Postnatal Reformer

Hi. My name is Zola. This is a post natal reformer workout meant to work all sides of the body without putting any pressure on the rectus abdominis, making it diastasis recti friendly. Today, I'm on a balanced body studio reformer. Let's get started. I'm starting on 2 red and 1 blue spring.

Foot bar and headrest are both up. And just like in the postnatal mat, let's just start with a couple of deep breaths. So place your hands on your belly and take a nice deep inhale through the nose. Filling the lungs, the ribs, the belly up with air, and exhale from the mouth, deepening those abdominals at the end of that exhale. Again, inhale. Fill everything up all sides of the body, and let it go.

Deepen those transverse abdominis at the bottom of that exhale 1 more time inhale. And exhale. Place those arms by your sides, and let's do some footwork. So toes on the foot bar heels together and toes apart. Inhale don't move.

Exhale press the foot bar waist, stretch the legs, inhale to come in and exhale out continuing that breath, keeping the tailbone really heavy, back ribs heavy, letting the carriage come all the way in every time. For 3, and 2, and 1. And bringing the carriage in right away change to arches curling the toes over pushing the heels under and stretch. And then and when your legs are straight, you can take a peek. Make sure those feet are centered on the foot bar.

It's easy to be crooked. Let's do 4 more here. I'll lengthen those legs, lengthen the fronts of the hips with every straightening of the legs. Good and change to heels right away, flexing the feet and pushing out and pull it in. You can keep your hands on your abdominals to make sure They stay and engage the entire time. Remember, every Pilates exercise is a full body workout, so we're not just doing leg presses here, moving the carriage with our center.

1 more time, all the way out, and all the way in. Let's stay on the heels, but go to the corners of the foot bar with a slight external rotation and push out exhale. Inhale to pull it in. Just 3 more here. 3 2, and 1. Same thing, but internally rotate.

So knees and toes point in and stretch the legs here. If you have a tight sacrum like I do. You should feel that stretching out. I'm always used to turning out my legs as a dancer. This internal rotation is very necessary.

Let's do 1 more here out and in. Good. And let's go into some unilateral footwork. So remove 1 blue spring and lie right back down. Toes on the foot bar with the legs and feet together. From here, stretch the legs and pause, bring your right knee to tabletop.

Keep it in tabletop as you bend your left leg. Good. And from here, start to lengthen that right leg over the foot bar as you bring the carriage in, keeping the hips steady and anchored. 1 more like this. Dev Lapeying that leg so we bend and stretch to the ceiling, keep it straight to pull the carriage in, bend and stretch, and then lengthen over the foot bar. De Lapea and bend.

1 more time, we're gonna hold that double a pay, keeping that right leg straight, tend and stretch on the left foot as we do single leg circles on the right leg. So down with the heel, circle the leg. Down with the heel, circle the leg 1 more this direction over around and up, reverse those circles out, around it, and lift. 2 more out around and up, lower the left heel, and lift. Keep the leg straight. Place all 10 toes on the footbar.

Bend the knees, and then push out against switching sides. Find tabletop with the left leg. Keep it in tabletop as you bend the right knee carriage comes in and stretch it out. Backwards, heavy, hips are even. Good length in that left leg over the foot bar to pull the carriage in, stretch and bend. So your legs are doing the opposite movement.

Now let's add that double a pay, bending, and stretching the left leg up to the sky. Keep straight to pull the carriage in, bend and lift, and pull it in, bend and lift, pull it in. You'll do 1 more heat both leg straight, tendon stretch, and single leg circles. 3 times each direction. Good. Keep both sides of your ribs heavy on the mat as you circle that leg, reverse your circles for 3.

Lift that heel and 2. And 1. And lift. Good. Put all 10 toes back on your foot bar. Bring the carriage in.

Now from here, scooch your body forward a little bit just so your shoulders have a little bit of space and grab those short straps, if you have short and long straps on your handles, bring your legs to a tabletop, let's do some arms. So keeping this tabletop position, shoulders glide down the back, belly button pulls to the spine, press the arms straight down. Can you get your palms and your upper arms to press into the mat without opening the ribs? Push those back ribs down. Inhale to lift the arms. Exhale press down.

Inhale lift. Exhale press. Keep the arms pressing down. Tri set press, bend the elbows, hug the ribs with those elbows, and press down. Bend.

And press 1 more time, bend, and keep the arms straight. Let's do arm circles so we lift and open. Squeeze the arms down to the hips and lift and open and squeeze 1 more this direction. Bring the arms up to the sky and reverse. Press down and open.

