Reverse Knee Stretch Flow

Hi. I'm Maria, and we're gonna be building a reverse knee stretch series flow. Our primary focus here is gonna be core work and abdominal work as well as shoulder stabilization. Our setup is gonna Leone heavy to one medium spring, footbar down. Turn and face the back of the machine. I want your hands right under your shoulders, and I don't want you to wrap your thumbs. The knees go up against the shoulder blocks and the spine starts neutral.

Take a breath in here and on an exhale around your back into a beautiful cat shape, really allowing the lumbar spine to open. Inhale, open the chest almost a feeling of dragging the hands in towards the knees around the back, taking that stretch in the lumbar spine, inhaling, opening the chest, abdominal stay lifted here, one more time around the back and really point your tailbone down between your knees. Walk your hands back just a few inches. Curl the toes under. Really plant all ten toes into the mat. And, lift your knees up and just hover.

Do try to stand on your knees for me. Lower the knees down. And, again, lift yourself up. You're in a very round back position. And lower it down one more time, lift up, shoulders are out of the ears, lower the knees down, release the feet, return to a neutral position.

Front rib cage stays closed, and we start dragging the knees in to meet the hands. Now I'm isolating this action right in the hip socket. The arms are anchoring us, but the action comes from the hip. And I want you working on the way in, concentrically, and eccentrically on the way out. From here, you have 2 options.

The first one is to begin alternating, pulling in with the right leg, and then pulling in with the left leg. The other option is to stay on one side for 3 or 4 reps. And what I'm helping you feel or notice is that the work shifts from one side to the other. So we're just biasing the work right now into the obliques. We're almost done. Keep the shoulder blades wide to not drop that head.

Bring the carriage in from here. Lift the arms straight up over your head, push through the hips, take the gaze up, take the chest up, circle the arms all the way back. Let's do that one more time. So just reversing what we're doing in the shoulder, abdominals in, lift the chest, and then circle the arms all the way back behind you from here. Take your two hands over to the right. They're gonna be in pretty close, round your back, and try to line up your two shoulders right with that side railing.

From here, begin pulling the right knee in towards the left armpit. So, again, we have some lateral flexion and some rotation working. The arms are anchoring, but you are not pulling with the arms. All the motion comes from the trunk. And you're pushing down through the shin bones as best you can.

You should feel a reaction in the core as you push down through those shin bones. Last time, Now you're gonna pivot in the direction of your hands, come all the way sideways, and all the way up on your knees. The foot closest to the foot bar goes straight, and that arm reaches up to the ceiling. We side men up and over, and we just tap our hands onto the shoulder block. We take a big breath into that top lung, fanning the rib cage open.

And a big exhale. Bend that knee in. Balance is a little tricky here. Step forward to the floor. Bend that knee, bring your trunk parallel to the ground.

Extend the back leg out behind you and hold it here. Now tap that back leg down and up. You'll touch the reformer and lift option to keep the hands here or bring the hands to prayer position. A few of you might even opt to take the arms up over the head Let the foot spread into the ground. Make sure the lumbar spine is staying still.

Last one here and come back to your knees facing the back and bring your hands over to the other side. Again, not too far away from you, tuck the tail and begin pulling that opposite knee to shoulder, exhaling in, inhaling out. I recommend you exhale on the end and inhale on the out. Two more like this. Last time. And now pivot in the direction of those hands.

Extend the leg closest to the footbar out same arm comes up, take your energy straight up and side bend up and over. The shoulder block is right there for you just to give you a little feedback so you can open that chest, open that top lung, open up the top rib cage and then come on in, bend this knee, and step forward as gracefully as you can. Your trunk comes parallel to the ground. Fingertips are on the edge of the reformer. Extend the back leg up.

And we tap and we lift. And then if it's available to you, the hands can come to prayer. Maybe you take the arms up over the head. Reach the body so Leone, recommit to the bending of that bottom leg. 2 more here.

And then back to your knees and back to the back of the machine. We're back to two hands, two knees. Walk your hands in a little bit. Curl the toes under and lift your knees up again. Option to be up or keep the knees down.

Start pulling the carriage at Now this is a much bigger load, much bigger challenge on the abdominals. Keep the action the same. Make sure you are not moving from the shoulder joint. And if you get fatigued, just put your knees down. But it's nice to just try to push yourself a little bit. Try doing a few with the knees up.

You might surprise yourself. Last one here. The knees go down. Let's take a quick child's pose. If you'd like, just rest your forehead right on that head rest.

One breath in. One breath out. Come back to your hands and knees and bring your right knee in towards the midline just a bit. The opposite leg extends straight out in parallel. From here, the bottom knee pulls the carriage in and out. Again, the spine is nice and neutral. The back leg is not moving.

Last one like that and stay here. From here, that back leg, bend it, pull it to the outside of the tricep. And extend the leg out. And, again, drive the knee in. It's gonna feel like a side crunch. I hate saying that, but that's really what it is.

So we got obliques andQL working. Last one like that. And now we're gonna try putting that all together. So the bottom leg pulls in as the machine goes in, the knee comes in. And we extend out with the leg and we pull in with the leg.

Continue like this. There is a little coordination required. And if you're doing it opposite than me, well, who cares? Just keep going. Last Leone. Come on down.

Let's take that counter stretch, lifting the hips up, chest up, gaze is up, circle the arms all the way back and back to all fours. So the other leg is coming in towards the midline. Other leg extends out, hold it here. Spine is neutral, and we're pulling that back leg in and out. The back leg, we're not trying to lift the back leg as high as we can.

We're just trying to maintain it in a straight line. Last Leone, now the carriage is still drive that knee high to your tricep and back out. Check-in with where your head is and out. Really try to hike your hip. Something we usually don't ask for, but this exercise requires it.

2 more here. And last Leone. And now let's put everything together. So you pull the carriage in. And as the carriage comes in, you pull that knee in.

The knee pulls in, bottom knee pulls in, top knee pulls in. And give me everything you got. Don't shortchange this. Really drive that knee all the way up. Last Leone.

And come down into child's pose, forehead to the head rest, one deep breath into the back of my lungs, one long exhale, And that is the end of that series.