Healthy Spine Reformer

Hi, everybody. I'm Tom McCook, and we're here at Pilates anytime. It's a great pleasure to be back. Come here with Aaron and Aaron for our reformer class. And this class will emphasize for those of you that have osteoporosis or osteopenia where you wanna train safely and get really strong without flexing the spine, but we'll do a lot of great work throughout the whole body of balanced workout. And the first thing we're gonna start with is they're gonna face the foot bar.

We just have on one blue spring and put their hands on the edge of the box. And they're just gonna do a flat back hinge as they push out and let the knees bend. And then just come up flat and do that a few times just to start to get a little stretch in the back of the legs, exhale on the out. Inhale as you come up and just start to feel your head tail line that you create that nice straight line head to tail hinging from the hips, and then become aware of your feet. Start to press evenly into both of your feet as you go out.

Feel the foot points, the ball behind your big toe, behind your little toe, and your heel, like two triangles. There you go. And just do two more before we add to that. Start to warm up the body. Now next time I would hold it, Now just shift your hips slightly to the right as you straighten the right leg and bend the left. Let's go side to side like that nice and slow, and also feel like you're also tractioning back away from the hands as you do that.

You start to get that lateral hip stretch a little bit in your lower back. Nice long neck. And just do a few more each side like that. Nice and smooth. Just preparing the body, decompressing a little bit.

There we go. Just two more each side. And one. And then bring it right back up and in. Beautiful work. And then we're gonna take the boxes off, and we'll set up for traditional footwork. So I recommend three springs, either two reds in a blue or three reds, whatever you prefer.

And then we'll come on to your back to start. And if you like your head rest up, do what works for your alignments. It feels like your head's in a good position. And we'll start on the heels with your feet in line with your sit bones and start with your legs straight. Good. And press your legs straight and hold them out there for a moment.

And then put the heel of your hands on the front of your hips and your fingertips on your pubic bone. And just see if you can find that level position between those three points with the floor. So you're basically in a neutral position. Then bring the arms down. Now just bend your legs about two inches and hold it there for a moment.

Now just come into your breathing and start to breathe laterally into your torso. And on the exhale phase, just follow the exhale in, so feel how you start to feel your core muscles. Do that for three more breaths. Big, expansive breath. And that exhale feel like a cylinder getting a little small, a little tighter to help you empty your lungs. And notice as you're doing that, you can start to relax your neck, your jaw, your eye muscles, but stay aware of the middle of your body.

And one more breath like that. There we go. Now on the next exhale, as you start to feel that, pull yourself in with the back of your legs, an inhale on the out, exhale on the end. So you start to put those two things together. The legs and the connection to your middle and your breathing. Go for a evenness on both sides, equal working to both legs, and just three more.

Feel out, you initiate through the back of the legs and finish through the front of your legs. That's it. One more. And when you get back out to straight, stay straight and slide down onto the balls of your feet, but Keep the bone behind your little toe on the bar so it's maybe a little higher on the bar than you're used to. So you got your first and fifth metatarsals on the bar.

Now do the same accent as you exhale, pull yourself in again, and inhale on the out. So you start to feel that relationship between the waistline, the back of your legs, your pelvis, and your feet. That's a lot happening. There we go. And three more.

Foreworks a great way to align your body and just make everything flow better. Two more. And one, next time out, stay out and just swing your heels together into a small v. And continue and pull yourself in from there. That's it.

Here you go. You guys have perfect timing. That's it. Pull yourself in. That's it. Nice and fluid. And just three more. That's it.

And one more. Now, this time as you come in, roll back into parallel on the balls of your feet. You're gonna go through called roll through. So rise up to high heels. Press your legs long.

Now lower the heels and come in slow with low heels. And roll up to high heels and press long. Lower the heels and come in and feel a nice deep hip crease, ankle creases you come in. And do three more. That's it. Are you opening up those deeper muscles in your calves, getting your ankles to glide and hips to glide more? One more.

