Lengthen & Stretch Reformer

Hello, everyone, Tracy Mallett here with Pilates anytime. This workout is going to be sending around length. Oh, yes. Lens and flexibility and mobility. I feel good, yummy workout. Alrighty.

So enjoy because I know I'm going to enjoy this workout too. We're gonna sit down onto our reformer here. And we're gonna go all the way forward right to the edge. Your sit bones are right at the edge. Gonna sit up nice and tall, shoulders over your hips, we're gonna draw in the abdominals and reach the arms out to the side of your body. Palms are flat. We're gonna rotate to the right side in a spinal twist.

In house center. In house center. Now as you're doing this, think of pressing down and really initiating the lats the arthritis, the obliques, your core, you're rotating from the center of your body, The arms are moving secondary. You rotate in your body, and your arms are just floating with you. Last time, back to center, lift the hands up, palms facing him, which towards our ears, hinge forwards from our hips, in that nice straight spine, and we're gonna start to move with the arms.

So you're just moving at the shoulder joint. You're gonna feel that mid thoracic spying kind of open up right in the middle of your shoulder blades here. Is it shoulder mobility? Thoracic mobility here for 4 for 3, 2, and 1 hinge back up again. Take your hands, clasp your hands, reach the hands up to the sky, bend the elbows.

Now we're gonna be an angel now. We got a halo, So we're drawing a halo over our head, and this is just your shoulders moving. Everything else is staying stable. Of my favorite exercises to do, just to release kind of head, neck, tension, shoulder, mobility, and let's go the other direction. Fantastic exercise to do if you're sitting at the computer, you've been traveling a lot.

As you know, I travel so much that this is one of my go to exercises, and I don't care. I'm on the airplane, and I do it. I'm like, I'm sorry, but I gotta do it. But they were following me, really. And let's go to the other side.

Now we go forwards, side and back. Now we're incorporating the mid section of your body, up and over, flexing extension lateral flexion. Oh, feels so good. Then we're gonna come back to center. We're gonna go to the other side. So we go over the other side.

Maybe we'll go back first and then forwards. Just kinda moving the leasing. Just getting ready. To release some stress and tension that our body hangs on to. And let's just do one more.

And then bring it back to center and release. Give us have a little shake. Alright. So now we're gonna curl down, drawing in the abdominals, sit bones come underneath you, pubic bone to belly button, set yourself up. Those abdominals are tight. Those abs are pulling in.

You're reaching your hands forward. Those abs are working nice and hard there. Pull in. You got that flexion in the lumbar spine. Now we're gonna lift the right hand up, and then the left hand up, maintaining the c curve with the spine that let us see the shape of the spine stays there, and your arms come up. One at a time. Every time the arm comes up, those abs are contracting even more to stabilize.

So it's really important. We keep that same shape of the spine, and let's do one more of each arm. Hold it there. Continue to roll down, float the legs up, hands behind the head, dip the right toe down towards the floor, and then we switch. Excel switch.

Xcel switch. Now keep looking towards your thighs, flexion there. And now we're gonna add a little bit of a rotation. So we rotate to the knee. Rotate to the knee.

Shoulder towards the knee. Super important that it's not the elbow. It's the shoulder. Cross into the obliques, are we breathing 4 more, 4, 3, 2, 1, back to chat position, wrap the hands around, draw the abs in, and we're gonna curl ourselves up using our abs to come up. Good job. Let's sit back.

We're gonna go into 3 reds. If you wanna load it up a little bit more, we're gonna work into your legs. I'm gonna flip my head rest up here. There we go. Feet on the bar, reaching the arms forwards, and we're gonna to push out to work our legs and our core, we exhale push out and in.

Now as we're doing this, focus a little bit more on your midline. In other words, get equal weights over your heels, but a little bit more in the medial part. So your ankle, your knee, and your hip are tracking. Your tailbone is heavier in a neutral position. And you're just pushing out and in. Just start to pump up those legs.

Yeah. Remember your legs have got the largest muscle group here, so we try to get them nice and warm. Alrighty. Let's do a couple more. Now ready. Our little pulses, mid range of motion. 5, 4, 3, 2, all the way out.

