Abs and Arms on the Reformer

Hi. I'm Maria. Today, we're doing all abs and arms. Set up your machine, footbar down, 1 heavy spring, that start facing the back. The hands come onto the frame. The knees go against the shoulder block blocks. Round the back is fully and completely as you can, inhale open the chest, exhale around the back, really pulling the tail under, inhale open the chest, round the back, stay here.

Begin pulling that carriage in and out. We really want you swinging here from the waistline that arms don't do any of this action. Bring the carriage back in option to curl the toes under float the knees up off the machine and same action here. Much harder to keep those knees lifted. And really focusing that you're feeling that pull coming from the center of the body throughout the action.

Feeling abdominals on the way in, but also on the way out. Last time like that, lower the knees down, bring the hands to one side of the frame, slide the legs together. One knee is against one shoulder block and begin pulling in here. And I want you to keep both shoulders out of your ears, both shin bones pressed down. You might even feel a nice stretch here on one side of the back as we work the obliques on the opposite side.

Let's change sides, slide the knees over, change your hands, legs are together, start pulling in here from the waist, Making sure that the head doesn't start to drop, really noticing the work on one side of the trunk here. Last one. And we're gonna turn around and go into some core work. The headrest can be up or down. Add another spring to your machine.

Maybe a light, maybe a medium spring come onto your back. The hands go into the loops, extend the hands to the ceiling, take the legs to the ceiling, and I want you to press into your hand so the carriage is kinda floating. Take the legs to the ceiling. Now your job is to not let your carriage bounce, like, not at all. Inhale. Lower one leg down.

You can take it down as low as you'd like, exhale press the leg back up. Inhale, the other leg goes down and exhale up. And I really want your focus to come to the center of the body and off of the legs. The legs are the load for the core. And exhale up. Make sure the shoulder blades have not moved at all.

An option to begin moving two legs here and exhaling up. Continue moving with me and check-in with the range of motion. So as you lower those legs down, you really wanna make sure that the lower back isn't changing at all. If it is, maybe you don't go quite so low. Oh, you should have a lot of heat happening in the center of the body by now.

Keep the legs up. Stay here without moving the carriage. Reach one hand to a tee. The leg of the same arm that is up begins by going down and up. That was a mouthful. He inhaled down and exhale up.

Your core should be on fire. You have the option here of also going with two legs. It's double the weight. Keep your intention. Keep your focus.

Maybe working a little bit more deeply here with the breath. It's gonna help you Last one. Stay here. The two hands come up. That's your rest. The other arm goes to the side. The carriage hasn't moved at all.

Same hand as leg moves down and up. Recommit yourself. Keep that rib cage closed. Option to go to two legs. Also an option to go to two legs with tabletop. Oh, that's hard too.

Oh my goodness. Keep moving. Last time here. Take the legs up straight. Two hands are here.

Back center. The two legs go down, and they lift and they go up and over to one side. Option to do this also with the knees bent. And up to one side. Inhale down, up to one side. I'm modifying it here.

And up, lower the legs all the way down, repack your loops, sit yourself up, and we're gonna go and face the back. Come to one heavy spring, straddle the machine, cross the ropes. We're going into an arm series. Back yourself up a pretty good amount. Stand yourself up.

You're in a straight line with your back. Exhale pull back into a row in how the arms go forward. Exhale pull control the carriage in. Back and forward pulling from the shoulder blades then to the upper arm. And I like to always have a little pause here.

We're staying deep in your legs. Some of you can try one arm at a time. Now that's pretty beefy tension. So maybe you just do a few, or just stay with those two arms And I want you to feel like you're balancing something on the crown of the head. Last one here From here, pitch forward from the hip, put the ropes down, bring your hands on top of the shoulder blocks, pull the elbows in.

From here, we start pushing the carriage up over the head. The weight is still on the legs. You might stay here moving two arms, It's gonna be much more challenging if you come to one arm. Now we really have load for that arm. Head to tail is in a flat line.

You're deep in your legs. Resist the temptation to lean on that hand. Let's change sides. Now if you're still on two hands, maybe you just begin alternating right and left. That'll also just increase that load just a bit.

We're almost done. Keep the shoulders out of the ears, keep lifting the abdominals even here, bring the carriage in, come down to your knees, uncross your ropes. We're gonna go to a kickback. The feet are off the edge of the carriage, The back is flat. Pull the elbows in by your side, and then press straight out and in.

And then a reminder that your tension here is gonna be controlled by where you're holding on. So if this is too light for you, just choke up a bit on that loop. If it's too heavy, take your hands back. And of course, you can always move yourself a little bit Forward and backward. Yes. You're still doing that tricep.

I was trying to distract you a little bit. Keep the collar bones open. Two more like this, and bring the ropes down, put your head rest down. We're gonna turn and face forward. You have 2 setups to choose from.

1 is seated almost on top of the shoulder blocks. The other one is being all the way up on your knees. The hands are in. We're gonna exhale and press those arms out and in into serve a tray. And, again, you have options.

