4 Point Glute Series

Hi, Tracy Mallett. The setup is 4 point. Now this flow is going to be heavily focused on my favorite, the glutes, the back body. However, because of the setup, is a lot of upper body integration. In other words, a lot of upper body shoulder girdle.

So sometimes when you think the exercise is all about the lower body, it's actually a lot about the upper body enabling you to stabilize so that you can disassociate at the hip to work the lovely muscles that we all wanna work, which is the glutes and the hamstrings, but that upper body has got to have a lot of stability. So we'll talk through this as we're going on. Now the first side, I've got the strap around my thigh kinda just above the knee or if you feel comfortable. And then the second side, I kinda amped it up a little bit. I put the strap around the arches of the feet. So you can see the difference where you can take it to, where you can make it more attainable.

Or make it a little bit more advanced. So you've got that variety there, and you can play around with it to where you feel comfortable to add it into your class. Now you can see I've got, we call this the side carriage, don't you love that? Because the box is to the side of the carriage, which is really fun, gives a little bit more stability, a little bit more spice, a little bit more variation. So as you can see, I've put the box kind of sideways, and it's just level with the reformer here. So I've got it at a blue spring and just warning, I will be doing a spring change, in the middle of the flow, but I will definitely cue you so you know when to change the spring.

And I'm also going to be in a position where it's an easy change. That when you've got lots of people in front of you, they can easily change the spring themselves. So let's start. We're gonna start on top of the carriage. We're going to be in a quadruped F 4 point position.

I am going to place the hands on the shoulder rest just to give us myself a little bit more room here. Obviously, it can be done here, but then I'm limited with a main a range of motion here. So because I'm actually on the carriage, I'm gonna come up a little bit higher to give me a little bit more room for my leg to go into that little donkey kick. So we're gonna grab your loop, and we're gonna wrap the loop around the mid thigh. There we go. Round the mid thigh just above the knee.

It's gonna fall when it feels comfortable. Now for those that are very petite or they feel the strap is too long, you can always go with the Mallett strap, but I would always suggest the bigger strap first. So let's come back. Make sure your knee is in underneath your hips, and we're gonna start with our little donkey kick here. So we're gonna push out and in.

So the knee is a little bit to the side. So you can see where my little rope is is to the side of your shoulder rest here, and I'm going out and in. Now I can go into a full extension here. Full extension. Now the upper body has gotta be working super duper hard. My foot is going above the bar, so I've gotta keep that leg a little bit higher.

There we go. Your upper body is stabilizing, so that is parallel. The next variation is we're going to flex the foot and go into external rotation. Push away with the heel. Now be mindful that you're drawing your shoulders away from your ears. Your upper body is stable.

Your shoulder girdle is stabilized, and you're reaching out to the crown of the head. The cure is external rotation of the hip joint and you're pushing back with the heels. If you're kind of pushing back, shutting the door behind you, and you're pushing back, keeping your upper body stable as you disassociate at the hip. Alright. I usually do about 8 reps, but obviously you can wrap it up. I'll leave that up to you. Let's do 1 more before we transition into the next move.

Take your knees down. Rotate so your feet are towards your box. Now I'm gonna be in this quadruped position here. Now your strap, your rope is just behind your shoulder rest. Now from here, you can rest your toes down a little bit if you feel comfortable here.

Lift that leg up, and we go out and in. Now you can see if I'm limited range of motion and I wanna make it harder, what would I do? I would step out a little bit further right at the edge. Now I have more range of motion. Can you see that? So this is how you can cue your class, and that's going to maybe some circles here just to add a little bit of a variation, a lot of abdominal work here, a lot of balance, reverse it to the other side, We'd have a lot of core engagement here and coordination. So this would be something you could layer on later, hold it here, bring it up, extend that leg, do our little crossovers here, I call these in my bar classes, the little Jane fonder moves where we cross over the midline of the body.

The booty's on fire. We love that and keep reaching out for the crown of the head. Let's do 1 more. Now bend your knees. The next transition is we take a seat, pop your toes down on that box, take the strap away, pop it down.

Now we're going to transition into a quadruped position here. So our hands are forwards. Kinda get yourself in like a tripod so your knees are underneath your hips and your hands are forwards. Now this is where the change comes in. 1 red spring, take the blue off, now we're on 1 red spring.

