Arms + Abs

Hey. It's Andrea, and welcome to your abs and arms workout. In this routine, we'll spend 30 minutes doing strengthening and toning exercises for the upper body and the core. We're gonna build a lot of stamina. I'll give modifications and advancements as we go. So you should feel really great and really strong after this. Alright. So the setup for your reformer will have your foot bar in that middle upright position.

I want one blue spring on. This will be for some standing rows. If you wanna go a little bit lighter, do this on a yellow. If you wanna go heavier, do this on a red. Otherwise, join me on 1 blue. I've got my handles preset.

We will be using the long loops as well. So I've set my loops underneath. If you've got single loops, you'll be fine. If you've got double loops, great. So whatever you've got set up there, headdress is lifted up. At one point, we will be lying on our side.

So if you know you like to use a pillow for extra neck support, grab it right now and just have it nearby. Okay. Box is gonna live wherever you keep it. We'll come to that a little bit later, and we start in a unique way today. So to get into this, it's a little bit of a hurdle. Put your hands on your risers and just carefully step inside the well.

Stand facing your shoulder blocks. Put your hands on top, and we start with an extension just to kinda wake up the body. Draw your hips back, shoulders down. Stretching out the back side of the body, the lats, the traps, the pecs, soften your knees round your back. So we're doing like a version of a cat cow.

Go back into that extension. Little bend of the knees, dropping your chest through your arms. Tucking your tailbone Andrea round your back. Now find yourself in a neutral position. If you feel like your shoulders are pulled off your back, take a little tiny step forward, abs engaged, and you bend your elbows, row the carriage in, and extend the carriage back out.

And let's just start to move here. So finding a pace that works for your body, your weights pulling back towards your heels, backside of your body, hamstrings, They're engaged on this, abdominal scooping in and up. So as we flow through this workout today, we'll work the upper body and core in lots of different positions, different resistances, So we really get to spend that time to advance your practice, give those parts of your body an extra bit of love today. On your next one, hold the carriage in. Little pumping pulls in.

And in. Your elbows are hugging in towards your waistline. Shoulders are open Andrea relaxing your neck and your jaw. Give me 10 seconds in and in. And again, I'm pulling my hips back. Like, I'm almost gonna sit back toward my risers. 5 more seconds.

Take extend your arms all the way out. Now take your Andrea, hold from the sides, thumbs on top. Give me a little soft bend to the knees. Do it again. In and out. In and out.

So just by shifting this hand placement, we slightly target a different zone in those postural muscles hugging in and out. 10 seconds. And if you're feeling your hamstrings and glutes in your lower body, that's great. I am too. 5 more seconds. On your next one, hold it in little pulses in.

And in Andrea 10 seconds shoot. 5 more seconds. Extend it all the way out. Lift yourself up to stand for a moment. Now take your hands on top Let's take one hand across. Put it on top of the other hand.

Hips stay squared forward, but your upper body twists slightly. Lift up. Give me a scared cat Andrea then extend it back out with a little bend to the knees. Pull it up. Send it out. Round up and down. Now where you're feeling this is most likely the back of the arms, which is great.

That's where I want you to feel it. So triceps are engaging. Shoulders are staying down. And this is a core focused exercise as well. So really scooping in, getting those abs to engage 5 more seconds, bringing the carriage all the way home, bring your hands out, other hand goes on top, and here we go, scooping in, pull it up, send it away.

So there is this little straightening and soft bending of the knees. As you're doing this, though, I want you to think about initiating the movement from your core. Put a little flame under your abdominals. Scoop up away from that flame. 5 more seconds. On your next one, bring it all the way out.

Hands down. Slowly roll yourself all the way back up, and let's get out the same way we got in. So holding on to your risers. Take a big careful step back. That way, we don't trip on a rope and walk around.

Going into some sideline arms, again, your headdress is up. This is your moment to add a pillow if you'd like extra next support. One blue Speir. Lie down on your side. And face me first if you've got the option with your setup. Head down on your headdress, hips are almost to the back edge of your carriage mat, grab the handle in front, and reach up to the ceiling.

Hold it here for a moment. Take that shoulder and draw it down your back. Take your waist, stretch it out slightly to stack your hips. Your arm lengthens down to the middle of your hip, and it floats right back up above your shoulder. Flowing through this down and lengthen back up.

So as we start with this butterfly wave here, this connection here, it's lats and traps, shoulder blades hugging together. I want you to imagine you're lying flat on your back here Andrea just remember what that feels like. Get that mind body connection into your body to draw the shoulders evenly back and together. Whoo. And then maintain that.

