Building To Overhead

Alright, Luvs. Let's do building to overhead. So if you avoid overhead exercises or you're just not finding them in your body, this class is for you. And don't worry. You can omit anything you're not ready for yet and still have a good time with this. So we're gonna start with footwork. And it'll have 3 to 4 heavy springs on.

Lie onto your back. And I like to after I get my feet set up my foot artist take a moment, and feel what is connecting to my carriage. Make sure the balls are your feet are on the footbar. He'll see other toes apart. And then right here, just notice with 1 of your shoulders, do they rounded up, or do they feel wide? The goal is wide. So you need to take your hands and push them into the carriage and pull the carriage apart with, like, the palm of your hand, That's gonna help get them wide and then push out and pull it in. So we'll do 8 to 10 on our toes. Just trying to warm up and get our legs part of our center. That's really what footwork is.

It's a really nice time to kinda drop into the workout door hap to have. And all the while trying to keep those shoulders wide. And if you feel like they're pushing into the shoulder rest, it's because they are. So you want to actually pull them wide as opposed to up and then stay in, try to lift both feet at the same time onto the arches. If you're always doing 1 at a time, that's gonna affect your ability to do overhead exercises because we need both of our legs to work together simultaneously.

And so try on this next 1. We've got 4 more on our arches. We'll come in on the fourth 1 and we'll bring both legs up ready at the same time. Nailed it. Let's go onto those heels, push out and in. And if you find, wow, I keep doing 1 at a time. It's just a habit.

You just have to remind yourself that you can change it, and you can do 2 at a time. So we'll do 3 more on our heels, really work in those outer hips and inner thighs. And then come back onto the balls of your feet. He'll see other toes apart. Hopefully, he did that with 2 feet at the same time without being reminded. Press it out and let's lower those heels for tendon stretch. And lift them up.

Now I have a tendency to take my time low and then pop up fast. So, we'll we'll practice together reaching under and up the same amount of time. And that is a key because the seat being connected to your seat is why we do this exercise. That's not a calf stretch. It's a foot butt connection, which we need to do overhead, the exercise, and any overhead exercise, any anything where your butt goes over your head. Alright.

Go ahead and sit on up. Get rid of your foot bar. If you know how to do with your feet, you can, but sometimes It's as nice as to sit up. And then take your legs out long. Squeeze them together.

Arms up to the sky. Let's do your hundred. Make sure you have room for your shoulders. And then press your head, chest, maybe lift your legs up and pump your arms. Now as you pump your arms, focus on the width of your collarbone.

So if today you need to take your legs higher up, or all the way down, that's fine if you to focus on the width of your shoulders. Most people can't go overhead because of the width of their shoulders and the strength of their upper back, not tightness in the back, which is a problem, but a lot of times I see people just not having a strength to stand on their upper back. And that's what we're gonna focus on today. So you're breathing. That was a fun little story to get us to 10 cycles of breathing, which is longer than you think.

And since I've never counted to a 100, however, we're gonna feel like that's 10. Lower the legs, lift the arms. Alright. We're skipping overhead for now. Don't don't get mad. It'll come later. We're gonna do it.

We're just gonna warm up and build to it. But I do want you to sit up and If you don't have all your springs on it, add them on and get close to the edge here. Now if this scares you, get on the mat on the floor. Okay? Because we're gonna do a little rolling like a ball. And our goal is can we get some hang time up there? So he'll see other toes apart you'll roll back, lift your hips, and come up.

Alright. So can you get your hips a little higher and hold them up there for a split second longer? Rock back lift lips and up. Here we go. Rock back hold 1, 2. Oh, there we go. And again, why are we doing this? Because if you can hold your hips up overhead for 2 seconds, then you have a fighting chance to do a short spine or an overhead. And if you can't, well, then you can't, and then we don't.

And we work on that instead, right, Alright. Draw while you're setting up, drop 2 springs off for your coordination. Alright. And get your head rest out of the way. Grab those handles. Bring your elbows into your side.