And next time you come in, leave your heels low and press long, rise up to high heels and come in, and drop and press long. That's it. There you go. Just three more. Get that nice glide in your lower leg muscles, ankles, feet. One more. There you go. Now this time as you come in, slide up onto your heels again and put your headrest down if it's currently up.

And we're gonna go into a neutral bridge, but before you do your bridge on the exhale, follow the waistline muscles in, and then levitate your pelvis up. Neutral bridge, and then hinge from your hips to place the back of the pelvis on the mat. And just do four of those. And as you're going up, tone the back of your arms, but soften your neck. That's it. Just two more.

That's it. Nice and smooth. Go for evenness on both sides. Now, next time up, come up about two thirds of the way and hold it. Now as you stand into your right, like floats your left knee, like you're marching in place. And just alternate Tom four each side and really get the feeling that the lifting leg is easy as the rest of the body is stable and strong. That's it. One more each side. That's it. And then float the pelvis down.

Now we're gonna add to that same movement. The next time you go out, we're gonna press out. You're gonna lift your leg into the march, but then as you press out, you're just gonna extend the leg straight up to the ceiling. So flow one leg now press out and reach up to the ceiling. Now as you come in, so press the standing leg long. Now as you come in, just go back into that knee fold and do four on that one side.

That's it. Feel the strength of your standing leg, body alignment, back of your shoulders, two more. And one. As you come in, come back to the bar, float your hips back down to the start, Take a breath, levitate again, knee fold. Now as you press long, extend that leg straight up. Nice and smooth. There we go. Stay with your breathing.

That's it. Two more. You can say, I I said four, but I'm making you do five. One more. Not trustworthy on my counting then back to the bar, then float it back down. Good work, you guys.

Now we're gonna go into a little bit of arm work. So where I recommend either depending on your body, either one red all the way up to two reds, but in the middle would be a red and a blue or a red and a yellow. So you can decide what works for you based on if you have any shoulder issues, go to just one red, and then come on to your back. And you can have your head rest up for this if you like to. If you prefer to pad it that way. That's it. Now when you take hold of the straps, keep your feet on the bar, but pull your arms down just a little bit so the carriage is a little bit in the air. Now right below your breast bone, think at the top of your abdomen, just think of imprinting the back of your waistline a little bit into the mat. So you can keep that, then float up one leg at a time.

Now on the exhale, pull the arm straight down to the mat and inhale back to the start. Just do four reps. And stay aware of that spot right below the breast bone, the back of the waistline staying anchored. So you have tone in your core muscles. At the bottom of the next one, hold the Tom. Now go right into side opening.

Open out to the side, and then back to your hips for four. That's it. Nice and fluid. There you go. On the next one, when your arms come to your side, hold them there. Now on on the same exhale, lower and lift one knee towards the floor.

There you go. Inhale back up. And if you need to make it super slow, are small. Make it as small as you need to so that the back doesn't change. Reach into your arms. That's it.

Breathing. You have a little bit of a smile. You're having an amazingly good time. Two more each side. That's it.

And one more. Last one. Nice and slow. Let the arms load up back up to the start. We're gonna do one more before we we have two more. So let's actually put the feet on the bar just for a moment. Have a momentary break.

Now once again, hanker the back of the waist. Pull the carriage in the air slightly. Now, flow one leg at a time. Now pull the arms down to your side. And when you pull them down to your side, stand near the arms a little bit more and pull your shoulders a little more towards the mat.

Now go the straight wrist, bend your elbows halfway. Try, press, do it for six. See if you can connect to your inner thighs, your low belly wall, your mid back. Side body and back of your arms. You have a lot of support.

Two more. Now next time at the bottom, keep them at the bottom. Going to turn out heels together knees open about arm pit width. Now open the arms out to a t. Now as you pull your arms to your side, press your legs out to a 45. Inhale to bend and open.

Three more. That's it. Nice and smooth. Feel like you're zipping up your centerline of your legs and your side body. That's it. One more. Great work.