Up and in. Down and open. Up and in. Down and open. Up and in. Beautiful, press those arms down.

Turn the palms to face in towards your hips. Can you glide your shoulder blades down your back more, open out to the side? Sort of like snow angels. Don't let those arms get higher than the shoulders. You wanna keep the arms connected to the back. 1 more time. Open and close. Bring those arms back up to the sky, take an inhale. As you exhale, press them down again.

Try to keep them anchored onto the mat. Let's keep the feet together, but open the knees slightly. From here, marching, just like we did in my postnatal mat, the right toes come down towards the springs, and you lift them right back up, left side. Toes come down towards the springs and lift. Now, if you feel your back start to get light, your low back, maybe don't go as far down. We're trying to keep the connection of the transverse abdominis belly sinking down to the spine.

Let's do both legs now. Play with your range of motion. Maybe start really small first. And if that felt good for you, maybe go a little bit further. 5 bones reaching away from the body, and then bring it back up 2 more times.

Bring the shape down and lift it up. 1 more time. Bring it down. And lift it up, bring the arms up to the sky, and you can bend your knees to your chest and place the handles back down. Let's place the heels on top of the footbar with the feet together. Lower your headrest down.

Let's do some bridging, getting the back body fired up. So the goal right now is to try to keep the carriage in curl the tailbone under, and let's peel the hips off of the mat only to the tips of the shoulder blades, or where your bra strap would start. From here, take an inhale at the top, and exhale roll it down. Inhale, curl the tailbone under, exhale, lift up may become a little bit higher than you did last time. Keep the shoulders pressing down. Let's try to find tabletop with the right leg.

And put it right back down. The carriage stays pulling into the stopper as you lift your left leg. And put it down 1 more time. Each side, right leg. Put it down. Left leg.

Put it down. Now try to keep the hips lifted. You can take a peek down. Make sure you're pressing evenly into both legs. The hips are even, and then start to lengthen the legs. Now my legs will not straighten because I tend to arch my low back as I straighten my legs in this position.

We wanna keep the abdominal strong and the low back long. So you can play with that range of motion. Whatever works best for your body, maybe your legs do get straight, but try to not drop those hips or arch the back. 1 more time, lengthen out. And pull the carriage in, in, in, good. Roll the spine all the way down.

And then come on up. We're gonna add a little bit more burn to the back body. I'm removing 1 red spring So now there's only 1 red spring on, lie back down. Let's do more hamstrings. So this time, the feet stay on the platform, the arches of the feet on the platform, arms by your sides, and just lift the pelvis up just a little bit.

It's a small lift curling the tailbone under. And then from here, the movement is the same. I'm just going back and forth, but the spring is lighter. You have less support, and it works the hamstrings a little bit more. I tend to bypass my posterior chain when I'm working out, so this is really good for me.

Let's do 2 more of those out. And in such a small movement burns so much, and then roll it down. Beautiful. Let's step off to the side. I'm going to lower this foot bar. I'm gonna keep it on this single red spring and grab my long box.

Let's have a seat on top of the long box facing the side of the reformer. So depending on how close or how far you are from the handles, that determines your tension. So if you want more tension, you come a little bit further away. If you don't want so much, come a little closer to your handles. I'm gonna be somewhere in the middle.

My heels are on the reformer, not on the wooden frame, but on the actual carriage. My feet are flexed, and I'm holding on with the hand that's closest to the strap. So place your other hand on top of that fist and try to keep the fist away from your sternum. Spine is long, belly pulling in. Now from here, without moving your hip you're going to twist your ribs for some oblique twists, and then bring it back center.

Let's exhale. Inhale center. Exhale. Inhale center. This is 4. Let's do 5 more here. To twist for 5. To twist for 4.

Make sure to not lean back too far, twist for 3. 2. 1 more time, twist, and come back to center and let that tension go turning to the back of your reformer let your feet rest on the head rest, continue to hold on to the smaller loops. And then from here, let's do some bicep curls. So make sure to not lean back again. My legs are together, and I'm just bending the elbows. Keeping my elbows sitting on top of an imaginary shelf.

They're about shoulder height, and they stay at that same height the whole time. And try to make sure that you don't lose tension in your straps at any point. Usually, when you've lost tension, you're losing a connection to some part of the body, and we don't want to do that. Let's do 1 more here. Good, lengthen your arms down by your sides, pull the belly to the spine front ribs to back ribs, exhale to press the hands back.

Try to get them behind the body, inhale to bring the arms forward. Exhale back. Inhale forward. Shoulder blades are gliding down the back. Shoulder blades are squeezing in towards the center.