We'll lift your head and chest up. Now squeeze those heels in and see if you can pull your knees in a little bit more. Almost like you're trying to lift your hips up for rolling like a ball. And then press out from there. Open close those legs, bend the knees in as much as you can. Maybe your tailbone lifts and bend your elbows.

So we're just trying to pull our knees in from our center so much that we could probably lift our hips up to prepare us for future booty and the air exercises last 1. So much lower abdominals there. Okay. Let's sit on up. Spin around and on your way around drop a spring off. Okay.

Rowing 1. So it's all find the upper back nice and wide. Hook your thumbs towards each other. Hooks the wrong word. Just point them towards each other. And pull your waist back.

Hold it here. Push those legs down. So the overhead exercise has the thighs up to the sky and working from there. So push your thighs down. Open the arms and then push the arms as wide as you can, round forward, dive in right here. We're in an upside on part 1 of our overhead.

And then lift your arms up wide to the side. Circ them around and roll it up, round it back. So we're just gonna go right into the next 1. I want you to focus on the width of the arms there and then the lift of the ribs when you're rounded over your legs. Doesn't mean that, like, they're physically not touching your body, but energetically, they are reaching up to the sky.

Work your shoulders as wide as you can and then 90 degrees, which is kind of a lie. It's not a 90 degree angle. It's a little bit more. And then lean back. It's like every pillows exercise that's called a stretch, and it's really not.

And then around forward and reach and circle it around, around, around, around, all the way. And again, elbows up. Keep those elbows nice and wide, lean back, flat back. Reach the arms from your back here if you're gonna hear your upper back strength a lot because we need it. It's really hard to do upside on exercises that we have nothing to stand on. So right here, your upper back should be nice and wide, hands standing in your handles, and round forward, lift those ribs to the ceiling.

We're in that upside down part 1 of our overhead right here. Circle. Alright. Hook up your handles. Spin around, we have more rowing to do. Lucky us.

So easier as to sit against your shoulder rest, harder to sit away from them, just a teeny bit. Hook your thumbs so the straps are underneath you. Squeeze your legacy other returns forward. Lower your arms from your upper back. Lift them up, hold it here, get a really nice handstand here, fill your arms connected to your back, and then work your upper back wide to the side, 2 more reach, lower.

If you're filling this in your elbows or your biceps, you are missing the upper back work we need. Take it upside down. So try to find the movement from your upper back. It might not be as big as you want. Flexy ankles round forward from the hip slide those hands out to your ankles and lift it up.

Push the arms up and reach the arms wide to the side. And, again, slide it out reach, lift, push those legs down so you can sit up taller and open 1 more time, round forward reach. Lift. And open. Alright. Chris cross applesauce, flip your hands, shave and hug, just 3 shaves.

Index finger and thumb together, push those feet down and lift those arms up. If your upper back is feeling nice and warm, and fired up. Good job. Switch the cross your leg hug. Reach those arms nice and wide. Don't worry about the fingertips touching here.

You can bring those arms as close as they're still reaching from your back and not from your front because if your shoulders get too tight in the front, my friend, it's hard to get upside down. Alright. Let's hook up our handles, stand 1 spring, and grab your long box for some pull straps. So you'll wanna set yourself up so that your shoulders are at the edge of the box. And then walk your hands up your straps. Now the more we can spend the inner thighs up, the more hamstring inner thigh we get on this exercise, will help us with overhead.

Pull the shoulders on your back and start in a tall back here because that's how overhead starts. Then pull your arms back. If you wanna do the extension here, you can. For me, sometimes a little extension work makes my overhead flexion better. And then again, pull the arms back. You do not have to get into extension, especially if that means losing the length in your lower back. I want you working your center away from gravity and you have feedback from that box to do it. Let's do 1 more.

It's like a laying down chest expansion here. And then slide those arms down, open them wide to the side, and pull the top of your hand up towards the ceiling. So we tend to pull wide and down, And I want you to go wide and up because that makes your upper back stronger and wider and gives you something to stand on. Last 1. Awesome.