Come down, replace the heels with a toast, start to push out and in, and back. Relax the upper body, relax the whole body, except for the legs. Really lengthen the quads away from the kneecap. He'll stay still. Tailbone is heavy.

Kind of get into that meditative trance as we were pushing out and in that nice rhythm. We're breathing. Now ready for our little pulse here. And, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, da, the 5, 4, 3, 2. Now all the way out, hold it there.

Flex the heels underneath the bar. Relevate flex and up. So we're working our calves now stretching and strengthening. Now don't drop the heels carefully control and flex. Imagine your heels are going through quicksand.

You're resisting as we go down a couple more. One more. Lift up and the knees. Now because I'm on 3 reds, I can use this for single legs. So if you feel that you need to drop the way, go and drop a half spring now. Otherwise, continue with me. Reach that right leg up.

We push out. We flex both heels, we point, and then we bring it back down again. So we lift, we flex the energy out through the heels, point, and down. Dada, flex, point, and down. Dada, Flex, you've got 5 more and a 1.

5. 4 more and a 4. And a 3, flex, 2 more, and a 2, flex. Now you got one more. Hold the flex circle. Inhale.

Excel, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale, reverse. Inhale, little whip there, exhale, and now whipping up the leg on exhale. Flex the energy out through the heel, inhale, and a exhale. Point both toes. Bring it down.

Oh, a switch to the other side. Reach that leg out. Show those abs in. Ready. We go up. Flex.

Point bring it down. That's the rhythm. Flex. With control, dada, dada, flex, point, down. Lengthen that leg.

Beautiful. Keep that tailbone heavy. Let's do 5 more and 5. Flex, point, and down. And 4, relax the upper body. 3 more and a 3.

Flex. 2 more and a 2 pulling those out. A little gentle reminder. Dada. Dada. You've got one more than we do our circle, so we hold the heat Flex. Inhale.

Hexale. It's a continuous circle. It doesn't stop. Inhale. Reverse the circle.

Go. Inhale. Hacks out. Inhale. Excel. Inhale.

Add exhale. Point both toes. Bring that leg down. Beautiful. Bring your knees into your chest.

Give yourself a little hug. Go right then left. Now pop your feet down, cross the right leg over your left leg, and move your legs to the right of your reformer as a gentle little stretch. We unwind the legs, other way, and go to the opposite side and kinda look in the opposite direction. And then we come back.

Hold on to your shoulder rest. Roll up. Take it to, 2 red springs now. So I'm taking a one one off. I've got 2 reds, and we're gonna roll that down again.

This time, we're going to be placing our fee in the straps. So everybody's take our foot into the big loops. Alright. We're gonna inhale, come up to a straight, spine here, and you've got your ankle, knees, and hips in one straight line, and we're gonna open a circle around. So we go straight up, open circle around. Straight up. So up to the sky, circle around. So your ankle knee and hips are in one line.

Now we're keeping in a v position. We don't go to parallel. We're keeping that v position. Now reverse the circle. So we go straight back up again, hit that point, press down with the hamstrings, circle around, hit that point, press down with the hamstrings.

So there's always an intent with those circles. It's about hit mobility. But it's also about connecting to the back body of your legs, not just about flexibility, but it's also about connecting to the hamstrings. One more. Holdy here. Diamond position.

Diamond press downs here, so you're in that diamond position. There's your hip joint. You're just moving at the hip joint. Your diamond stays same shape. It doesn't get any bigger.

It doesn't get any smaller. It's stabilized with the inner thighs, and you're just moving at the hip joint. You're pressing down, so you're opening up through the hips, and we're gonna do one more, press down, Open the legs wide. There we go. So you gotta point those toes there. Bend the knees.

Come back up again. So we press down Open wide. Diamond. Bring you back up again. Press down. I've got my hands on my hips.

To keep my pelvis as stable as I can. Kinda gives me a little buyer feedback. And, also, I don't wanna be rocking my pelvis too much. And back from here to as you open your legs, the carriage should be still. The carriage is moving.

Whereas it go down, the carriage is still right there, and now the carriage is moving. Hold it here. Now extend the legs out parallel. So we're in a parallel position. Flip your head rest down. Someone's got their head rest down.

Point your toes. We're gonna bend your knees, you're in that little ball. Lift up onto your shoulder blades. Reach your legs up over your head, but I'm still keeping tension. In the straps.

