Postnatal Reformer

Hi. I'm Ashley. This is a post natal reformer class. We're gonna be working out the whole body, but with a special emphasis on strengthening your back. Let's get started. Placing your hands on the foot bar, you'll step your feet back About under your hips, maybe a little in front, and start with the stretch gently leaning off of the reformer, we'll do some side lateral lunges.

So bend one knee and let your hips shift over the that leg. Straighten and bend to the other side. Starting to get active into that outer hip, so feel that right glute straighten into the hamstring stretch and left glute. And straighten. Breathing as you go, seeing where you can inhale into all the parts of your rib cage and exhale connecting to the front back side of your body.

And let's do 2 more where you stay bent as you transition to the left, transition to the right, transition to the left, and to the right, bringing yourself center, weight in both legs, and rolling up. We'll come to the reformer. I have 3 reds and one blue on, lie on your back, feet onto the foot bar, Arches can be on the foot bar with the heels pressing together, so a little bit of a v shape, press out for the hundred. So legs are pressing into the foot bar. Shoulders are being pressed down by the shoulder rest.

Head stays down, arms float up, and we're just pumping the arms against this tension of the spring. So breathing in and out. In trying to fill up the whole lung and exhale. Inhale and exhale. It can help to breathe like you're breathing through a straw to reconnect to that lateral breath. So not just breathing at the top of our chest or not just belly breathing, but finding that 360 degree exhale and then the cinch into the waist.

Bend in after you've completed your 100 pumps, bring your toes to the foot bar for a footwork tendon stretch combo. These are as wide as your shoulders. Push out to straight legs, lower the heels together, lift the legs, and bend in 10 times. Press, tendon stretch, so anchoring the hips, ribs, and head pressing into the head rest. As your heels stretch under, heels lift. So it's never a drop.

It's a stretch, but it's supported by your toes hanging on to the foot bar. And we can pick up the pace a little bit if you're feeling good into that. Knees sting again just as wide as your shoulders. So you've maintained that inner thigh connection in addition to the outer hip connection happening as you lower the heels and wraps the legs into each other. 2 more times pushing out. Lower lift.

And in one more press lower, lift, and in this time pressing out with parallel legs for a slow running. So you'll feel more of a stretch, but again, not a drop of the heel, a reach of the heel under the footbar, as the opposite knee bends pedaling through and keeping the pelvis anchored. So your sacrum, that bony part of your low, of your low backslash pelvis is anchoring and pressing. That's gonna connect you deeper to the front as well. Use that pressure of the shoulder rest to keep your shoulders down as you inhale and expand your ribs.

One more time, and then both heels rise to bring you in with control. Let's do an arch stretch or a foot massage. Bring your arches on the foot bar and press back out. And you're walking your feet from one side of the foot bar to the other. I'm keeping my quads nice and active.

So keep your legs straight, so you're really pushing off using those shin and calf muscles as you put that pressure through the arch of the foot. One more time to the right. You can kinda glance up if you're like, where is my foot on that foot bar? And to the left a little bit of a side stretch as well. And when you come back to center, bend your knees and come on in.

Come up to sit to change your spring. So we'll be on 1 red and 1 blue, and lying back down footwork foot bar can stay up to grab the handles. The headrest is still up, bringing the legs into a tabletop position, to where you feel you can support your legs. So knees over the hips, or maybe even a little in if you need that. Arms to the ceiling.

Head stays down. Inhale. And on the exhale, press the arms long. Reach the fist to the mat. Inhale. Lift. Exhale press. 3 more inhale lift. Exhale press.

Feeling the shoulder blades connected. So they're working to pull a bit towards each other, even as your arms are reaching down and exhale one more time, and we'll go into circles. So at the top, we're reaching down where we just reached open around and up. Reaching five times in this direction, don't have to go too low with the arms or too high, just in your peripheral vision, and keeping that deep connection from the front to the back of the body using the mat to find that. Revers open.

So where my ribs are connected, I can push those down more, where my head is touching. I can press my head back. Or my hips are touching, I can push my pelvis down, and that makes the front of my body feel more connected. One more circle. And let's take a little rest here just letting the feet find the foot bar for a moment wiggle the hips out.

