reach your arms up. Find that vertical. Keep that shape as you lean forward, biceps, frame the face. Lean, lean, lean, lean as much as you can.

Now scoop and circle the arms straight down back behind you out to the sides, reach to your toes, knuckles to knuckles like you did before, rebuild the spine, turning the palms up, Two more, lean and bend. Good. Lift and stretch. As one shape lean forward hips pressing back, then round scoop, circle the arms all the way around, reach to your toes, lengthen all the way up. Last time here, bend your elbows into that curl. Lean back. Lift up, sit as tall as you can find the vertical lean a little bit more forward. Yes.

Then continue to lean as one shapes and the hips back. Round the spine, scoop the arms up and around, reach to your toes, take a moment, and rebuild. Well done. That's your back growing series. Hook up your long loops. Come off your reformer to either side.

Long stretches neck. So pop that headrest up. Stand on the floor and face towards your footbar. Hands go on to the foot bar, wide, and shoulder width. Inside foot comes onto the headrest right where it begins to lean.

Outside leg comes to meet it. You're in a plank position. Start with the carriage closed, heels together, toes apart, chest, forward over the bar, then press back as far as you can. Big pushback, And then exhale, bring the chest all the way forward. Awesome. Shoulders of a wrist. Keep coming forward.

Keep coming forward. Right about there. Do it again. Big press all the way out. Do your best to stabilize your ankles. This exercise can be done with your knees down.

If that felt better, you don't lose anything by taking your knees down. And remember, it doesn't have to be all or none. So if you do 2 with the knees up, 2 with the knees down, and play with that combination, you'll build strength in your wrists, in your back, in your arms in your core. Last three like this. Good. Long stretch because you're here for a very long time, or maybe long stretch because your spine and your shape stays really long.

Either way, it doesn't feel like much of a stretch when you're in it. Last two, big push all the way back, chest bone pressing up, legs active, I like to think of this as 50% of the work in my lower body. Last time here, Sydney, big pushback, big pushback, even more. Good. Bring the carriage all the way forward. Shoot the hips up and back for elephant, arabesque. Open the feet wide.

Heels against the shoulder block so you are in your relevant position. Long spine chest towards the thighs, one leg reaches up to the ceiling. Now in arabesque, your hips are rotated. So it's okay to rotate that hip open, and be an external rotation, but try to keep those shoulders pretty square. Your carriage leg pushes back and your carriage leg pulls forward.

We'll do 8 of these. Inhale to push, exhale to pull, stay stable in your upper body. Every time that carriage comes close and the leg comes forward, See if you can lift your arabesque leg higher. Like, you're doing it splits and exhale pull. Good. Drop that shoulder. Keep it square, exhale pull, front splits is next, one more like this, exhale pull. Now swing that arabesque leg through the arms, place the foot onto the foot bar, and don't let go.

Just stay here and settle in. Use your inner thighs to squeeze in. Use your glutes and hips to tuck under. Keep your hands on the bar and try pushing with your front leg, pushing back as far as you can go, and then forward bending the knee. Now this is an awesome place to stay.

If you're looking for more of a balance challenge in your class today, lift the chest, hands behind the head, find the vertical spine, and we'll press back for 6. 6 presses back, keeping the back leg strong is key, heel, into that shoulder block. Good. And then finding your edge wherever that might be, inner thighs squeezing in, hips squeezing under. This is felt deep and low in the core. Last two.

Good work. One more time. Finding something to fixate on helps with your balance. Hands go down. Go back into that arabesque. So kick that leg back, lean the hips back, sweep it up, and then foot can come down.

Let's do the other side. So just settle in for a second, Drop the head, pull the shoulders down. Well, then opposite leg lifts up. Good. And then keep your weight shifted back as the carriage kicks and carriage poles, all with that carriage leg and abdominals. Inhale to push, exhale to pull. So what I was saying before is as you push back, That's the inhale. As you pull forward, exhale, try to lift the leg higher.

So you're focused on really getting that sensation of split. Shoulders are level. Head is in line with spine. Last two like this. Inhale to push.

At hale to pull one more time. Inhale. Keep that leg reaching straight, reaching long, and now sweep the leg through the arms onto the bar arch of the foot comes on. Don't let go. So take a second and settle in. It's always worth building that base and finding that foundation. Keep the hands on to presses back.