Now a curl down with the hamstrings pressing down. So it's really important you keep your weight of your arches pressing up to the sky. So bending your knees, connect to your hamstrings, pressing your arches into your loops, reach the legs out. I'm looking towards my feet, and then I'm rolling down one vertebra at a time, spinal articulation, hamstrings pressed down. We're gonna go a little bit more of a brisk pace moving through it, but with control, And moving along, lifting up with control, one more, bend the knees, Up. We go. Hold it there. Hold it.

Put your hands on your hips. And we're gonna lift up so you're nice and tall, feel those hamstrings, and then go back again. Hold on to your hips. Close that carriage. Now initiate with the hamstrings.

Go straight up. It's like a prep for your Jack knife here. And then we come back, close the carriage, hamstrings connect, to your feet as you press up in that straight line, and then one more pretty intense here, close that carriage. You ready? Last time. Lift up. Hold it there. Hold it.

Release. Your hands here. Now we're in our long spine position. We're gonna roll down one vertebra at a time. Through the spine, tailbone hits, and we press out.

Sure. So now this is your long spine. In hell 90, Now curl the pelvis first, press up straight up. Open your legs. Now we're gonna scroll down without the carriage moving. Really focused on spinal articulation.

And then you use your hamstrings to press down, then you close your legs. So we go up to 90 degrees, Keep the tension on the straps, tilt the pelvis, got that first pelvic tilt as you come straight up. Open, curl down. Now we do 2 more, but we're gonna start with a reverse ear legs open. So we go to 90, We curl up. And then at the top, we close, curl down, and then we open.

Let's do one more. Up to 90 degrees. Relax the upper body. Press up. Press up. Press up. Press up.

Squeeze the legs together. Rolling down one vertebra at a time and press down. Grab your straps, kind of your ropes here, and open. So I've got my ropes. Now be mindful here internally rotate that right leg drop it down. So you're in that straddle position. Open back out again.

Internally rotate with that left hip, drop it down, open. So in that kind of a straddle stretch here, a little bit of internal rotation of your hip. There we go. Open out. Legs a wide release. Now slowly bring them together.

Bend your knees into your chest. Take your loops away. Pop your loops down. Beautiful. I'm gonna hold on and roll ourselves up here.

Okay. So let's move it now into some core work with spinal mobility. We're gonna be on a red spring. Let's turn around. The feet elongated nice and long.

Now from here, we're gonna grab our straps. We wrap them around the elbows. Here we go. Class the hands. I'm gonna take it right underneath my ponytail, the bottom. Of my head. Now scoo back. You can have your legs crossed if you want to, or you can be straight out depending on if you have space there.

Now we're gonna price our elbows forwards towards our head, and we're gonna curl. So in that curled position, we're gonna roll down through the spine. And then roll all the way back up. I'm making a letter c, and then I'm opening my arms. Here.

Albows towards your head, initiate with a lumbar spine in that pelvic tilt, rolling down, looking towards my feet, and now drawing in the apps, curling one vertebra at a time, kinda going up and over and then up to a straight spine as you open. Let's try that again. So close the elbows, initiate with a letter c with a spine, making that shape. We're rolling down. I'm still looking at my feet.

Now use your apps as you curl up one vertebra at a time rounding to that upper thoracic spine up and over that little beach ball. And then we open up. Now we're gonna change it just a little bit now. We inhale back in a flat spine. So there's your flat spine. And then we curl, rolling down.

And then we roll up. It's basically mimicking your neck, Paul, on your mat. Lift up, open. So we go back flat spine. I'm just gonna switch legs here if you've got your legs crossed.

Flat spine. Now curl, rolling down, close the elbows, see spine. Now up and over, draw in those apps, and then stack 1 vertebra at a time as we lift up, shoulders stacked over our hips. And, again, we're going back in that beautiful flat spine, neutral spine. Until we can't go any further and and we close the elbows, roll down.

Keep looking at your feet. Now up and over, see curve, scoop out those abs, pull those abs in, up and back. Try and get into the mid thoracic spine. So we round, and we stack one vertebra at a time as we come back up to a seated position, beautiful, and release. From here, we're gonna move a little bit closer now. Hands are forwards. I'm gonna choke it up just a little bit so I've got shorter straps.