On the next one, hold your arm down. Flip your palm to face back, straight arm sweeps forward towards your nose, and back towards your hip. Forward towards your nose, and back. Flow at your own pace. This isn't for reps were going for time on this. I want you to just focus on that connection, back of the arm, the tricep, sweeping back, shoulder, drawing back Andrea down.

On your next one, keep your arm down at your waist. Stay there, bend at the elbow, and straighten down. Bend and reach. If you wanna take this free hand and put it on your shoulder, that's a great cue to give yourself 5 more seconds. Shoot. On your next one, keep your arms straight.

Straight arm circles forward to your nose up to the ceiling down to the middle of your hip. Forward up and done. We'll just do a couple of these flowing at your own pace. After your next one, touch your hip and reverse the direction. Go up. Forward, hug back. Chest is staying open. Make sure you're breathing.

Even though we're not doing cardio or anything, you wanna make sure those deep breaths help to relax the necks. We don't kinda pull up into the shoulder blocks. After your next one, bend in, and let's peg that handle. Push your way gently up. Come on to your knees. Face your shoulder blocks Andrea your feet just hang off the back edge.

Make sure you feel balanced. Reach down. Grab both of your Andrea. Rise upon to your knees. We'll do a chest expansion version here. Shoulders back, just a simple press back of the arms and forward.

Reaching back and forward. So again, the pace is up to you. Think about touching your fingertips down to the mat to help draw the shoulders down, engage those back muscles, give your head a little turn side to side just to release any tension there, and scooping the abs in. You could stick with this, if this feels good, or your arms press back. Hold them there.

Hinge your body forward. Your hips go back. Well, lift your hips up, your arms come forward. So that's our combination. We go arms first hips down. Keep reaching back with your hands.

Hips lift back up arms extend forward. Keep this flowing. Shoo. Actively reaching back with the palms of your hands. Shoo. On your next one, hold it down there. Say all the way down, then lower your straight arms down, sweep them up, resist them down.

Sweep back, and down. You're gazing out about toward the end of your reformer frame. Shoulders are back and together. Natural breath. You got 5 more seconds. Hold your arms back. Bend at the elbow and straighten.

Kick it back and in. Back and in. Snuck out 10 seconds. Strengthening the back of the arms again. Those triceps. After your next one, extend back hold and lower everything down.

Pega your handles. Sue the other side of your sideline arms. So flip around. Lie on your side. Make sure your hips are just an inch or so from the back edge.

Grab that Andrea, reach up toward the ceiling, shoulder down, and here we go straight down to the middle of your hip, and right back up toward the ceiling. Straight down. Shoo, lengthen up. You never wanna lose the tension here. Right? So you're always reaching actively forward out and away. Bringing your muscle memory back to lying on a mat, shoulder blades are together. Waste is stretching out to stack those hips. On the next one, your arm stays down.

Flip your palm to face back. Go forward. And sweep your arm back, straight arm forward, and straight arm back. Shoo. As that hand goes forward, your shoulders pulling back in opposition So we keep it out of being the shoulder doing this, the elbow, the wrist.

You want it to be really muscular from the back of the arm, the tricep. Keep your arm at your waist, bend at the elbow, and straighten. Reach. And bend. Straight strong arm here. If you wanna do long fingers, do it.

If you wanna make a fist, do it. The goal, the priority is keeping a straight long line of the wrist. After your next one, keep your arms straight. Hold. Straight arm goes forward up to the ceiling, circle it down to your waist. Forward up and down. So we're getting the strength around the rotator, the shoulder, after your next circle change direction.

Going up forward, pull that air back. Give me just a couple more. Shoo. And after your next one, bend in, and set the handle back on the Speir, rock and roll your body all the way up, come seated, and let's change up our setup here. So roll it out lower your head rest all the way down.

Let's switch out. If you've got handles like I do, switch them out, put your long loops on. If you already have loops, you are good to go. Okay. Bring yourself up to stand. Let's grab your box. So the box is coming up.

I want you to set it up the short direction on top of the carriage in front of the shoulder blocks. Once you're set up there, again, I'm on one blue spring. This is for a little bit of standing arm works from Suakati. So if you wanna go lighter for shoulders or neck, do this on a yellow instead of a blue. Okay. So to come up, I like to sit on as if I'm getting into a traditional short box spin my leg around. So, again, face me first if you've got the option. Otherwise, choose a side. Reach down, grab onto your long loop, and bring yourself carefully up to stand. Once you're up here, let's take the loop into your outside hand closest to the foot bar. Other hand at your waist.