Then place the feet on the bar. Place the straps on the poles and then help yourself up, and we're gonna go into flat back knee stretch. So for this one, I recommend two red springs, and you'll come into a kneeling position with your feet against the shoulder blocks in your hands on the bar. Now with a flat back, let your hips shift back about six inches behind your knees. That'll be your starting position. In picture, you're gonna initiate the movement from the back of your hips, but you'd maintain that core control.

So on the exhale, press your knees back, keeping the arms relatively still. Then hinge back in from your hips. I feel like that hinge is really at your hip joint level. That's it. There you go.

Now that you've got a little more control of it, start to add a little pace for about eight more reps. That's it. Feel how you're initiating from the back of your legs, centerline of your legs, nice and open across your chest, two more. Now next time you come in, hold the in and reach your right arm out to the side like an airplane wing, and do four reps single arm. Just saying.

That's it. Two more. And then back to the bar, and we'll switch. That's it. That's a nice long neck. There you go. And last one, back to the center.

Now we're gonna take it into kneeling push ups. So I want you to go down to one blue spring. Now with one blue, come back to your your flat back knee stretch and really slow, push your knees back till you feel like you have a straight line from your knees to your shoulders. That's, and now keep your back nice and open, but as you start to bend, to retract your shoulder blades, and let the carriage move towards the bar and then press long. So imagine you're gonna keep the front of your hips open. So come back up again.

Now imagine you don't flex at the hips at all. So let's just open more to the front. Now let as you bend the elbows, everything moves towards the bar. Let me show you really quickly. I'll I'll give you a little no.

So see we're we this is this is live, you guys. So when you're here, your body comes in. Okay. Gotcha. Yes. That's it. So that's, perfect, though. There we go. This is what we do.

Now press it into that straight line again. Even there you go. Now let the shoulders stay low. Now as you bend your elbow, keep the lower back the same, then press long. There you go. Inhale to bend, exhale to straighten.

Start to feel your shoulder blades pull in without the lower back arching. That's it. There you go. You got that cue. I could see it. Here you go. And I feel the widening and lowering of the blades. Do three more. That's it. Good, you guys.

One more great way to clean up a pushup. There you go. Now from there, as you come in, change the weight one more time where you go to a red and a yellow, we're gonna go into the down stretch. So for the down stretch, you'll start in that same flat back knee stretch as the starting position. Now press your knees back till you have a straight line from your knees to your shoulders. Now start to lift the heart through the arms and come up and in. Now keep looking up as you push out.

Hold on to that long arc through the body. Feel the connection to your glutes, your in seams, exhale on the out, inhale on the end. Two more. There we go. Beautiful. You guys. One more. And in good work.

Now carefully step off when you're ready and grab your long box and put it in the short box position. And then when you're ready, you're gonna wanna put your footbar down so it's out of your way. Actually, just, right up and right up against. And then I would put on three springs so the carriage doesn't move. We're gonna do a couple of short box exercises.

You just have to make sure you have access to your strap. And you'll have a seat and put your feet under the strap. I'd say three. Three, so it doesn't bounce around too much. There he goes. Now have a seat on the box facing the bar and put your feet under the strap. And I recommend with your feet push out into the straps so the strap is Tom.

And then you might even slide more forward so you can push into the wood and straighten your legs. So go ahead and straighten out your legs and hold it there for a moment. Now just reach your arms in front of you at shoulder height. And on the exh, I'll reach your arms straight up overhead getting longer and straighter through the spine and inhale to lower. Do that four times. It feel as you're reaching up, you're also feeling your core cylinder like we began the class, energy through your legs.

Ask it one more. There you go. Now we're gonna add a small lean, but let's bring your hands behind your head. Now grow tall on the exhale field, of course, you'll learn to do a flat back lean, inhale to grow tall. And again, exhale lean. Inhale to lift just two more.

Feel that long line through the body, all four sides of the body are working together. One more. Excellent. Now as you come up, bring your arms into genie arms, Now this is just a super small rotation, just retract your shoulders, and just practice doing a really small rotation from your ribcage, really small a couple of times each way just to mark that for yourself. You're not trying to force to see how far you can turn. One more.