Before we go into our alternating arms reaching. So legs come back to tabletop. Arms press down by your side, right arm to the ceiling, left arm to the side, and then bring them arms back to your hips. Left arm to the ceiling, right arm to the side, and back to the hips, feeling the lat on the opening side, as you keep tension in both straps. It's a little bit of coordination for your mind and body.

To bring you on to your reformer, distract you from anything else on your mind. You have to think that one arm. Where's this arm going? Oh, where's that arm going? And one more each way? Keeping tension in both straps and last side and lifts the arms feet fine the foot bar.

We're going to go into tricep press. We'll go for 10. If you need to do 5 pause and another 5, more than welcome to do that. First, lift the legs up, bring the elbows to the mat, and collar bones widening, then press the fist to the mat for 10. Inhale, exhale, 9, and 8 in and out with that breath, 7, and 6 reaching the arms each time. 5. 4, 3. Everything else staying strong and stable to last one and lift the arms. Let the feet find the foot bar and hook your straps onto your pegs.

Come up to sit, and we'll do a spring change to a yellow and a red. We're kneeling on the reformer. For a side stretch. So knees will be together about a foot away from the shoulder rest, and press your right hand. I'm facing you guys with my right hand down, and bring your left arm overhead.

Look down at your right hand and push it into the shoulder rest. Reach the top arm over like you're trying to grab that back of the reformer, and then press your hips right on top of your knees and feel as you push your left knee down and push into your right hand. You have the big side body stretch. Bend the top elbow a little and then reach back again. Bend the top elbow and reach one more time.

This is a little prep for our side bend going the other way. So sitting down, let your shin stack against the shoulder rest. So right shin is against the shoulder rest as my left hand is in the middle of the footbar. Right arm goes to the ceiling. Push through your shins. Push through your arm.

To bend your body to the side as you move the carriage. Coming back up, keeping your ribs and hips as in line with each other as possible. So not rotating towards or away, but feeling like if you were looking at me from the top, you just see one rib and one hip. The other ones are stacked underneath. No rotation.

On this third one, we're going to twist into a swan. So, widening my left hand right hand finds the foot bar and I push away through my shins, through my hips. Keep the twist as you bring the carriage in as far as you can with straight arms. Press away through the legs and the arms as you rotate the spine. Inhale as you come into that extension looking up as high as you can.

Exhale as you rotate in the twist. One more time, inhale looking up shoulder blades pulling down. Exhale push. And if you're ready for a little deeper stretch, reach the right arm across, pushing the left hand into the foot bar, feel that rotation of the spine, a little extra stretch. Breathe into it. And then both hands on the foot bar.

Bend your elbows to bring the carriage in. Grab the opposite shoulder rest and go for a nice counter stretch. So much side body opening, and it feels so good. We'll go to the other side. So I'm facing left hand on the foot, on the shoulder rest, kneeling, facing the window here, and top arm is coming up and over. I wanna feel my hips right over my knees my glutes active pushing me into that position, pushing into the bottom hand as I reach that right arm towards the back of the reformer. A little bend and reach pushing deeper into my right knee as I push into my left hand and look at that shoulder rest one more time.

Breathing and sitting back into the heels to set up first side stretch this way. So shin's against the shoulder rest, right hand in the middle of the footbar, left arm up to the ceiling, and begin to push the carriage out through your hand, through your shin, through your bottom hip, and pull back in resisting from that right lat, pushing out, and lifting up tall without arching and without rounding. And this time, as you push away, twist in, bring your left hand to the foot bar, widen your right hand, push through both arms as much as you can, and then keep the arms straight as you bend your spine to bring the carriage. Pushing away through the legs, through the hips, through the arms, and find that swan in your twist one more time pushing away. And staying here to rotate maybe a little deeper.

You can grab that opposite side of the frame. Look under your arm. Breathe. And exhale will take you deeper into the rotation. Bring both hands on the foot bar. Bend your elbows to bring the carriage in.