Lower yourself down into a squat. We go from low hip all the way out as you rise up reach to the foot bar, bend back into your squat, put your hand in your pocket. Everything goes out. Everything goes back down. Just start to flow.

As we're in this gliding balancing position, you wanna just focus on form versus Speir. Right? Shoulders are down. Rise up as if you're standing against a wall. Glide back down that wall. Let's get 10 seconds in.

5 more seconds. Shoo. After your next one, bring it down. Let's switch the loop into the other hand, other hand at your waist, hug your elbow in, and just glide up and down. Straight up and down. One of the reasons I like doing this standing is because it's such a different angle of resistance. We get kind of accustomed to doing things down closer to the carriage mat, and this mixes it up.

So we keep our practice from plateauing, keep those muscles guessing. 10 seconds of this. The goal is keeping this elbow hugging in towards your face throughout, shoulder pressing down in opposition. Bring it all the way back. Take that loop back into the original hand, take your elbow, hug it in towards your waist, and fly out to the side. Bring it back.

Flying out and bring it back. Imagine you're hugging a newspaper between your elbow and your rib cage. I don't even know if we have newspapers anymore. Hug your iPad. Straight out and back in. Give me 10 seconds out and back 5 seconds.

Building that shoulder strength here. Shoot. Bring it back. Okay. Let's switch hands again. Now be careful on this one. Make sure the carriage is all the way closed.

Turn and face towards your footbar. Your toes are still back on the headrest, but your knee gets to rest on top of the box hinge slightly forward. Catch the resistance of that rope and that loop. Give me a bicep curl in and down. Your upper body is slightly hinged forward.

Curl and down. Again, you could do long fingers on this, or you could make a fist. So I want you to find what works best for your body to maintain this form Andrea then lean into it. Literally 10 more seconds in and down. 5 more seconds. Shoot.

After this next one, let the carriage close. All the way in. Rotate back to face me, turning your feet out slightly. Let's start to engage the core a little bit more. We'll involve it a little bit more.

Slide the loop up into your elbow crease. Hands behind your head. We start with a squat again. Bring it down stand up, lateral side bend over, and bring it back. So we glide it down, up, and big lift up and over.

Give me a rainbow arc. One of the challenges on this, one of the goals is to keep that rope from whipping at all. So it's all about that slow control. Andrea we'll do just one more here down, up, lifting up and over, oblique Speir you back up. Make sure your knees have a little soft bend, keep your elbows where they are, and twist your body to face your footbar bring it back through center, rotate the opposite direction, bring it back. Just give me a few of these. So we're asking the upper body to stabilize, build that strength, but we're moving from the core, from the mid section.

Let's do one more set. Andrea bring yourself down. Arms lower. Carefully bring yourself out of that loop. Set the loop down.

Have a seat on top of the box and bring your legs out in front of you. Slide your body just a little bit forward. Now, we're grabbing that same loop, sliding it up above the closest knee. Once it's up there, you wanna sit right in the center of the box, again, toward the front, then lie down with control onto your back. Leggs come up into a tabletop position, hand stack palm over palm behind your head. So holding this tabletop position to begin, extend the free leg, the leg that doesn't have the loop out to about 45 degrees Andrea you switch your legs and you switch.

So we're flowing through essentially a single leg stretch here. The carriage may move slightly, and that's okay. But mostly, this is isometric. So I want you to think about maintaining that work into the loop, keeping your chest curled up at the sternum. 10 more seconds. If at any point you need to bend and take a break for your neck, Do it.

Jump back in when you're ready. When you're even on both legs, bend both legs in. Both legs extend out, and they bend back in. We're going for double leg stretch legs on this. If it feels better for you to do, heels together knee slightly apart, do it. If that gets you out of your hip flexors.

10 seconds. Reach. And in a never hesitate to reach forward, or gently hold on behind your thighs. That's totally fine. 5 more seconds. Shoot. On your next one, your legs extend out.

Lift that looped leg up. Scissor switch your legs slow and controlled. Switch. And switch and switch. Again, you wanna keep your carriage pretty still, but it's okay if it moves slightly. 10 seconds.

Legs together up to the ceiling, heels together toes apart. Give me a tiny bend of the knees, lengthen down, and hinge back up, slow lower down, deepen in and lift right back up. Reaching your arms forward if you need to holding on behind your thighs. What I want you to focus on is the curl up of the upper body versus the range of the legs. That's where the work is is holding the endurance of this curl and then zippering from the low abs right back up.