Alright. Top off. You're gonna add a second spring, and we're gonna do some back stroke. So I'm gonna do 3 in each direction. If the reverse direction isn't your favorite, by all means, just do the first direction. Alright. You're always allowed to replace something you can't do yet with what you can.

So get your booty at the edge of the box. I promise you We're just doing back strokes, so you won't fall off. And then curl your head and chest up. And that part that curls up here, that's that part you're gonna stand on in a future overhead. So really work that bend lift your arms and legs up. Open circle around and hold. You're in that hundreds positions here wide in your collar bones.

Bend in. Stay curled up and go right into the next 1. So there's no rest. If you wanna take a beat, it's right here when you're floating. And then reverse it. Push out. Stay out. Open lift your chest up into those handles, and that's the hard part.

Can you close the spring and lift your chest higher? 1 more. Awesome. Okay. We're a teaser on up to this side. Drop a spring off, and then I would scoot back just a teeny bit on your box, not too much, and then lie on down. Alright. So here we go.

Take a deep breath in. Pinky side of your hand into the handle. Yes. You're doing teaser. That's what we do here. Squeeze those legs together and roll it on up and hold.

So get your toes in line with your eyes and then just lower the arms and lift the arms. Your goal here to help you with future overhead exercises is can my arms move without changing my center, except for to make it stronger? So can your arms lower without your chest lowering? Can they lift that your chest lowering and then roll it down? You can repeat that on this next 1, or you go back, you roll up, And this is a little mean. I'm not gonna lie. Here you go. Leave your legs where they are. Roll your upper body down.

Part weight. Roll your upper body up. Roll your upper body down part way, roll your upper body up. This is mean. Roll your upper body down. Roll it up. Hold. Smile. It feels better.

Lower it all the way down. And then we have 1 more. Don't let go roll all the way up. Hold it here. Overhead exercises require the legs to go over.

And then up. So lower and lift. As the legs go down, that's when they're going up when we're upside down as the legs go up. That's when they're going overhead. For 3, and 2, and 1. Holy moly. We have to release all that down.

Let's drop off our straps for now. Hop up and add a second spring for hamstring curls. Now don't worry. I'm not gonna let you do the hamstring curls on 2 springs unless you want to. But it's a nice little safety while we set ourselves up. So you're gonna take your straps and you put the loop through the handle So I think you're doing short spine, then you cross the straps. And it'll make sense in a moment if you've never done this while you're doing that.

Put the loops on your feet, not your ankles, and then look at what straps on top, then I move my hips away from that. You point your feet. This is hard, but point them as you flip over. Boom. You made it. And if your strap came off, hit pause where you sat and do it again. Okay? Then we're gonna take a spru I'm taking a spring You are more than welcome to leave 2 springs on.

These springs are heavy, so I'm a 1 springer myself. But we want to do the hamstring work so that we can get our booty overhead. So knees are apart, heels are together, point the feet, lift the knees up, as you push the pubic bone down, and I like to think about my frontal hit points pulling up. This way my lower abs are supporting my lower back. So you'll do 5 or 6 of these. My love hate relationship with the hamstring curls is that I don't like them, but if you don't like some things because you need it, So I tell myself I love it, so I'll do it twice.

Now bring the knees together. Take the hands behind your back if you want this to be harder. Easier as arms down in front. But if you're trying to keep your shoulders wide and you're on 1 spring, put your hands behind your back and layer them, and squeeze those knees together. So it's kinda like a double a kick. Right? So the knees are up. The pubic bone is down.

Hit points are trying to levitate. Doesn't mean they're not touching the box. Just means that they're not trying to push into it. And this glute hamstring connection is how your butt gets in the air. I promise you your hip flexors don't do it a very good job doing that.

Now shake those off and come up. Let's stay on 1 spring I could have made you transition. If you lower it, you can do it, but sometimes it's nice to stand up, let those hamstrings have a moment, and then straddle your box. Okay. If you don't like horseback, you can replace it with teaser. You're welcome. Flex your ankles and squeeze a box of parallel legs. Now everyone's gonna do horseback.