We haven't changed the spring yet. So the spring is a little heavy. You're still on that heavy spring. So choose wisely wherever you're at, come into a tree hug You can always adjust your position as needed. I want you to keep flowing, though.

We're trying not to take any breaks. This is a short sweet workout. And now we're gonna do a little combo, of course. So we come into serve a tray, and then we do one tree hug. And we serve a tray and one tree hug. Last one Come on in, sit yourself down, repack your loops.

We're gonna bring your foot bar up now. To where it was for footwork or your footwork position at a spring, maybe a light, maybe a medium. Come on to your back. Set yourself up with a little space between your shoulders and your shoulder blocks, legs to tabletop, lift into your traditional hundred position, 100. Hold it there. From here, the knees pull in. You lift the tailbone up.

You take your two legs under the bar. Hold it there. Keep lifting. Pull the legs and lift the tail up over the bar. Come in and lift and under the bar. And then lift over the bar. Keep moving like this.

I'm gonna show a little modification So you could always do just one leg under, one leg over. It's half the weight going down. Last one wherever you're in, pull your knees in, lift your chest up a little higher, higher, higher, higher, and lower down. We're going to a series I call break the bar. Bring your legs to tabletop.

Inhale here. Exhale lift into what I call the ab curl position and stop. Reach one leg under your bar and now push into the bar hard and try to curl higher higher for higher for me. Keep reaching, reaching, reaching. It's harder than it looks and lower everything down. Inhale here. Exhale into your ab curl.

The other leg goes under the bar and now push the bar away. Keep pushing, pushing, pushing, keep reaching through the fingers. Keep trying to lift yourself up and lower down 2 feet down one breath in through the nose, exhale out through the mouth. Adding on to that, legs to tabletop, inhale here, exhale into your ab curl. The shoulder blades make it off the mat. One leg under the bar, push into the bar, the other leg goes up and stop.

Leg circle. We circle that leg around and up. Now it's gonna be small. I don't want your pelvis to change. Keep pushing that bar away.

Option to put the head and shoulders down always. Hold it here, pull the two knees in, lift a little higher, lower down, take a breath in, exhale into your ab curl. Take the opposite leg under the bar. Push it away. Top leg goes up. Always an option to put the head and shoulders down.

Little circle around and up. I'm more interested in the stability of your pelvis right now, and you maintaining contact with that bar, keep pushing it away. Pull the leg in, lift everything up a little higher, higher, higher, and lower. Everything down. Repag your loops.

Bring yourself up. Okay. Let's move on. Put your foot bar down and bring yourself to a pretty light spring, and some of you might go without a spring at all. I'm gonna try that, but I might change my mind. Come to your hands and knees, hands under shoulders, feet against the shoulder blocks, and now find yourself in a nice straight line from the crown of the head to the knees.

Stay here. In help push the carriage out any amount. Go small if you have no spring on. Ex help pull the carriage in. Inhale. Take the carriage out.

It's gonna feel like you're going downhill and exhale. Pull the carriage in. Inhale out, keep the engagement in the legs and in the center of the body and pull in. Last time here, inhale out, Exaled pull in quick child's pose, and I'm gonna add the light spring back on for a bit. Come right back into that modified plank position.

Straight line from the crown of the head to the knees. The elbows open, you lower down and you exhale up. So just a simple modified, what I call a fitness push up. Not trying to do charter on guys. We're not doing yoga, so we don't need that as part of our practice.

This gets more muscle groups involved anyway. Last one, come all the way up. And come into a child's post. Come back to that modified push up. We're gonna try something a little bit harder.

Bend your elbows come down and stop in your down position. From here, push the carriage out and pull the carriage in. So we're pressing the carriage out and in this low level. Do not drop your head. And maybe you do a smaller range of motion, guys.

Last one here, push out pull in, come into child's posts. Step off your machine so that you're facing me pick up the rope closest to you. Come into a big, wrong plie. And the hands come in front of you. Stay right here. And now we twist and we twist.

You might have to play around a little bit with your placement here, going a little bit towards the foot bar or a little bit further back. I really want this to be a trunk exercise. So resist the temptation to pull with the arms. 2 more. Last one Put that rope down, bring your hands to the shoulder blocks.

Step your feet right up to your ledge. Find a plank. Pull one knee in, and then the other. Carriage is still 2, one come down onto the other side for your rotation, come deep into your legs, begin rotating. Make any adjustments that you need with your placement.

Head to tail alignment here. There's a tendency for people to move forward. Also, a tendency for people to move with their arms, keep moving that trunk, for 2. Last time, put your rope down, hands to the shoulder blocks, step up into a full plank. The carriage will adjust out depending on your size.

Squeeze the legs together. One knee in and the other knee in Keep doing that or maybe you just hold the shape. Keep moving if you're moving. Stay still if you're still. Lower your knees down.

Bring yourself into child pose. Take one deep breath into the back of the ribs. One long slow exhale. I'll see the mouth. Oh, and we are done for today.

Thanks so much for joining me.