Alright. So I'm looking forwards. We're gonna roll down. So in that pelvic roll down here, exhale rolling back up again. So it's just you roll up. Obviously, the spring is helping you and assisting you here.

Rolling down, rolling up, one more, rolling down, holding here, bring your right knee up, your left knee up, and hold it. We're just gonna reach the legs out and in, just testing the ground, inhale out, Excel in, inhale out, exhale in a couple more, inhale out, lengthen those legs, Excel in one more, inhale lengthen those legs, exhale in, float the right leg down, float the left leg down, initiate, pinch your chest, roll yourself up, use your core slowly, keep your arms straight, to roll back up again, finish off shoulders over hips. Beautiful. Now put your straps down We're gonna hinge back. Open your feet. Flex your feet. So your hips are back. Make sure you're not too far back.

You're right on the edge. Now I'm keeping it at a red spin. If you wanna load it up a little bit, I might add a yellow one just to give it a little bit more a little bit more as we would say, a little bit more strength, right hand, left, strap, Now we're going to put our hand on the hip. We're gonna do our unwinds, and it's gonna pull us. Pull us. So I'm gonna choke it up just a little bit more. So hit what does this remind you of? Yeah.

It's the sore, isn't it? So now I'm gonna reach the handout. I mean, my sore And then I'm going to row, comes back, and then I'm gonna reach forwards into a stretch and soul. And, again, row rotation, stretch. Press the energy out through the heels. Let's the spring take you. And again, Rotate. Rotate. Reaching for your foot.

One more. And rotation. Beautiful exercise there. And extension rotation. Check it up.

Just hand on your hip to start with. So we're unwinding here. Now we're gonna go into our row with a rotation and back. Now reach your hand out, and we're gonna reach forwards into that sore. And rotation. Reach towards your foot.

And, again, rotation. So you got strength, and flexibility. Row rotation. I love that row rotation reach. Can you see if you can look to the backhand? Maybe you can increase that rotation a little bit more.

Just a tad more. One more. And rotation back. Beautiful. Put your strap down. Now we're gonna come to the end here.

Flip your bar down. Looking down at my springs, I'm gonna have a a blue spring so you can be a blue or a red. The hands are on the edge. And we're just gonna push forward and resist as we pull back into your cat. So that's your primal move here.

You're reaching out. In that extension, and then resisting the carriage as you come back. So now bring the legs together. We're gonna add an arrow bisque. So reach that right leg.

As we go up, the leg goes up into our best. That's a beautiful stretch. And now resist as we close and bring the leg down to join the other leg. It goes back up again, same leg, looking out into the horizon, and then curling from your lumbar spine, lower abs and back. Keep the leg as parallel as you can.

I know it's easy. I wanna externally rotate it, but it's kinda good to keep it more parallel. One more inhale, look out on the horizon hips of squares as much as you can. Now that curl with the lower abs first. And back. Let's switch with the other leg.

Lanten out. Hips the square. Now, initiate with the lumbar spine first as you curl back. So you're tilting your pelvis underneath. That's your first movement.

Go back again. Look out. Lift that leg up. Curl that as you lower abs as we come back. And, again, push out, draw your shoulder blades down, look out on the heel rising, elongate out, and then curl that lumbar spine, pubic onto belly buttons, we roll up, and we come back, and then finish it off, roll all the way up. Come up onto the top of your reform here when your quadruped position, feet are against your shoulder rests.

Hands are forwards here. Now you can be, once again, a blue or a red. I'm gonna stay on a blue. We're going to push out Curl through the spine and bring the carriage in. And again, push out, but now extend.

Curl pullback, kinda just like what we were doing. Push out and curl back. Now from here. We're gonna hinge forward. So you're in your push up position. Now we're in, like, a Swan position here.

We go back looking forwards and then pressing the carriage forwards and lifting up, lifting up, lifting up, without dumping into the lower back, lifting up through frontal part of your body. Look to where the ceiling meets the sky. Keep the same shape and just move at your shoulder joint. You're gonna work your arms, your back, your core, and lengthening out that mid upper back. Just a few more.