I know it. So I'm gonna squeeze this box, and then it's the longest round shape, but point the toes reach the arms forward and circle the pinky side of the hand up. So why are we doing this if we're trying to get our butt in the air? Because In horseback, you try to get your butt in the air, but without sacrificing the lift of the legs. So squeeze that box like crazy, point the toes use your inner thighs and the lift of your center to maybe get a little air, and it doesn't have to be a lot. You don't have to actually see it physically, but if you feel lighter on your box, you are.

3 sets of 3 Awesome. Alright. Let's get rid of our handles, get rid of our box, and we're gonna go into our long stretch series. So head rest up. Use a sticky pad on your headrest if you're wondering why you do that. It's just so that your head doesn't go back where your feet were. Kinda clever, isn't it? Then add a second spring.

Place 1 hand and the other. Place 1 foot. And then do yourself a favor. If you wanna go overhead, you to, without putting your knees down, lift up into a plank. So pull this foot bar apart, put the heels over the balls of your feet, and push out. And bring it in.

Close your spring all the way and reach. So you're using your legs to move this carrot So it might not go as far as you think it should, but instead, it's just going as far as your legs can do it. And your shoulders getting nice and wide. Lower the knees down, bring the feet into the shoulder rest. Go ahead and sit back if you need to to get your toes, all press. You want a full flat foot on there pushing against for down stretch. So that hello, hamstrings.

We're working the back of our leg. You're opening the front of your hip without hanging in your lower back. And if all you wanna do is hold the end here and pull this foot bar apart, to work a broad upper back. That's gonna get you into overhead. I promise.

Close your springs. We'll do 2 more pushing with the back of the leg and then pulling the heart up to close the spring last 1. Alright. Up stretch, which is really an upside on overhead. So You lift your center, slide your heels down halfway, and then take half the weight in your arms with your ribs lifting, push your legs out, and then pull this all the way in. So sometimes you wanna snap your hips into a long stretch. I wouldn't do that.

Push your legs out as far as your legs can push, and you're still on a round back here. And so, really, it's an upside down 100, but it's also a really good upside on overhead, jackknife, 1 more time. I actually really love overhead. Like, truly love it. It's 1 of my favorites. Bring the heels down. I think it's so fun to get your heels.

And then lift your toes. I'm a little strange. I know. Push your heels back and lift your ribs. So right here with your, elephant, It's tempting to lock the elbows out. So soften the elbows for a second.

Drop the head. Pull the footbar apart without bending your elbows and, like, looking like a little bit of a bulldog in the front. Dig the heels more and then push. Alright. Because elephant is so easy to cheat on and yet it has the things we need for so many exercises. Alright. Now take 1 knee into your chest 3 times with the other leg.

Pushing out and in and then send that 1 leg out for a single leg elephant 3 more times pushed out and in. Set it down, and other leg knee into the chest and reach. So the knee of the chest helps you stay round, and then the leg out makes you use your hamstring and glute to support this leg in the air and is preparing you for future overheads. You're welcome. Alright. We are gonna do long back stretch. I know. It's not my favorite either. Here we go. He'll heal.

Hand. Hand. And pull the foot bar apart. So if you just wanna hold this here, you can because it's more important to me that your shoulders are wider you could stand on them. You doing the exercise. So we're either gonna hold or bend the elbows with wide shoulders, push the legs out, and then bring it in. 2 more times, the stir again, you can just be holding and pulling your foot bar apart and showing off your broad strong upper back.

Because we need it. Last 1. Awesome. Step down. Move your sticky pad down.

And we'll do a little stomach massage. You can go back to what you had for your footwork. So 3 or 4 springs on and then have a seat. Awesome. Okay. Balls of the feet on.

Heels up, hands in. Push the legs out and hold it off for this first 1 right here. So in this round, if we were to flip you upside on your shoulders, you're in the first part of overhead. So you should feel your legs working, lower lift the heels, and then bend the knees. Press out lower lift. When you bend, work that bend in because right here, this is upside down short short spine.

Right, push out. How fun is that? So maybe you'll like your stomach massage a little more. Maybe. Alright. Take your arms back. Reach your chest up.