And let's take the counter stretch before we come out of this. Hand on to the opposite shoulder rest and pull over. Come up to stand. To lower the foot bar down, and we'll change the springs to add one blue and take off the yellow. So you should have one blue and one red, and we'll grab the long box to sit on the box facing the back of the reformer. One foot on each side of the box, grabbing your loops or handles, and I'm sitting with a little bit of space behind me, the further back you are, the heavier the swings are gonna be, the further forward you are, the lighter. I'm going to reach and grab onto these little tapes here to get a little bit more for our row. So sitting tall, Breathe in on the exhale, pull your shoulder blades together.

Inhale. Exhale pull. We're doing 10 of these. Strengthening the upper back is a very important part of our posture. And really great for counteracting all of the rounding that happens when taking care of a baby.

Inhale exhale shoulder blades retract. They can glide forward, and then they glide back and together without arching your back. So my low back is staying the same. 2. And 1, and I'll carefully slide back to the long loops.

I'm placing one loop down and grabbing the other one in the opposite hand for a little bow and arrow twist. So both palms can be connected. On my exhale, my left elbow pulls back as I twist inhale comes back forward 8 times 2. Coordinating that breath, exhale. Inhale. 4.

And 5, you can hug into the box with your legs to feel that that left hip doesn't move, but your spine rotates. Your left shoulder blade is pulling towards your spine. You're looking behind you as much as you can. One more And then we switch sides, placing that loop down, grabbing the other one. Here we are in our bow and arrow inhale.

And on the exhale, pull the elbow behind you as you rotate coming back to center. Exhale too. And 3, getting tall and long out of your spine, 4, by lifting tall out of the low back, 5, inhale, exhale, 6, letting that rotation come from that exhale and wringing out of the lungs. And last one there, placing the loop back on, stepping off to go down to one blue spring. So I'm removing the red spring, grabbing your handles or loops for serve the platter, sitting, facing the foot bar side of the reformer.

And, again, the more towards the footbar you are, the more challenge it's gonna be the more back you are makes the spring a little lighter. Palms are up. And to start, we're just going forward and back just to find that action of the shoulder blades gliding apart and the shoulder blades gliding together. The spring is helping the shoulder blades find each other here, and then we're working that serratus to press them apart. Now a single arm reach alternating. So left arm reaches for it as I twist to the right inhale coming back to go the other way.

Exhale twist to the left as the right arm stretches forward. Inhale. Exhale. Exhale twist. Inhale. Exhale.

Twist. Exhale twist. Same thing here, working the counter rotation. So right hip stays, even though my left ribs are coming around. And now the left hip stays as my right ribs come around 4 more.

Eyes can be part of your twist. Look wherever you can over that shoulder to create more rotation. Inhale. Exhale twist one more each way and reach. I think I have 11 more.

And last time twisting away from you and center. I'll let the loops drop, stepping off to the side, staying on one blue spring for pull ups. I'm adding a sticky pad for grip and safety. Lie on the box with your hips, onto the box and your chest as much of it as feels comfortable for you. Climb, lift I like the head rest up all the way in this position in case you get to the end.

Climb out holding the top of your risers. Pushing your hips heavy and pulling your abs tight should keep you from sliding. Pull your body up as far as you can and long. So a pull up, but we're assisted with the support of the box underneath us. 3. Strengthening that upper back. 4, strengthening the lats.

5 legs are stretching one way as your spine is stretching the other way. This is 7, 3 more abs tighten. 8 hips push down that helps the abs tighten, 9, lengthen, and 10, and reach. Grab the frame to slowly glide your body back, stepping off to the side, removing your pad, I'm placing my box to the side of the reformer for an upcoming exercise, but now we'll go into side lying legs, lifting your foot bar up, and place 2 red springs taking off the blue spring. I like head rest down, and my head will rest on my arm.

You're welcome to use a pillow. So I grab that back. Shoulder rest or your arm can absolutely be extended and bringing your heel on the foot bar of the top leg bottom leg stays bent. I also like to push my hand into the shoulder rest as I push out to once straight leg, getting all that extra reach in the bottom side. And bending just as far as your back stays flat. So as soon as you feel any rounding happening, we're not going that far in.