Good. Back leg stays strong. Think about pulling your left hip back. If it's your left foot that's forward onto the bar, pull that hip back. If you want to, chest can lift hands behind the head and pressing yourself back 6 times, I think, is a perfect number here. You can add more.

You can delete. Do what feels right for you. It's all about finding kind of that moment. Do enough petitions that you feel like you have absorbed it into your body before moving on. Good. One side is always gonna feel different than the other. You got this. Awesome. One more time.

Press back. Hands go down, sweep it back into the arabesque, big kick, big sweep, lean back, find that standing split sensation, and then both feet can come down, and you're gonna go into flat feet. Let's set up for star. So swivel or turn your toes to one side and walk your hands over to the other side. So we're gonna take our right hand down and reach it to the left ankle, stabilizing arms, right centered on that bar and weight is shifted back.

Drop your head. Find your scoop. Okay. So, this exercise is a little combination of a pike and a side plank. So right now feel the pike hips over hip hips over heels. On an inhale, press the carriage out without leaning forward, push with your legs, reach your top arm up to the ceiling, That is your plank. That's your side plank. So to come back into your pike, you reach the arm under, reach opposite hand to ankle, ribs up, head down, finding your pike again, finding your scoop. And then without leaning forward, use your legs to press out, reach the top arm up to the sky, There is your side plank.

Now that you know it flow, I want you to do 6 more. Exhale to find the twist, reaching down towards the ankle, inhale to open hips are square, shoulders are down, good, exhale. The biggest trick in this exercise in my body is to lean back hips over heels when the carriage closes and to remind myself to find that scoop. Yes. Tons of shoulder stability here, but really a lot of back. Right? So back and shoulder working to hold you up in that side plank.

I believe one more here, inhale big open, and then exhale twist and scoop. Now open to that side plank position and hold Take your hand behind your head again. Again, this is another posture check. Find the alignment. Hold everything steady. Bend your knees.

Carriage comes in. Carriage comes out. Let's do 6. Bigger bent in out. Good. 5. Biggerbend.

4. 3. There it is. 2. One more time. Extend reach your top arm up to the ceiling and go back through that pipe.

To close the carriage, reach down towards your ankle, and stretch. Good. Turn your toes forward. Take a moment to decompress. We're gonna do the same thing on the other side. So turn the toes and feet, walk the hands over to the same side, and then left hand goes down towards right ankle and hold.

Finding that scoop ribs, up, head down, that is your pike position without leaning your chest forward over the bar like we did for long stretch, use your legs, use your abs, press the urge all the way out, find the side plank, reach up to the ceiling, look at it, exhale, thread, scoop, and return. Drop the chin. Pull the rib cage up. Do it again. Inhale lengthen. Good. There's that side plank. X. He'll lean back.

Good. Reaching down towards the opposite ankle. 6 more. Find your flow. Inhaling to open, exhaling to close is generally the direction of breath. You can change it if it works for you. Changing the tension, if you need to, more springs, more support.

Gotta try not to lean forward. Use the back. Push with the legs. Pull with the breath. One more time like this. Inhale lengthen.

Look up, finding that star shape, exhale thread, finding the scoop. This time we press out and we stay out. Good. Remember you want chest over those springs, top hand behind the head, bend the knees in, and kick it out. Let's go. 6. And 5.

Good. 4, push the back of your head into your hand. Find that alignment. 3. That's 2. One more time. 1, reach the arm up to the ceiling. Come back through your pike, reach down, hips go up, and turn the toes forward hands to the bar while done, taking the knees down for a little bit of upper body work. Sit your hips towards your heels, reach back behind you, and grab your loops.

You're still on that red spring. So you may wanna use your long loops if that's an option. You could also change the tension to a blue if this feels too heavy before we begin. Reach your arms forward, turn your palms up, and freeze. So I like to get into my high knee with my arms forward. That way I feel like I'm not gonna fall forward.

There's no surprises. Rise up to your knees, leaving the arms, and press the feet back against the shoulder blocks. Specifically push into those heels. It'll help with stability. Bending your elbows into your sides to start and pause, going right into our full offering.