If you feel like you're resting in your wrists or your elbows, you're locked out, then you are. So move your hands more to the side. Otherwise, when you get those armpits up and a nice wide upper back, for this, you're on 3 springs. You could be on 2 as well. I wouldn't do it on 4 or 1. Let's do 2 more with this nice broad chest here.

Awesome. Then you're gonna come in and everyone's favorite to cheat on is tendon stretch. And I like this 1 for prepping for an overhead workout because truly you need it. So we're on 2 sprints, hands on the foot bar, pulling it wide heels or off, and then your shoulders wide as possible. So pull that foot bar apart as you push the legs through and then lift the ribs up. So as you close the spring, it's the same thing you need in your center to lift your legs up to the sky for overhead.

It is. So try not to push with your arms because your arms are only doing something else in your overhead exercise, so you need to focus on your center closing your spring. Last 1. Whoo. Awesome. Alright, love.

Short's mine. So Shorts fine is a great lead in to overhead. You'll do it first in your practice. You're gonna shorten your straps. Short spine, short straps. So headrest needs to be down for all overhead exercises.

Please make sure it is. And then you put your handle over the loop your straps should be pretty short, and then you're on 2 heavy springs. Now it's tempting to let the equipment lift you. But if you did rolling like a ball with me and you're able to get your hips up, you can do this yourself. So you take your straps overhead lift your hips up and put your feet into the straps. And then bring your heels together, arms down by your side. Now if you need to pull the carriage apart, get those shoulders wide, you can push your legs out.

And then here we go. We're gonna lift the hips first. Just a little bit. And then the legs reach into the strap, and we go overhead. Then you bend your knees in to your shoulder blocks. Hello, stomach massage.

And coordination and then press it out. See how we've done all of these moves already in different positions. So that you can stand in the back of your legs and then roll it down. So there's 2 dismounts in the short spine. There is the hamstring curl 1.

We'll do that together. You go up overhead. Your hips stay up. You bend your knees, and then you leave your feet over your eyes. They will try to go behind you. Roll the hips down and then hamstring curl, or there is 1 that I really like which you bend in.

And if you're trying to strengthen your hamstrings, you stay in the shape and you use your stomach to roll it all the way down. So on this last 1, you choose the dismount that's right for your practice today. If you need to strengthen your hamstrings, keep the legs bent. If you need to stretch them straighten them out. Awesome. Okay. Let's take these off of our feet and hook up your handles.

We're gonna come up for chest expansion. So we're on 2 springs. And knees are into the shoulder rest. So the overhead exercise require a ton of upper back strength. So here you go. Show it off. Pull those arms back as far as you can with straight wrists and straight elbows.

Look both ways. And if you did this little pull kick thing, that's cheating. So so straight arms, pull it back, and look both ways. And it's not that you do it on purpose, by the way. That's a just like a little cheat that our bodies do because they're like, oh, I can do it this way. So straight arm, straight wrist, pull the arms back. Alright. You can stick with that because we're gonna do more chest expansion with the thigh stretch.

So if you need that, do that. Otherwise, you add a third spring. You walk your hands up a little bit more, not too much, because guess what? We'll do it's an archival 5 stretch. You pull the arms back chest expansion and then you 5 stretch with the chest expansion and then you come up in this chest expansion and then you reach arms forward. Ready. Here we go. So chest expansion, broad chest, thigh stretch, nice open hips.

Pull the arms back as you lift the hips up and reach the arms forward. Woah. 2 more. Pull. Thigh stretch. Reach it up. Arms forward. Overheads gonna feel so easy after this.

Pull those arms back. Thigh stretch. Lift it up. Whoo. Awesome.

Take a moment. Put those handles into the well. Okay. We're gonna do a little bit of fun overhead stuff to kind of connect all these see dots together. So if this look weird on our farmer, it's because you don't normally do jackknife here. But we're gonna do 2 springs.