So this nice eccentric contraction of your hamster It's lengthened here. And the glute connection is lengthened. We're doing 10 of these. So we've got 4, 3. 2, I'm still trying to lift that bottom waist. 1 little pulses here for 10, and 9, and 8, breathing into the front, side, and back.

And for 3, 2, on one hold, you have the carriage out a few inches, and that top knee is pulsing up. And 3, and 4, working that outer hip should be feeling it. Turn it on. And three, to, 1, let the carriage come in, drop knee to knee for a breath. A little tuck and arch can feel good, and we're doing a second set on this side.

So find that comfortable position and secure position for your heel on the foot bar. Like my toes hanging off a little bit. Push all the way out further than you think you can and bend in to where your back stays nice and long. And 3, keeping that nice pace for the second set for And 5, and 6, and 7 trying to relax the neck, 8, and 9. And pulsing in for 10. 9. So your hamstring and glute is catching each time your body weight as you push the heel into the footbar.

And hold last thing on this side. 2, 3, 4, opening that knee to the ceiling, 7, 8, 9, 10, and bring it in. When the carriage is in, List yourself up to rotate over to the other side, and we'll have the opposite foot on the foot bar. So bottom knee is bent and hips are a little back. Head is into the head rest or your arm.

I like my right hand pushing into the shoulder rest if my right leg is on and press all the way out. Find that little extra push to get the lift of your left waist and bend. Two, ten times three, inhale, exhale, and 5, and 6, and 7 push that foot bar away. 8, and little pulses after 10. This is the last one to pulse in. 2. 3, 4, breathing into your back. You can even put your hand there and hold the carriage still with some tension in the springs as your knee rotates open, and 3, and 4, and 5.

6, 7, 8, 9, 10. Take a moment to breathe. Carriage is in. Foot comes down. A little tuck in arse just to go, oh, where's my pelvis in space? And bringing the leg back up for the second set, the last set. Reach and bend.

I brought the carriage all the way in on that one. I need to find a little more reach and in, and in this is five full body is active, even though we're really focused on the right hip, the left hip is working to stabilize you. The left waist is lifting to stabilize you and connect you into your center. And I'm pushing through the right hand to find that right lat, pulse, and 4, and 5, 6, 8, holding there for the knee to press to the ceiling, waking up your outer hips to keep you strong. Open. And 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and bring the carriage Hoffman let the leg come down.

We'll come up for a figure 4 stretch. Starting with the leg you didn't just use, so left leg crossing over and lean forward into it for a breath. Another side. Right. Like crossing over, I always like to cross past the ankle bone, so you can keep a nice flexing your foot help protecting the knee as you really put that stretch into the hip. One side usually feels tighter than the other, totally normal.

We're working towards balance, but balance is just an ideal stand up for cap phrases. So this is where we'll come back to our long box on the ground. Place your hands on the box. And have about 50% weight in the hands, 50% weight in the legs. So I'm keeping this push, this round.

My head can go in, reach towards my tailbone as my hands push into the box and my heels lift. And lower. Each time my heel is lower, I think of lifting my waistline to the ceiling even more. So weight is divided between hands and feet, but we're still working those calves, keeping the quads hold up. So no bend in the knees, unless it's a stationary bend. So if there's a bend, it doesn't get straighter and more bent as you go. We're going into a single leg calf raise.

This is where it's really nice to have the support of the hands pushing. I'm just letting the other leg float off. This left kneecap is pulled up to protect that knee as I lift and lower for 8. Lift and lower 7 dropping the head down. Curling the tailbone down.

4, 3, it doesn't have to be the same range of motion. You might lose some of that range of motion on the last one other side. Oh, hello cabs. We'll stretch them out in a moment with elephant. This is 2. 3 and 4. I'm still pushing my hands into the box. 5.

Lifting my waist to the ceiling. 6. 71. More. 8 and both feet down. Little bending the knees to roll up. And I'll take my box to the back of the reformer before setting up for elephant.