So reaching arms forward, open arms wide, use the ribs abdominals to close the arms, and then bend the elbows right into your sides, repeat. So it's a forward reach, big open, pinkies and thumbs level, pull it back into center, and bend. Do it two more times. Push and open. And close. Nice breathing. And, Ben, last time, make it a core exercise back and abdominals working as those arms move.

And bend. Reach the arms forward for Oval. So drop the arms. Keep them narrow. Open them just a bit wider than the carriage in and around for palm stay up. 3. 2.

And 1, reverse those ovals down and around. 4. Good. Nice job, stained vertical, 3. 2. Salute is next. Hands behind the head.

Thumbs connect. Keep your vertical alignment of your spine. So come back up to vertical. Just look down at the foot bar and push towards where the ceiling meets the wall in front of you. Yeah. Inhale, bend, exhale. So the spine is still stained vertical. Chin is down. The back of the neck is long.

The hands kinda grazed the back of the neck, exhale push. The upper arm bone is staying really stable. So this is a hinge movement at the elbow, isolating that tricep, keeping the abdominals strong. Let's do 3 more here. Big push out 3. And 2, and one more push, circle the arms around, sit the hips down, and hook up your straps behind you.

Well, then, everybody, coming into tendon stretch. So come off your machine to either side. You can leave the tension that you have on, but I'm just gonna tell you we are gonna do tendon stretch and a single leg version of tendon stretch. So when I do that, I like to add a little bit more. So we are on a red.

I'm gonna put an extra blue on for Sydney. You might wanna add more tension. Try it. See what you like. Sit your hips onto the bar and face forward. So you'll want your feet to be right where the arch of the foot, meets the carriage.

You're not on your toes and you're not on your heels. Keep the carriage closed, hold the footbar with the thumbs on the same side of the fingers, and practice standing up without letting go. Good. Stay here. So this tendon stretch position is similar to the star and thread the needle because you're in a pike. So tuck your chin around your back. Bend your knees and almost sit back down onto the bar, and then exhale push back up three times. 1, just stretch those hamstrings.

Really define that scoop, chin to chest. 2. Now the next time you're up, I want you to stay up. And in this exercise, your arms and legs stay very straight. Start to shift your weight to your heel pushing your hips forward past the bar, just an inch or 2 passes all you need, push through your heels, push through your heels, exhale shift your weight to your toes, bring the carriage in. We're gonna do 5. Inhills, you press out.

Keep the chin tucked. Ex. He'll wait to your toes. 4. So you wanna think heels down. Toes up. 3. Nice.

2. No need to go very far past that bar. And one, bring the carriage all the way in. Okay. Now I want you to widen your feet just a bit, and then take one hand between the legs onto the foot bar. So this is your single leg version. It may or may not be something you wanna do.

Take it out and do the double leg if that's better. The free leg opens out to the side. Good. And the higher you can lift that leg, how the higher you can AB ducted away from your body, the more swing you're gonna get. You ready? Let's do 5. Push the carriage forward, exhale.

Lift the hips up chin to chest. 1. Wait to the heels. Wait to the toes. 2. Keep those arms strong. 3.

Good. 4. You're almost there. One more time. Swing down. Bring it all the way in. Both feet can come down.

Take a second. That was amazing. Switch. So you have your wide stance. The opposite hand is between the leg. So the free leg is ab it out to the side away from the body. The higher you can keep that leg.

So you really wanna fight for it, the more you can swing down. When you're ready, down and up, you go. 1. 2. Good. Keep the chin tucked.

3. This is hard work. 4. Wait to the heels, wait to the toes, and 5 bring the carriage in. Place the foot down. Hands can go down. Take a seat. And take a moment. Amazing.

Come down onto your knees. We're doing back splits. So I still have the head rest up. And just a little reminder, we did add extra tension So we are currently on one red and one blue if you wanna follow along. Place the hands onto the shoulder blocks.

Step 1 foot forward. So the heel of your foot is right where that headrest starts to meet. Now the back leg goes onto the foot bar, but not directly behind the hip. You want the leg externally rotated like Sydney's done. And maybe drop those toes just a little bit.