Have your handles at your pegs, if you can because we're gonna we're gonna go into overhead soon. If that bothers you, it's in the way, then toss them. We can always get up and grab them. Your headrest needs to be down whenever you're doing the overhead stuff. And you're gonna hold around your shoulder rest, or you can hold underneath your carriage if there's no pegs there. Okay? So first, we're gonna do the matte jackknife.

If you wanna start with the legs up, I'll do my first 1 from there, and then we'll do I'll do it with my legs down. So elbows are wide if you're holding the shoulder rest. Nice little shave position there. Lift the hips to take the legs over. Oh, hello, rowing and everything we've done. Then lift the back of the legs up to your jackknife and then leave the toes over the eyes to roll it down.

Stretch the legs away. And again, over up. So do you feel how the back of the legs lift the legs? We did that in our teaser. We did all those hamstring curls, last 1 like this, and then toes over the eyes to stretch the back.

Cork screw. If you wanna do it with the hips down, you can, but this is overhead. So I am gonna start it up, roll part way down, and then take the legs to the side around to the other side and up and over. So the hips lift not from the lower back, but from your legs connected to your center and that hamstring blue connection, last 1. And then roll the hips down. Tiktok.

Lake. So the left, you look to the right. Think of this as like a nice little, like, rinse. Legs with the right, you look to the left. 2 more times each side. And you're trying not to let your legs get away from you. I'm not gonna lie.

It's kinda hard because you can't see what they're doing, so you try. Now we waited for overhead to be at the end, so I know we're of order, but it should feel quite successful. If it doesn't, don't get mad at yourself. It just might take time. So I'll show you easier for overhead legs up. Arms can come down like a chest expansion.

You can lift the hips overhead, lower the hips down, lift the arms. If you're new to overhead, this is your overhead. K? If you have been doing overhead, but you were just like, how do I do it better? Then this class is for you as well.

The legs are down. Ready. Here we go. The arms press. The hips go over up and then roll the hips down. And I really mean that rhythm. Okay? So here we go over up. Whoo. And then roll it down.

That rhythm is trying to almost throw you out of those connections. And every day is kind of a new day for me on this. So, like, today I can feel it's a little hard for you to get my toes over my eyes, but some days I can't even get this high. So I'm celebrating how high I can get. We're gonna do 1 more because doesn't it feel so good? There we go.

And roll it down, stretch those legs, lift those arms, hook up your handles, headrest goes up, you're not gonna love me totally, but I have to do it too. I'm gonna stay on these 2 springs. I'm gonna do a quick little knee stretch just rinse it out. So have yourself up onto your knees, feet into your shoulders, round your spine, strong upper back, 5 rounds. If you wanna do more, you can, especially if you know you're skipping the knees off and then reverse the curve. And 5 flat back. Roarla arch is in the upper back. Actually, it's arch back. And then round your back, lift your knees at the same time. And then see how far you can go with your overhead legs at broad upper back you just created.

And then add your spring. She have 3 to 4 springs running. Here we go. Line onto your back. Arms down by your side. Put your feet.

Parallel on the foot bar and press out 1 heel under 1 heel up. Now something to note is that every day is a new day in your practice. And so my overhead today, I could get the rhythm and I could get the lift, but a couple times, I was kinda losing the over to get the up. And I share that only because we don't wanna lose the over to get the up. We kinda get excited about the up, and you still wanna reach them both directions. Come all the way in public lift.

Now that doesn't mean I'm mad at my overheads or disappointed, turn your feet out, lift your hips up a little bit. It's just information for tomorrow. Because every day is a new day in our body. Maybe you slept great. Maybe you didn't.

Maybe you're on a different reformer than you're used to. All those things play. So it's important that we know that our practice gets to be curious and informative and not a performance. Come all the way in, sit on up, pat yourself on your back, and then make sure you take a moment to acknowledge, like, which exercises you so well and you're so proud of and which one's felt like a struggle. And you can share them with me. I would love to know. You get to play with these things.

Overhead is an exercise in our practice, not the exercise in our practice. And so have fun playing and when in doubt get on the floor and roll like a ball. Thank you so much. Have an amazing day.