Headrest can come back up, and I'm gonna hook my loops on. We're still on two springs, hands on the foot bar, feet against the shoulder rest, flat hanging over here. Same idea. Half of the weight is in your hands, half of the weight in your legs, toes lift, but the ball of the foot, and especially the heel is nice and anchored. Push away. And as you pull the carriage in, think of the tailbone on top of the head coming together. Exhale.

2. Let's do 10 of these. 3. So not only can we find that nice calf stretch, 4. Start to feel like the legs could hug into each other, activating that inner thigh as you push hands into the foot bar, tailbone pulls forward towards the top of your head, as you just let that neck relax down for 3. Using the abdominals to pull the legs in 2, and 1.

Neil down, keeping your hands on the foot bar for knee stretches. We'll do a round and then a flat back. So get the heels nice and firm back, their toes curled forward. Arms are straight, and spine is rounding. So I'm just a bit hovered off my heels, hips behind my knees, and my upper body's gonna stay in the same position as I inhale and kick back and exhale pull the knees back under.

Inhale exhale pull. So upper body is stable while those legs are kicking and bending, reach, and in. So it's like your quads are catching your legs in the carriage as they come in inhale exhale. And just ten. This is 3. And 2. And 1.

Flat back. Look forward. Let's your hips go back a little bit. Chest is staying open, same idea. Push and catch. Push so your quads put the stop on the carriage.

Stretch and pull and pull. Exhale pulls you in, and 4, 3, 2, 1. Hello, legs. Come off to the side. To lie down. First some feet into the straps frog.

Lying onto your back, grab your handles, our loops, and press out to place one foot And then the other, heels together toes apart, arms long by your side. Just enjoy this moment as your heart rate may be coming down. Push your legs to the high diagonal. And as you bend in, stop when you feel like your tailbone is about to lift. Keep the knees just as wide as your shoulders.

So this is a great opportunity for us to feel again a new connection into her pelvis after the distortion of carrying a baby around for 9 months, or is it really 10 months? This time, as I've been in, if it feels good and safe in your body, gonna let the knees come in a little further and my tailbone will lift, then anchoring the tailbone to push out. Bend in. Let the spring stretch your low back, and then push and reach. So I'm keeping a deep connection pulling in through my abdominals, but keeping my ribs down and then anchoring the hips to push out. And 2, hugging into that midline, inner thighs working see if you can get a little shake going, and then circling.

We'll stay here to do some small, fast circles for 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, hold to reverse, arches pushing away from the top of your head. 2. 1. And then lift the legs just shy of your hips open and circle. Give yourself some bigger fuller circles to feel that nice insertion of the thigh bone into the pelvis, working all sides of the leg and reverse push from the hamstrings and arches So not the back of the knee. Feel that connection, hamstring pushing your leg down even while it's being stretched. And then when you've come back together with the legs, Bend the knees in, grab your straps to take them off, feet can find the foot bar, hook your loops on, and step off to the side for a runner's lunge.

You can stay on 2 reds, or if you wanna go lighter to red in a blue, or a just one red if you need, but I'm gonna stand 2 reds, hands on the footbar a little closer to the side I'm standing on, pushing my right leg back as my left knee bends, and feeling the connection through the back of my right leg as my left knee stays over my left ankle, breathing, and wheeling my tailbone down, my hip points up. Then I'm gonna add a little push of my left leg and bend. So it's not going fully straight or fully bent. But it's giving a little pulse action, so I'm active in the stretch and not just sitting into it, coming up all the way, and walking around to do the other side. So hands are on the footbar. My foot is close to the edge of the carriage, and then in the left heel is pressing back as the right knee bends.

And while I'm here, I'm just creating little refining movements tailbone down, hip points up, knee over the ankle, back leg active. And again, more weight in the legs than the arms because the legs stretch. Let's add a little push of the front leg. And push, just getting more of the hamstring, and then lifting the carriage comes all the way Hoffman you are done. Thank you so much for joining me today, and I hope your body feels a little more put together and ready to go.