On your next one lower, both legs to 40 five parallel legs, pull the loop knee in, extend it out, pull that loop knee in, extended out. Whoo. Things are getting real here. You could stick with this. Or as that knee comes in, twist toward it. Twist untwist out.

Bend twist. Untwist, 10 seconds, 5 seconds. After your next one, both knees bent in. Hold on to your legs. Give it a little hug.

One a hand behind your head. Let it drape back. Curling back up, I've got one more variation for you. Table top your legs, hands behind your head. Let your knees dip toward the foot bar, bring them back up center, hold.

So it's like a little tick talk of the legs down and up. Do what? Check-in with your upper body for me. Make sure you're curling up. You're not pushing the chin down, but you're lengthening out from the top of your head. Dip your knees toward the footbar hold.

Twist your body away towards your risers. Little tiny crunches up Andrea up and up 10 seconds lift and lift 5 more seconds. Bring yourself back center and carefully rock yourself up, coming seated. Coming seated is always the hardest part. Slide that loop off, set it back, roll it out. Okay.

We are going into the second side, but first, let's just balance it out with your body, totally evenly lined up here. So come on to your knees facing your box. There's a couple versions you could do this, depending on how you feel today. Hands go flat. Push out with one foot on your frame.

Let's all start like this. Make sure you feel like you're in a good spot. If you're on a yellow, it's gonna be more challenging. You would wanna do this on a blue, right, if you want more stability. Step the other foot back hold.

Now, this is your first option for extra stability. If you wanna challenge the balance slightly today, step your feet up onto your foot bar. Toes are about an inch apart heels together. Hold your plank. That's the first part of this.

Shoulders are stabilizing down abs are in. If you wanna add on, glide the box out a few inches, glide it back in under the shoulder. Glide it out. Glide it in. Make sure you're breathing.

It's gonna help you with endurance. We won't be here for too long. I promise. If you wanna add on, as you glide in, little push up. Press up and out.

Bring it in little push up. Out and in 10 seconds. Shoo. 5 seconds. Shoo. Now push all the way up hold Pike your hips up carefully, pull the carriage in, tuck your tailbone under length and back out, scooping and pike it up, tucking under length and back out. Flow through this. If you'd rather just hold a plank, do it. Challengeing both ways.

To add on, as you pike up, pull one knee in towards your nose, set it back down as you press out. Pull up and send it back out. 10 seconds. 5 more seconds. One more each leg if you were doing that hike up with one knee.

Meet me in a plank. Hold it there. Let's hold for 8, 7, 6, 54321. One knee comes down to the mat, bend up backly, knee, and close the carriage. Shake it out. Roll it out. Okay. Last thing, and then we'll do the second side.

Separate your knees just slightly. Let your hips go on top of the box. Hold on to your frame. Lift your feet up. Let's do heels together.

Quick walk up to grab the top of your risers. Okay. Here we go. Walk up, up, up, Thumbs on top Andrea around the sides. Lower body, we're gonna keep out of this day. I want you to stabilize with the shoulders down, abs in, row it in, extend out keeping the shoulders down.

In and out. So a similar style movement to what we started with. So you've got the muscle memory, keeping those shoulders down your back, Andrea a check-in with your neck. You kinda see what the habits of our bodies are. If you're looking down, if you're kinda sending the chin out, reach out from the top of your head.

I'm not adding anything onto this. 10 more seconds. Shoot. 5 more seconds. On the next one, go to straight arms. Hold.

Hands to the frame. Slowly make your way all the way back. Close the carriage and round yourself back up. Okay. Let's see the second side. So to come into this, again, I like to walk around.

To get on from behind, double check you're on the spring you started on. I was on one blue, so you might have been lighter on a yellow. Otherwise, one blue. Okay. Have a seat as if you're getting on for short box, and then bring your leg up and around. Feeder turned out slightly, reached down, bring that loop in front with you, and rise up. We put the loop in that outside opposite hand, start low hip, and down in a gentle squat. Rise up, extend out, and bring everything back in.

Shoo. Straight out Andrea everything back in. Shoo. So flowing through this, opening your chest. And it's the second side, so you know what this is now. So instead of focusing on the choreography or what's next, just focus on your form. Give me one more.

Shoot. Bring it all the way down. Now standing up, put that loop in the opposite hand, hugging your elbow in, shave up, and down the side of your face straight up and down. As that arm goes up, keep the elbow hugging in. Keep your shoulder down your back. 10 seconds. Reach Andrea down.

5 more seconds. Getting this really unique strengthening in around that lot, bring everything down. Switch put that in the outside hand again, and we fly open to the side, bring it back. Straight out and back. So you're hugging that newspaper between your elbow and your waist long straight line of the wrist. I call these robot flies straight out and down.