One more in how forts transition into a push up position here, bring your knees underneath the carriage. So let's get ready. You close the carriage here. We're gonna get nice and strong, pull the abdominals in against gravity because we're gonna go into a hover into a plank. So if you feel you need a bit more support, you can always take it up to a red spring.

Okay? Shoulder blades depressed, reach out, So the top of your head, get ready to lift up into your plank position. So first with a hover, hover, Push out. Hold strong. Now you're taking your right leg forwards off the carriage. And you're stretching back.

So you're in a lunge. Got that position. We hold you there. You got your so as hip flexor stretch there. Arms are straight.

Now listen to me carefully. We're gonna turn around towards the reformer. Turn around. And you'll turn that top foot out, lift up. Hold it here hands behind your head.

Bend your knees. Bend your knee in. Push out. Bend both knees in. Push out your adductor here.

Your inner thighs. Push out. Bend the knees. A lot of inner thigh working here. But you got that flexibility of your hips. One more.

Hold it here. Reach the hands forward. And send it out. Put your hands. Be careful. Where you put your hands, just have your hands there just to assist yourself in that adductor stretch, but the tie same time looking out forwards, then look at that beautiful ocean in Santa Barbara. It's definitely inviting today. I just kinda wanna jump into that water.

And then slowly bring it back in. From here, take your hands forward, turn that foot around, back into your starting position, you're in your quadruped Now get ready. Pull in the apps, draw the shoulder blades down. We're gonna be nice and strong. We're gonna get up into our hover. Push out. Hold the plank.

Nice and strong. Reach out through the head all the way down to the heels. Beautiful here. Hold it there. Now we're gonna step the left leg into a lunge to the side of the reformer. And we're gonna press down.

So there's your hip flexor, so our stretch there. Reach out, try and lift up through those abs so we're not going into that lower back. Now listen to me. We turn around and we turn that foot out And we reach the hands behind the head. We bend both knees, and then we push out. And then we bend both knees and push out.

Ambam. There's a gentle push out in that stretch, working the inner thighs, and really opening your hips. Press your heel down. Connect your heel to your hamstring as we come in. Be mindful. You're pressing down.

Keep your balance. Let's do a couple more. As you reach out, think of lengthening up at the same time. Can we do one more? Reach out.

Now from here, Walk the hands for it. And just put your hands anywhere. You feel comfortable here. And see if we can walk out into that stretch. There we go. Reach out for the crown of the head.

Feels so good, working those in the thighs, stretch, and be mindful as we come back. Come back. Put your hands back onto here. Turn around back into your quadruped position here. And from here, we're just gonna reach out into that extension, come back into a neutral position, press the carriage away, send your hips forwards, and you're in, like, a plank position, and we do our tricep dip down and up.

Inhale, exhale up. Inhale, exhale up. 5 more, 5, and 4. And 3, and 2, 1 more, hold strong, draw the knees back in towards your chest, and then bring your feet together and come back into your child's bowels. Slowly bring the couch back round through that upper spine. Oh, it feels nice to round through the spine and roll all the way up. I'm gonna keep the bar down because we're just gonna go to the side here, and we're gonna be in a crisscross position.

I am going to keep it at one blue spring, and we've got our arms to this position here. We're gonna grab the smaller straps. I'm on a lighter spring. Now from here, I'm gonna reach the arm straight up. Now we're gonna go into a side bend as we go over and bring it back to center.

So my arms around it, I'm just going into lateral flexion. Working into the obliques. Your core, your obliques are taking you there, but we're going to side flexion. Keep the rounding of your arms. You're framing your face.

2 more. Last time. Slowly bring the hands around rotation. So we're gonna cross the midline of the body. 4 more here.

2 more. Last time, bring it back to center, release the legs forwards, Left the legs, forwards to here, hold it here, lift the arm straight up, bring it back, lift the arm straight up, scooping through those apps, go straight up, wicking the arms, isometrically, try and keep, your hands kind of in the frontal part of your body here. Last time, not as easy as it looks. One more. And drop it down.

Drop the weight down. Come forward. Roll yourself all the way up. Put your hands down. Bandon extend.

Bandon extend. Keep your head heavy. And then curl yourself all the way up, sit back down onto your reformer, and we're gonna go around to the other side. But which Other leg on the top, depending on what leg you had before, so you'll criss cross the other direction. Always good to work both sides.

