Short Box Series

Hi, Tracy Mallett. Today's setup is the short box. I'm just gonna go this direction here just so I can speak to you so we can see us face to face here. Now we're gonna get your short box against the shoulder rest. The safety is really important, so make sure you got equal space on either side of the railing. So it's right in the center.

It's nice and secure, and it's against the shoulder rest. Remember safety is first. We are going to be working with a blue spring today because we're working a lot of upper body work. Obviously, if you are strong and you can go for a heavier weight, absolutely. If you can stabilize, absolutely. You can go up to that red spring.

But personally, myself, I stay to a blue spring. The focus of this exercise today is working the mid thoracic spine. We're also gonna go integrating into the back body, working the glutes and the hamstring. So it's a lot of back body today. Let's get on to it. The lovely box here.

Now your pubic bone is gonna be right on the corner of the box. So I'm going to place the pubic bone here and bring the inner thighs together. The reason I've got this setup is it forces me to actually lengthen out the lumbar spine, and it also forces me to work more through the thoracic spine where I'm tighter and not overwork the lumbar spine. So it's a great setup for people that overwork their lower spine and don't have much mobility in the thoracic spine. Alrighty. So we're here. We're gonna take the hands forwards, and we're gonna walk the hands towards the raises.

Now elbows are down towards the floor. We're gonna pull and pull. The focus here is your lats, your serratus, and we are focusing on that mid thoracic spine. The triceps are working, the upper body. I always say this is the closest I'm gonna get to doing a pull up.

So it's a lot of upper body work, a lot of back work, strength is so we needed. I usually do about 8 to 16 reps, depending on their strength. Now from here, we're gonna hold it here, feel that isometric contraction, You can also take the hands onto the top depending on your raises and take your elbows diagonally out. So we're hitting the muscles a little bit differently, and the elbows are diagonally going out. So you got two variations there, depending on your reformer. Let's just do a couple more, draw the shoulder blades down, reach out through the crown of the head.

Now from here, take the hands onto the railings, walk back just a tad, Still got your connection with the arms connecting to the back, and I'm in that thoracic extension. Come into a diamond position. We're gonna press the feet up and then down. So you're keeping your pubic bone in contact with the corner of the box and our focus is the glute and the hamstrings. Now if you feel a little pressure in the lower back, minimize the range of motion. Obviously, from here, we can lift up, we can extend the legs, bring them back in and down, We can add all these wonderful variations to work the back body, the glutes, and the hamstrings.

We can even go into a grasshopper, but today, we don't have time for that, but there's always that little area here. We can add and hit that in. Let's do one more. Bring it back, bring the knees together, walk back. Now from here, I'm going to thread my hands through the small loops, walk the hands forwards, Now this is important that we pull, so you're walking forward.

So you start with the carriage off the stopper. So that's your start point. Now we're gonna bend your elbows wide and back. So it's really important that your carriage is not at the stopper. You're off the stopper, so we're working from resistance into resistance.

So this is amazing for the mid back your posterior delt where we see it, the elbows are going diagonally to the sides of your body. Now we're gonna add on some triceps here. So we pull. We hold it here. We trice up extension out to the sides. We're in a t position.

We bend the elbows keeping everything parallel to the floor, and then we reach forward. So you can see I'm not gonna crash. Elbows to the side. Extend. Bend your elbows. Keep the elbows in line with your shoulders just a little bit lower than your shoulders, though.

Reach out to the crown of the head. Bend your elbows and come back. Let's do a couple more elbows. Extend out to the side. In and back.

One more, but I'm gonna hold it here because I'm feeling kinda mean today. We're gonna hold it here in that Tracey of extension, but it's a lateral trace of extension. Your palms are flat to the floor. Drawing your shoulder blades together, let's do a couple more, one more, elbows bent, and place your hands down. Enjoy that stretch.

You deserved it. Place your head down. Now put your straps on the little pegs, and we're gonna come around. Now this time, we're going to grab your straps. Like so, in one hand, reach forwards, step up onto your carriage, and onto your box.

I'm gonna grab my straps. Here we go. So transitions again are important. We're sitting up, elbows bent. Now from here, I want you to hinge from your waist and your hinge in so your biceps are right by your ears, a beautiful extension. From here, we're just gonna lift up and then hinge forward.

So you're introducing hinging from your hips. So people understand where they're moving from. They're moving from their hip joint. The shape stays the same as we move forwards and back. Let's do a couple more, and then we're gonna layer into the next movements.

Bend your elbows. Ready? Hinge, reach, Lyft up, circle the hands around, bend the elbows, hinge forwards, yes, lift up, open, keep your arms facing forwards, bend the elbows hinge forwards. Chest to thighs. Lift all the way up. Open keep your arms facing forwards. Your elbows are bent.

Let's do one more. Hinge forwards. Lift all the way up and open. Now keeping your hands here, we circle back up again, hit that first position, and then we go back again, like a little circle, like a semi circle here, and back. You're keeping your hands in your peripheral view.

So you're resisting the springs, and I can see my hands in the peripheral view. The arms don't touch your hands go directly over your shoulder joint. Look, my shoulders are stacked over my hips. I'm gonna do a couple more. Last time, hold it here, come in to present, and we're gonna go into a c curve and present forwards and back.

Now bringing your knees together, and we're gonna lift your right leg and then your left leg. So now we're integrating into your core biceps. The focus has gone now into a letter c with a spine integrating the core Tracey let's do one more. Now if you're up for it, float the legs up, and see if we can balance into our little teaser prep here, exhale reaching forwards, we're in that seeker of position, And we do a couple more. Remember the leg can always be down here for a modification. One more.

Last time, hold it here. Find your balance. Drop up the legs down. Place the hands, straps, the loops down. Open your legs so they're externally rotated.

Walk your hands forward. Send your hips back, look forward on the horizon, and stretch out that upper back. You worked really hard in that mid upper back, so we need to go into that extension here. Hold it here. And then we curl all the way back up. And there we go. Awesome.

There's a lot of work on your mid thoracic spine. Here, we connected our arms to our back, but our lower back was protected with that lovely setup on the box, which it will be invaluable for you, especially for those people that overwork their lumbar spine and have limited extension in their thoracic spine. Thank you. Let's do it again. Bye bye.