Oh, feeling that work stabilizing down the shoulder. Let's do one more and bring everything down. Now switch hands again. We're turning for bicep curls. Make sure your carriage is closed Andrea carefully rotate around to face the foot bar.

My toes are still on the headrest, but my knee is resting on the box, hinge slightly forward, catch some tension with the loop, and bicep curl in and down. That free hand could be on your core like mine is to kinda cue the abs in. You could do on your waist, whatever helps you balance and focus in on this bicep, the front of the body. Oh, 10 seconds. Gazing out just past your footbar.

5 more seconds. Shoo. Andrea then bring it home. Okay. We're rotating back to the side. Come all the way up.

Let's start to get the abs a little bit more engaged now, a little bit more focused in. So slide the loop up into your elbow crease, hand stack palm over palm behind your head. Once you're here, we do another squat down. Stand up big lateral side bend over and back. Find your flow.

And as we fine tune our form with the second side here, really find that lift up and over for me. So there was no crunching down into the side of our bodies, which I've been so hyper aware of lately, just with the time we Speir in our cars, lifting up kids, grocery bags, you see how crunchy we can get in our sides. So enjoying this moment, getting that functional training that we can carry out into our day, Meet me all the way up standing tall, scooping in from the core, twist from your abdominals face the foot bar, bring it through center, twist face the risers. So it's just this tiny ringing movement. This is one of those things with Pilates where it looks like you're doing nothing. Right? But if you really scoop in and move muscularly, you will be sweating and getting all of the benefits of this.

Give me just one more set. One more time, find yourself back center and carefully close the carriage come out of that. Have a seat, spin your legs around in front of you, slide forward, and let's get that loop above your knee. So here we go. Slide it all the way up. Lie down on your back.

Table top your legs. Hands stack behind your head. Extend that free leg all the way out. Single leg stretch. Here we go. You switch.

And switch and switch. Whoo. Every time that knee comes in, deep in your abdominals in and up away from your thigh. 10 seconds. And you know what this is now. Right? We're doing a version of series of 5, so we flow through it. Phew.

On your next one, both knees are in both legs extend out and in lengthen out and deepen it. If you wanna go higher to keep that supports of the neutral spine do it. If you wanna challenge your core a little bit more, try going lower. Just make sure it stays in the abs. 5 more seconds. On the next one, extend your legs out One leg goes up, big scissor switch Andrea switch, brushing your inner thighs past each other.

Do that neck check for me. Make sure you're not smooshing the neck down. Link them out. Make this a big active curl up. 5 more seconds. When you're even, both legs are up, heels together toes apart soft bend, lower lift, down, deepen, and then hinge back, slow lower, deepen, and then scoop back up.

So the range on this, it might be different than the first side, and that would be okay. Right? We're different side to side again. So just focus in on those 2 to 3 inches below your navel, and that's where I want you to scoop in and lift from. 5 more seconds. On the next one, your legs lowered down to 45 parallel.

Pull that looped knee in, extend it out. Draw the looped knee in, extend it out. In. If you wanna add the twist, here we go twist to the bent knee, untwist straighten, bend and twist, untwist 10 seconds over. 5 more seconds. Shoo. After your next one, both knees come in.

We go for that quick reset. Curling back up. Your break is over. Table top your legs. Your knees tiktok over towards your footbar.

They come back center hold. Doing that again, little tick talk of the knees and back. So your upper body is squared off and even. It's just hips to knees, getting this little bit of rotation over Andrea 5 more seconds. Dip your knees over. Hold.

Now twist your body away from your knees. Little tiny crunches up and down. Up and down. 10 seconds. Shoot. 5 seconds. Hold it up there.

Everything comes back center, and you carefully rock and roll your body all the way up. Come seated. Slide the loop off. Let's set the loop back. We get to stretch it out now. So, again, I'm on one blue spring, which is gonna feel good.

Step yourself over and sit using the back of the box like a chair. Hands come on top of your footbar. Let your feet just come with you for the ride here. Push back Andrea your chest dive through your arms. We get this big stretch out for the postural muscles, the pecs, the arms, the abs, talking under slightly, your feet hover and come with you round everything back in and do that one more time.

Press everything back. Hold that stretch. Maybe rock side to side if that feels good. Talking under slowly round yourself back up feet come forward with you. Sitting tall, roll your shoulders out and around, roll your head side to side.

Andrea that is it. We're done with that workout. Great job. I hope you're feeling fantastic. I'm sweaty, but I'm feeling strong. We'll see you for the next workout.