Grab the smaller or the longer strap depending on how comfortable you feel and take the arms over your head. So you've got, like, a rounded position here. Your head is in the middle of your arms. We're gonna move away from the rises, and we're gonna go into side flexion. So it's your obliques that are doing the work. Keep your head in the middle of your arms.

And we're going over into side bend. Keep both sit bones on your mat equal amount of distance an equal amount of tension on your sit bones, Your weight is equally distributed. 2 more. Now one more side bend. Just hold it there.

Kind of feels good to feel that stretch. Bring it back up. Take the arms forwards. Now we go across the body. I always like to incorporate a lot of rotational work, So we don't just focus on very linear, flexion, and extension.

Our body needs to work in rotational capacity too. Remember where the work is coming from? It's all in the core. The arms are just running along with it. They're following along, but it all initiates from your call. 2 more times.

And then it's your last time. Make that big rotation, hands in front, right in front of your sternum, reach your legs straight out so your quads are firing. And we go straight up, straight down, straight over your head and down. Keep your hands right in the center of your body. So right in front of your face down towards your sternum, it's a straight line.

So you're isometrically working your shoulders to 3, 2 and one more. Drop it down. Beautiful. Put it down. We're gonna stand forwards to stretch, flex an extension, flex an extension, flex an extension, flex an extension, Drop the head down, curl all the way up, turn around. Beautiful.

Now We're gonna get our box, and we're gonna put a box short ways. So it's gonna grab our box. Make sure it's equal. Now we're gonna put all the springs on or just put enough springs on here to keep it stable. Depending on what reformer you have, but we do need your ankle strap right now.

So find your strap put some resistance on to keep it still, and we're gonna sit up and place your foot in the ankle strap. We're gonna bend the supporting knee. Now to start with, put your hand on your shoulder rest here. Now get your hips square to face me. So this is kinda your start position. Your leg is extended. Right? And you're pulling on the strap, and your foot is gonna stay completely still.

This is not moving. Your lower body is not moving. So find your position first, hand here, Now reach the arm out. Now the other hand is gonna reach and come behind your head. So that's your kind of your start position. We're gonna go up on a diagonal and then back down to that start position, excel up, inhale down.

So you're side bending going into your obliques back in. That's it. We're gonna do about 4 more of these. XL 4. Are we breathing? XL 3.

XHEL 2XHEL 1 back to our stop position, hand down, reach over in that beautiful lateral stretch. Now we're gonna push off with that hand, push off. Sideband into your porter bra here, flex your foot, cross the hand over, and reach. Ready. Lift up. Put the foot down. Side band into that lateral flexion.

Maybe you can look up to the sky. Working through second position here. Cross the hand around if you can or place it on your headrest. One more time, There's your obliques. Stretch.

Back to second position. This time, put your hand down. And go into a stretch. 4, 3, 2, and 1. Come back.

Let's go to the other side. My opinion is, these are the best oblique work you can do. Shortbox. Here's the best oblique work. Put your hand on your headrest, hand up, draw the abs in, hips are square, foot is flexed, underhand joins your head. We go up into side flexion and then back down to start position.

It's XL up. Inhale down. Palm is flat, pressing down to initiate your lats, your serratus, your obliques are lifting you up. Are we breathing? Just a couple more. One more.

Reach the hand down, go into your stretch, Now lift up, up and over. Now through second position, this hand is gonna wrap around. And reach towards the floor. Ready? Lift up with your obliques? Fuck comes down for support. As we go into our side mermaid, hit second position and reach.

And again, obliques, second, foot down, reach back through second position. This time, the hand goes down, maybe to the elbow and we reach over in that stretch. Ah, breathe in that stretch. And from here, we lift ourselves up, and we come back down off the box. Amazing work today, guys.

Gonna finish off with a roll down. Don't we feel really good? In how here, chin to chest, roll down. And then curl and roll all the way up again. Sometimes we just need to go a little bit slower.

A little bit more flexibility, a little mobility goes a long way, and just to reduce our stress levels. We don't always have to keep keep going for gold. Sometimes good to step back, listen to your body, feel your body, feel your rhythm, and this is what this class is all about. Getting back into your body. Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did, and I will see you back here again. Goodbye.