You wanna place the foot on the corner of the foot bar. So you feel your heel and your toes onto the bar. Press out to a straight leg and pause. I always keep my hands on for a couple. Go into that forward press with your front leg.

If you can straighten the front leg fully great. If it's a smaller range of motion, great. You're building stability and stamina as you go. Okay. Now if you want to, you don't have to. Hands behind the head, chest lifts up, abs are tight.

You're pushing through the heel for 6. Bending the knee back leg staying strong. 5. You want that front hip to pull back. You got it for. Good.

3. That's 2. Well done. That's one. The hands go down to the shoulder blocks. Awesome. Okay. Before we go into the other side, bring the carriage in.

Yep. And then take that back foot and scooch it so it's more centered toes on. Yes. Control front is next. When you're ready, back like straighten, Just pause for a moment. You are gonna go into a plank. I don't want it to be a surprise, so use your upper body to stabilize you.

Step your front foot back, heels together, toes apart, one long line, big push forward with the arms, and then bring the carriage back, kinda like long stretch, flipped around. So the body's staying long, heels are together, toes are apart, push, and pull good work. Last two, Push as much as you can. The beauty about these hard exercises, you don't have to do very many. One more time, big push, and pull. Take a knee down to the carriage. Take the other knee down and take a moment.

We're gonna set it up on the other side. So you've got the opposite foot forward now. Sydney's like, the moment's already done? The moment is fast. Okay. And then your back foot goes onto the foot bar.

Think of where the foot bar kind of makes that ninety degree. I would say slide your foot down a bit. Yeah. So I want toes on and heel onto the bar. Hold onto the shoulder blocks, straighten the back leg, and pause. Your back leg is really important.

Connect into the bar by pushing to your heel. Keep the hands on as you practice the carriage kicks. Good. And, again, you'll notice left and right sides are typically different. It is what it is. If you'd like to, hands behind the head, chest lifts up. Yeah. And then kicking it out for 6.

So that forward foot, that forward leg, pull that hip back a little bit. Almost there. 3. We're gonna do another version of control front. So you're not done too. You got something more adding on.

One more time. Hands go down to the shoulder blocks. Good. Bring the carriage in. Adjust your back foot so your toes are on. Nice. And then when you're ready to be in a plank, step back. Good. Okay. So we're gonna do our our bent elbow variation. So from here, bring your hands under your shoulders.

Good. Push the carriage forward as far as you can pause. Bend your elbows a little bit. Lower your chest. Keep the elbows bent as the carriage comes underneath you. Push up. So push forward.

Bend the elbows a little bit, bring the carriage in, push up. Do it two more times. Big push forward, little bend at the elbows, bring the carriage underneath you push up, One more time, push, bend, pull, press, take a knee down, and rest. That is a tough one for sure. Stay on your knees. I'm gonna reduce this the tension. So, at home, turn around, take one of those springs off.

I'm onto a single red spring for chest expansion. So find the right tension for you, knees against the shoulder blocks. Reach forward. Grab ahold of your ropes, and hold nice and high. If the tension is too light, stability is too big of a of a component here. So you want heavy resistance.

Stay low and practice pulling the arms back a couple of times. Just kinda get into the groove and anticipate that Carriage is gonna move underneath you. Okay. You got it. Brilliant. So rise up onto your knees and pause. Reducing the range of motion here is key.

So on next he'll pull the arms back as far as you think you can stabilize, pause there. Now just let the arms come only forward of the thighs. So still a lot of tension in the ropes. Narrow your hands even more and then pull back again. Yeah. So we are not swinging the arms forward. It's really just about the push back.

Color bones are wide. Knuckles are reaching back. Spine is straight and long. Good. Knuckles point down. You got it.

Big press back. Good. Let's do 3 more here. As the arms push back, can you tighten the front of the abdominals even more? 3. Good. Save vertical.

Stay tall. 2. We're gonna give those arms a break in a second. 1, and sit down and take a break. Hooking up the long loops. Awesome. Come off your machine. Come this way, Sydney.

We have 2 exercises to do next. We have our skater lunges and snake. I'm gonna drop the bar just one setting. This is gonna give Sydney enough room to use the platform, but it also gives her the option to do snake onto the bar versus the platform. So something to consider when you're setting up your machine at home.