Good. Let's reverse the breath for a full chest expansion. So inhale to press the hands back. Zola your breath. Look right. Look left.

Look center. Exhale. Reach the arms forward. Again, inhale. Press back. Please. The shoulders. Hold your breath. Look left.

Look right. Look center. Exhale arms forward. Again, inhale. Press back. Hold your breath. Look right and left.

Center. Exhale arms forward 1 more time. Inhale, press back. Squeeze and hold. Look left. Look right. Look center and exhale arms forward.

Climb your hands up the ropes. I'm gonna put my hands through the small loops like bracelets. Hold on to the ropes and sit up tall for half rollback. Same thing we did on the mat, keeping the inner thigh squeezing this time, curl the tailbone under, and just start to round back to your point of control. I'm gonna stop about right here, and then keep your pelvis where it is for as long as possible. Dive your forehead towards your knees and sit up tall at the top.

2 more like that, starting with the movement of the pelvis curl the tailbone under, but don't collapse forward in those shoulders. Good holding here, and roll yourself up. 1 more time, curl the tailbone under move the pelvis first. And then on the way up, move the pelvis last and sit up tall at the top. Good.

Place the handle we weren't using first back onto the peg and turn around for oblique twist on the other side. Remember, the legs are hip distance. You're holding on with the hand that's closest to the strap. The other hand goes on top of the fist. And then twist the ribs towards the springs and then back center and twist. And just back to center, so I'm trying my best to keep my fist and my sternum in line with each other as I twist the ribs instead of just moving the shoulders. I'm doing it wrong now.

Instead of just moving from the shoulders, I'm really moving from the obliques and center. Let's do 5 more here. Twist for 5. Exhale to twist. Inhale to untwist. 2 more. And last 1.

Good. Untwist and let the carriage come home and place that strap back onto the peg. Let's take our long box back. Let's put the foot bar up and add 1 red spring. So now I'm on 2 red springs. And I'm gonna grab my magic circle. Lie on your back, we're gonna do feet and straps.

So the most awkward part is having the circle, putting the straps on your feet, and then putting the circles on the inner ankles. You can lift the head rest for comfort. I like to have it lifted. So straps on the feet first, and then the paths of the magic circle go on the inner ankles. This is just to add a little x extra fire to the inner thighs, which are directly connected to the abdominals. So extra credit right here.

So from here, find that squeeze of your magic circle. Try to keep that squeeze. You can already see me shaking. And go into a parallel frog stretching the legs away and then bending the knees, again, stretching out. And as I bend the knees, I don't take my tailbone with me. I keep the tailbone heavy.

Keep the back ribs heavy. And really feel the crease of the hips as the knees bend to the chest. Let's do 2 more like this. Squeeze and bend. Squeeze good. Let's keep the leg straight.

Start to lift the legs, not the hips, not the tailbone, and then use the backs of the legs to press the heels down towards the floor. Inhale to lift. Exhale to lower. I have a slight bend in the knee, so I don't push from the backs of the knees. I'm really focusing on pushing from the glutes and the hamstrings.

1 more time. Now, let's bring the legs up to the sky and hold. Now, from here, we're gonna make the tiniest leg circles by squeezing the circle, pressing the legs down, releasing the circle to lift the legs up. So squeeze to go down, release to come up. Squeeze to go down, release to come up.

Again, squeeze it down, release it up. We reverse those tiny circles. So from here, we keep it released as you go down and squeeze to come up this time. So kind of release, but don't lose the circle. Just release a little bit and then really squeeze on the way up.

Focus on keeping that tailbone down. That's 1 of the harder parts for me. Got again released to go down. Squeeze to come up. Good. Press those legs down to a high diagonal and Zola, and let's just squeeze and Zola.

And release. Squeeze and hold. And release. Let's exhale on that squeeze. Inhale on the release. Squeeze and hold.

And release 5 more. Squeeze. 3, more. 3. 2. And 1. Good. From here, bend your knees to your chest. Let's take that circle.

You can put it down, and let's take a little stretch. So place the soles of the feet together. Hold on to your black straps. And just let the knees fall open to the side. You can either leave your feet off of the mat or press the feet down towards your mat.

They both feel really nice. And if you want an extra inner thigh stretch, go ahead extend the right leg over to the right, but don't let your, sorry, this is the left leg. Extend your left leg to the left, but don't let the right hip come off of that mat. Keep your hips anchored and even. Bend that knee extend the right leg to the right.