From here, we're going to go into parallel, reach out to the crown ahead and start to push that leg back. So I'm on a red spring. It's attainable, but what I want is a full extension of that back leg. Once again, the arms are strong, the arms are connected to the back, the abs are lifted, and we've got that beautiful line from the crown of the head to your tailbone. Obviously, 8 to 16 reps depends how mean you wanna be in your class. But it's always with full control here.

Now the next variation is watch where I place the hands on the corner of my box, I go into external rotation of the back leg and pushing out. So it's just a different variation hitting those muscles is a different angle, but look where my hands are on the corner of the box. Kind of feel a lot of oblique work there. Let's do a couple more, draw the shoulder blades, connect the arms to the back is super important, and then we come back both knees back into quadruped Curl the toes down onto the floor, get into a pyramid position, press forward into an upward dog, or a lovely swan, just a little stretch, important as we transition to the other side, come back, and stretch. Walk the hands down. Now we're gonna move to the other side.

I'm just gonna say while I move to the other side, in my classes, if I've got the box there, what I love to do is maybe integrate some mat work on the box, maybe a series of 5 right there, and then transition to the other side. Just a little idea for you. Alright. So we're gonna go up onto the top now. I'm gonna take you back to 1 blue spring. And this time, we're gonna go for gold.

We're going to wrap the strap around the arches. So let's go. Wrap it around the arches. Adjust your knees so it's underneath the hip. And the hands are on the top here of your shoulder rest. Connect your arms to your back before you even start, and then you can push back.

So there's your little I have to say it, your donkey, your donkey kick, push back. And now let's go into external rotation. Push. So your knee is coming towards your ear. Of course, it doesn't make it to your ear, but the cue is knee towards your ear. Draw your shoulder blades down towards your pelvis, reach out to the crown of the head, draw the abs in, and keep that external rotation and pushing diagonally back. Keep those arms straight.

Let's do 1 more. Bring the leg down. Remember your transition is important. We turn, and we go into our quadru pad here. Now this is where it does get challenging with foot around the arches.

So we're gonna start with a leg reaching out. And from here, we're gonna just go into a straight cross. So we're crossing and back, In my opinion, this is ample enough to do it when you've got your foot in the strap. This is all that you need to work the glutes. You don't need to do circles here.

Let's do a couple more. Keep your upper body stable, and you're just moving that leg across and then back in that little Jane funder move and back. The most important part for this is transition is that you keep your upper body stable and you're just moving from your hip joint. Transitioning, put the strap down, turn around back into your quadruped position here. Now this is where we change the spring. We're going to a red.

We're loading the carriage up just a little bit more, quadruped position, knees together, hands on the corners of your box, toes up parallel, and we push out. Now the knees hovering Now you're pushing against resistance here. So it's super important that you're stabilizing through that upper back. So your core is definitely engaged. A lot of ab work, a lot of elats, serratus, core work happening here. Now if you really wanna make it more challenging, I said I was gonna amp it up, come back, take that back leg out, get into your plank position, pop that leg, let's go back into parallel so you can feel it here, you're in your plank.

Woo hoo. There we go. Definitely amping it up. There we go. Now let's try the external rotation. So move, drop your knees down as we transition Remember your hands go to the corner of the box.

We go in external rotation. Now we're gonna try it in the plank. You've seen it in the quadruple position with the knee on the box. Now it goes into external rotation. Definitely amping it up into intermediate to advanced here in that external rotation, keep your upper body still reach out to the crown of the head. Let's do 1 more. Transition, hands go forwards, move the leg up into your pyramid, and we relevay, press the chest forwards, we need that stretch, that back body needs the stretch, Draw the abs in, come back into your stretch here, and then walk the hands back.

Like I said before, perfect place now to use that lovely box, maybe for some mat work, just tossing ideas out there for your flow of your class. Didn't you love that so you can see on 1 side, round the thigh, attainable for all of us, to make it challenging. We need to step out a little bit further away from your shoulder rest. We've got more range of motion. All then we amped it up on the second side.

We wrapped it around the arches. Definitely felt the difference. Then we even emptied up and went into plank instead of having a knee there for support. So you can see if you're teaching a multi level class, I can challenge someone who's like a high, high beginner to someone who's advanced. That got me. So if you got me, you can definitely get your class.

Let's move on.