Step your, foot closest to the platform onto it, and then step your carriage foot onto the carriage and then find that really narrow stance. Good. Give me a low squat reaching the arms forward. Overhead, big stretch forward with your arms like this. Low squat? Yeah. Now from here, swing your arms back.

Take your hands onto your low back and stack your hands So you want your knuckles to be in line with your spine. That's like a target for your core to pull towards. Then carriage leg is gonna press out ten times. 10 Good. Get even lower, and it's okay to lean forward a little bit here. 9, a, weight into the outer edges of the feet, and 7. 6. Got 5. 4. Nice. 3. 2, one more time like this, fully extending the leg pushing all the way out. 1, rise to come gonna come right back down into it. So sit into your deep squat, reach your arms forward.

This time, we're gonna do something a bit different with the upper body. So open your arms out to a tee, And as that same leg presses rotate away from it, 10. Good. Stabilize that platform leg. 9. 8. We did a lot of upper body. So now it's time to get into that lower body.

7. Good. 6. How you doing on that red spring? 5. Gotta load up those glutes. 4. Wait into the outer edges of the feet.

I know I said it. I'm saying it again because it's often that we go into flat feet here. Last three. Last two. And then one more time, rise all the way up to standing.

Good. There's a third set. So think of this as going to the gym and doing 3 sets of a glute exercise. Reach down. Sorry. Sit down and reach forward. So coming back into the squat here, Sydney, and then taking those arms out to a tee.

As the carriage leg presses out, I want you to rotate and reach down as if you're gonna touch the platform foot and then bring the carriage back in. So almost like a skater, yeah, like a skater lunge variation on the ground. You got it. So these three steps, as you can feel, are increasing in intensity, in challenge, in coordination, in balance, choose what feels right for you, reaching down, lengthening up. Last four. My goal is to make her very excited to do snake. Just like so glad she's not doing any more skater.

Last 2. And one rise out. You did it. Keep your platform foot onto the machine and step your carriage foot off. Stay there. Reach your arms up. Take a moment. Take a break.

Do you like to do snake with your hand on the shoulder block or hand flat? Usually flat. So if she's gonna have her hand flat, I'll pop that headrest back down for her. K? So I want you to forward fold option is to take the inside hand onto the shoulder block if you like that. Otherwise, flat hand sort of wrapping around the shoulder block. Outside hand wraps around the front edge of the carriage. So this position with your outside hand keeps your wrist nice and straight.

When you're ready, you'll be in a pike taking your back leg up, crossing it in front of your of your forward leg, dropping your head, and, hey, this is the same as what we've done before. Do you see the same pike, the same scoop? It keeps coming back over and over again. Use your legs to press the carriage all the way out. Good. Find a long line, and then exhale tuck your chin round your back and scoop to come in. Good. Do it again. Find the long line.

Look forward at the ground. Good. And then tuck your chin, and then bring the carriage all the way in. To intensify, you can add the extension. So press out. Drop the hips. Dip the hips. Lift the chest.

Look back over your left shoulder. Return to the plank first. And then return through the pike. But wait, there's more. If you want it, you can walk your feet up to the foot bar. By lifting your feet higher, you're making more work on your upper body and your abdominals.

Good. You adding that twist. Nice. Come to the plank. 1st. So return to the plank, hips up, then come up through the pike second. Yeah. So you go plank. That's one long line.

Option to add that extension of the spine with the dip and the look, but you gotta come back through the plank before coming back through the pike. 2 more if you can. Strong arms, good, dip, and twist, squeeze your legs together, squeeze your inner thighs, one more time. Big press out. Option to add the dip and twist. Come back into the plank.

Find the pike. Take a knee down. And the other knee comes down. Nice. Okay. Before we do the other side, let's do another version of chest expansion. So kneeling facing back Same set up different variations. Grab a hold of your straps, hold nice and high. Remember, tension is your friend here.

Start with a couple low presses. Yeah. Find synergy between the front and back of the body. So as you pull the arms back, close the ribs. Now let your arms come forward.

Rise up. K. This is a progressive load challenge. So it's like more, more, most. It's not bounce, bounce, bounce. On an exhale, pull your arms back behind you as far as you think you can go, then let the hands come forward just past the thighs.