Left hips stays down. Bend that knee. Carefully slide your loops off of your feet and place them back on your pegs. Let's get into the side body and do some mermaid. So I'm gonna do the staggered stance.

So my shin goes up against the shoulder blocks. My hand goes on the foot bar in front of my shoulder so I can keep it connected to the back. Other arm goes up to the sky. Try to get it as close to your ear as possible. Try to get both sits bones down into your mat, easier said than done.

And from here, start to push into the foot bar, pushing the carriage out Side bending up and over, not just pushing the hips out to move the carriage, but we're really side bending, lifting up and over like a rainbow. Inhale to bring it in. Exhale, push it out up and over. Inhale. Bring it in. Exhale up and over.

Inhale. Bring it in 1 more time because it feels nice. Exhale lift up and over. And then bring the carriage in, let's do a counter stretch that hand goes onto the shoulder block that's in front of you, reach the other arm up to your ear, and inside, Ben, I'm really pulling the shoulder block to bring myself over. And then for an extra juicy stretch, take that hand behind the head. Turn your ribs down towards the floor and twist the ribs.

Come on up, and let's switch sides. So my shin goes up against the shoulder blocks, arm in front of the shoulder. I'm trying to get both sits bones down, very hard, And from here, press the carriage out by lifting up to go over. So I feel both sides of my body working, and then lift. Exhale out.

Inhale in. 2 more exhale out. This is my weaker side. I can really feel that. Inhale. In 1 more time.

Exhale out. Inhale. In. Good. Let's hold on to that shoulder block. Counter stretch, reaching up and over. And then if you want that deeper stretch hand behind the head, twist the ribs, try to not collapse, but lift and twist.

Good. Carefully untwist the ribs, and then come on up. So I'm gonna keep it on 2 red springs for running and pelvic lift. Lie down on your back. Settle yourself arms by your sides. My legs are together in parallel with toes on the footbar. Stretch your legs.

Just take a peek. Make sure they're centered on the footbar. And then 1 heel down, 1 heel up. Let's just hold for a second because the stretch feels lovely. And then lift both heels up and then switch and hold.

Switch and hold. And switch and hold. And let's find a little flow here. Lift and switch. Lift and switch.

Arms pressing down. Chest is open wide. Good. 5 and 4. 3, 2, 1. Let's lift both heels up.

Bring the carriage all the way home. Arches of the feet to the corners of the footbar, a slight external rotation for pelvic lift. Only lifting the pelvis off of the mat, sort of like we did earlier for our hamstring curls. But this time, we stretch the legs all the way to straight, try to feel that stretch in the front of the hips. It feels really nice, but make sure you're not arching in the low back. And then pull the carriage in, in, in, again stretch it out, and pull it in 3 more times out, out, out, and in and in.

1 more. Pull the carriage all the way home and roll those hips down. And let's do 1 more stretch Eve's lunge. So lining up your right foot with the foot bar and placing your left knee on the carriage, the bottom of the foot goes on the shoulder block. Really flexing those toes back towards the shin to get that stretch on the bottom of the foot.

Both of my hands are on the foot part, and I'm just gonna bend the right knee, sink down on the hips as I press the left foot. Back. I'm pressing equally into both of my heels and just stretching the left hip if your left leg is back. And then to bring the carriage in, I stand up on that right leg. And then again, push it back just for a nice, juicy stretch. I'm only trying to go as far as I don't sink into the low back. That's very easy to do.

So I'm really trying to pull my hip bones up towards my ribs in the front. And pressing equally into both legs. And then bring it all the way in. Let's do 1 more of those. If you feel comfortable, you can try to lift your left arm up towards the ceiling for a deeper stretch in that low back.

Sorry. Not in the low back. In that left hit. Put the hand on the foot bar. Stand up on the right leg to bring the carriage in. And let's go to the other side.

Placing that knee on the reformer bottom of the foot on the shoulder block, and my front leg is in line with the foot bar. Try to get both hit points to face forward and to press the carriage back. I sink down in the hips and press evenly into both legs. Feel the stretch. Enjoy it.

Pull those hit points up as to not sink in the low back, and then stand up on that left leg to bring the carriage in. And again, press it out. Feel the stretch. And pull the carriage in standing on that left leg and 1 more time. Let's deepen that stretch if you feel comfortable reaching the right arm up to the ceiling, try to keep the hit points evenly pressing forward. Both hands on the footbar, bring the carriage in.

And that is it. Thank you so much for joining me today. Hopefully, you feel worked on all sides of your body without putting too much strain on the belly. And I will see you next time.