Good. And now push back an inch hold. That was a big inch. Push back a little bit more. Hold. Push back a third time. Hold. Let your arms come forward just past the hips.

Do it again. So just a small one on the first one. She's like, I learned my lesson, push back an inch, then a little bit more, then most, and then let your arms come forward. And arms really close to your body as you do it. Push 1, push 2, push 3. Let your arms come for 2 more rounds.

1, hold 2, hold 3. You can do this. Drop your shoulders. Focus on your midback. Pull 1, pull 2, pull 3, and rest.

Progressive loading. More and more most. Take a seat. Hook up your straps and come off your machine to the other side so we can do that skater series. Remember to stand on to the platform first before stepping on going to move, even though you've got a lot of tension, always good idea to do that. Go ahead, sit low, reach your arms forward, find that squat position, weight to your heels.

Take the hands back, knuckle over knuckle, knuckles in line with the spine. Relax your abdominals for a moment, and then pull your abdominals in and up. Keep that connection as your carriage leg pushes out. 10. 9. And it's okay to have a little tempo here.

Good. You wanna get the blood pumping. You wanna get the heart working. Shoulders are back. Sitting low. Weight into your heels and weight into the outer edges of your feet. Last 4, last 3.

There's a break between each variation, last 2. Last one, bring it in, rise up. So long break, sit back down, come into that squat position. This time, open your arms up like a t. So stay in that low position.

So you go here. To t. Yeah. And then you're gonna rotate towards the foot bar as you kick the carriage out and in. I want you to work hard to keep your hip over your heel on that stabilizing leg. Good. Rotate and press. That's it. Nice.

Rotate and press. 10 is your goal. At the end of this series, your arms and shoulders should be working too. So they're purposeful. Good.

Last 2. And then there's a small break before we go into the rotation and reach. Nice, Sydney. Rise up to standing. Take a moment. Sit back low into that squat. Reach your arms forward. Open your arms to the tee.

As the carriage presses out, there's a rotation and a reach down to the platform mic and then come on back up. Yeah. You got it. 10 times. 9 So I was saying this reminds me of skater lunch on the floor because there's a movement where you jump laterally to one side, reach down, and then jump ladder to the other side. Reach down. It's kinda reminding me of this. This.

I'm sure you can find it in one of my videos. Last three. Sydney, like, stop talking. 2. And one rise up. The leg's gonna break.

Step the carriage leg back. So we're gonna break down the snake again. So option to have the inside hand high to the block or flat down to the carriage. What feels better for you is the right choice. Other hand wraps around the front edge of the carriage.

Good. The carriage stays closed if you can. As you lift your back leg up, cross it in front, squeeze your inner thighs, drop your head down, chin to chest, pull your ribs up. So you gotta be in that round pike. Now use your legs to press out and just find the plank first. So one long line, tuck your chin first, then come into the pike. Do that one more time.

So plank. Don't start lifting the hips. Start by dropping the head. Round your back. Scoop. Then the hips come up. Good.

Adding that extension, if you want, the hips come down, the chest comes up, you look over the shoulder, return into your plank, and exhale scoop to come up. Press out with your legs plank. Dip twist and look, rotation, extension. Come back to the plank. Come through your pike option to lift the legs.

Totally up to you if you want to. More tension, more work. More balance. Press rotate, plank, find that scoop. Press rotate, center more starting this through the neck and head finishing at the hips. Do one more. Press, drop and twist, Find the plank, tuck the chin, big scoop, and taking the knees down, and taking a break.

Well done. Speaking of breaks, you deserve 1. So add a blue spring on. So you've got one red and one blue and lie down onto your back. We have a feet and strap series. What a nice surprise. Reach back and grab your loops behind you, except if you know me well, you know, there's probably something challenging planned. Feet going the long loops, but before we go there, so that challenging one, let's do some leg circles.

So legs go down, legs go open around and together. Yeah. So just take a moment here. Don't worry about what I'm telling you to do. Just listen to your body. Do what your body is telling you to do.

Connect your breath to movement. Relax what feels tight. So very intuitive movement with hip circles. It's just kind of how your hips and legs are meant to move. Let them do their thing. I always try to keep my tailbone down.

It just gives me more length through my spine and through my hips and hamstrings when I do. Sydney's already reversing. She's totally listening to her body. About 8 in each direction is what I like to do. I think about the legs moving together, and I notice if one leg is moving more than the other, faster than the other, and I try to find this connection between the 2.

How you feeling? You deserve live sir lake circles. Okay. I don't wanna push you too quickly, but we do need to move on to some of the other exercises. So long spine is next. So finish up those leg circles.

Legs are low. Hands are down hide you. We have long spine, and we have got jackknife side to side or back to back, rather. And it's gonna help you teaching. Okay? So these queues that we're doing now. I'll help you with the next one too. Legs go up to the ceiling, find a hamstring stretch, deep in the stretch, deep in the stretch. Good.

Head rest is down, everyone. Right? Cause you're gonna be rolling up. Good. Roll all the way up onto your shoulder blades. Nice. And then from here, what makes us different than short spine is there's no bending of the knees. You're gonna separate your legs about hip distance, find your external rotation. Keep your hips and spine lifted and push your feet into the straps, finding a long, long shape with your body.

When you feel like you can't do this anymore, you roll upper spine, middle spine, lower spine. By the time the booty touches down, the legs are low. Legs come together, and the whole thing starts again. So hand with the hips, legs up, deep in the stretch stretch roll up coming right up onto your shoulder blades. Separate your legs, flex your feet. Push into your arms, not into your head, use your glutes to push, really draw those legs away from you more and more and more and then roll the spine down.

The secret is using the backs of the legs, using those hip extensors, 2 more hinge, deepen the stretch, roll up, Nice. Separate the legs. External rotation will get you more into the glutes. Press, I like pointed toes. Yeah. Press energies for the toes. Open through the front of the hips, more legs, more legs, more legs, and take it down kind of reminds you of magician when you're on the Cadillac, feet in the springs, one more time, hinge at the hips, and then exhale as you roll yourself up.

All the way up. Good. Separate the legs, externally rotate, If you're not sure if your glutes are working, you can bend your elbows and put your hands on your butt and make sure those muscles are engaged. You can support your hips while you learn the exercise. And take it all the way down. Well done. Bend your knees.

Slides your feet out of those loops. You can hook them up, or your assistant can hook them up for you. Jackknife is next, hands down beside you. Flip those legs up and send them long and straight. Very similar exercise.

No help from the straps. Send them nice and low. Here we go. Big exhale roll all the way up. Good. Lakes parallel to the ground. So you wanna get them low? Here.

Good. Now just like you're about to do a deadlift at the gym. So if I was folded forward like this. I'm gonna use my hamstrings and glutes to come up to vertical. So hamstrings and glutes sending those legs straight up to the ceiling. Armstrong. Good. Keep your toes over your nose. Start to roll yourself down slowly, and then exhale. Roll the rest of the way down.

Inhale drop those legs low exhale up and over you go. Legs parallel to the ground. Inhale. Open it up. Start to roll down slowly, upper spine first. I'm gonna let go so you can see I'm not helping her.

It's all her. Exhaling the rest of the way down. Inhale. Do it again. Exhale. Good. Open. Inhale. Use the legs. Use the glutes long, long, long.

Use the arms. Good. One long line. That's jackknife. Keep your toes over your nose, start to roll down through your upper spine, middle spine, lower the legs one more time, swing it up, squeeze the legs together, lift. Good. Try to come as straight as you can.

Lift as high as you can. Good. You keep this. You start to roll up or spine down. You got it. Middle spine down, and legs down. Awesome. You can drape your legs over the bar, make sure your booty doesn't fall off carriage, you're gonna do one reformer roll up, lifting your arms to the sky, and then exhale rolling yourself all the way up.

Awesome. Swing your legs off to one side. Now it's time to grab the box. Placing the box on in long box position. Now When I do breaststroke, this next exercise, breaststroke, I leave it really heavy, like where it is right now or red and a blue. Because I need the assistance from the springs to come into that extension.

Okay. So that's option 1. Sydney's got me to help her. So I'm gonna take off the blue so she's on a single red. If you have any shoulder, things going on, you may want the lighter tension, the red. And you might just not come up as high. Okay. So grab a hold of your loops, and I suggest the short loops. You want the loops to be where your thumb kind of webs And then you hold the hands on the loops and you wrap your hands over the box without getting entangled into the ropes.

So you see how she's not entangled, then come down onto your stomach, Awesome. K. And then chest is just off the box. Bring your arms to 90 degree bends, and then exhale, push your arms forward, and then he'll bend your elbows. This is a great place to stay. You don't have to add anything on here.

So this is gonna really gonna help build shoulder strength. The whole back body is working. If you wanna add the full expression of the exercise, do you want more elbow, Ben, Sydney? Good. Reach your arms forward. Good. I'm gonna weight her legs down. Lift your arms and chest up.

Arms frame the face, circle your arms around, bend your elbows, lower the chest so you're one long line. Do it again. Push forward. So I'm just weighting her legs down. Lift your chest up. Wow. Open your arms out to the sides. Bend your elbows.

And then do it again. So push forward. Good. Lift up. Open the arms around. Bend your elbows one more time. Push forward.

Lift up. Good. Open the arms around. Bend your elbows and rest. Hold on to the box, slide your legs off the same way you got on, and then ease that carriage all the way home. How you doing? K. Sit onto the long box facing the back of your machine, place your feet onto the headrest, and make sure there's a lot of box behind you.

For your series of 5 on the mat, lie down, hug your knees in towards your chest, curl up like a little ball, press your forehead to your knees, Stay in the scoop. No neck tension. Single leg stretch. Let's go. One leg straight. One knee bent in.

Xhills you switch. Switch. Use your arm strength to pull. Pull. Keep the hips heavy. Keep the chest lifted. Pull and pull. We've got 4, 43.

3. That's 22 double leg stretch. Both knees in. Let's go hug, reach, and circle exhale. Inhale to get really big, exhale to get really small. When you hug your knees in, I wanna see your chest come up higher, chest, comes up. Booty stays down.

Ready. Chest comes up. Booty stays down. There you go. Last three. Keep those hips down.

Lift your chest. Good. Last two. One more time, stretch out, hug in and hold behind the knees for scissors, legs go up to the sky, grab one ankle with both hands, drop the other leg, pull poll switch, pull poll switch, 2 polls, one switch, exhale when you pull. When you pull poll, can you lift lift? Can you scoop scoop? Lift, lift. Good.

Use those arms. Reach high towards the ankles. 4. Almost there. 3. You're in the home stretch.

2. Chris cross. Hands behind the head. Bend your knees. 1 leg straight. One knee bent. Exhale is your turn.

Exhale is your turn. So we've got the rotation component in now, rotating through the upper spine, staying heavy in the pelvis, wide in the elbows, use your hands behind your head. Support your neck. 4433 Two, one more move, and then you're done. Come through center.

Legs go up. Feeder flexed as you drop them down. Let's do 5 of these. Good point your toes as you lift them up 5. Stay curled up higher if you can. 4 ribs pulling down towards the hips.

3. Legs are long, or knees are bent, if that feels better on you too. One more time. One, bring it in. Bend your knees rock and roll up seated position, and we'll finish today's class how we started. Seems like a long time ago, but we started with that standing roll down. So feet to the floor, facing front hands behind the head.

Check-in with your posture. Hopefully, it feels better. Inhale to get tall, exhale tuck your chin around your spine. Roll forward. Got a little more weight towards your toes. Enter the hips right over the heels, soft knees, rebuild your spine, come all the way up.

Press your head into your hands, tuck your chin, exhale, roll down, Four corners of the feet, big toe, baby toe, inner heel, outer heel, arches of the feet lifted, soft knees, rebuild the spine. Good one more time. Big inhale to grow tall, nod your chin, Exhale ribs drop. Roll it down. Let your head feel heavy. Let your neck feel released.

Soft knees as you rebuild, come all the way up to standing and voila. Sydney did all the hard exercises for me today, so I didn't have to do me. You did them all at home. Great job. This is a challenging class. Come back to it again.

And again, you will get stronger. Those exercises you don't like, you will begin to love. We'll see you again soon. Bye.