Now, next time as you inhale rotate to your right, now do that flat back lean straight back, lengthen up, center, and again inhale to turn, exhale to lean. Lift and center. There you go. Feel like you're leaning straight back. You're turning like a corkscrew. That's it.

Nice and strong. That's it. One more read side after this one. Add that small rotation and a lean. There we go.

And last one. Good work, you guys. Now put your thumbs on your back low ribs for a moment. And just practice picture that you're gonna side bend from there. Just go really slow just to feel like where you're initiating from.

And you're gonna do that while you're in a forward tilt. So it's really small, but you want the sit bones to stay heavy on the box. So take your arms up in front of you again. Now as you inhale, lift the arms up. Now do a small flat back hinge.

Now do that tilt to your right. Lengthen back up to center and come up tall. And again, lean and tilt. That's it. And then right up to center.

Just do two more at your own pace. So you're opening up your waistline with that small tilt without shrugging the shoulders to the ears. Just get that feel. There you go. One more each side, nice and fluid, energy through your legs.

Excellent. Last one of you guys. Nice work. Very nice. Now we're gonna take that and decide sit ups. So for side sit up, this setup should be good for you guys, but you'll probably wanna go lighter. I would maybe go down to two reds. And the side sit up will, you guys can face in towards the midline.

And then you'll put your bottom hand, the the hand that's closest to the shoulder block on the head rests. And now create a straight line from your reaching leg, your ankle Tom your ear, and then put your top hand on your bottom ribs for a moment. Now pull your bottom ribs away from the floor so you feel like you're not collapsing in that bottom waist. Now bring that top hand behind your head, lightly press the head back and grow a little longer through the body. As you breathe in, slowly side bend, let that bottom elbow bend. Now use both sides of the waistline to come up, just Tom straight.

There you go. Take your time like that. That's it. There you go. I'm just gonna draw you back just a little. There you go. Nice and smooth.

Two more little by little. Use less of the bottom arm so you can gauge how much work you can put into your torso. That's it. Just one more. There you go. Now do one more, actually.

I lied. Now the next time you come up, hold it, and bring both hands behind your head and hold it for two breaths. Breathe through it. One more breath. And then nice and slow, bring the hands to the box and help yourself up, and we'll go to side two. Exactly.

There you, and I just find your alignment. Take your time. That's it. Draw that up's bottom ribs away from the floor. There you go Tom hand behind the head lightly press the head back. As you breathe in, bend that bottom elbow as you side bend, and then find that straight line again.

That's it. There you go. Nice and slow. Feel that connection to your waistline. On both sides, energy through the leg, do three more. There you go. Nice and strong.

Two more. And one. Next time you come up, hold that straight line, bring both hands behind the head, hold for two fluid breaths. One more breath. And then nice and slow hands down, help yourself up.

Absolutely. Now we're gonna put the long box on in the long traditional position and go to one blue spring for pull ups. Say what? There you go. I know how that goes. Now you're gonna lie on your belly facing the straps And then place your hands on the rails and pull yourself forward so you can take hold of the risers with your palms facing each other. That's it. Now create a nice straight line from the crown of your head to your tail and energize your legs.

There you go. Now, just from your shoulder girdle, let the shoulders slowly slide towards your hands, let them elevate. Now, glide them towards your hips. Do that four or five Tom. And think of it even though your arms are moving, that it's really not so much an arm extra sizes. It's about you connecting your arms to your back, to your scapula, your waistline, and your legs.

Now next time you set the shoulders, keep them set, and bend the elbows wide to pull yourself forward without the shoulders elevating. Control the return. Let the shoulders release at the Tom. Do four times. Set the shoulders first, then pull from the underside of your arms and scapula.

That's it. Two more. Found nice. That feels on your whole body. One more. There you go. Now next time is your arms straighten Just tuck your chin in for a moment and take a breath. Just relax for a moment.

Now we're gonna go right into single arm. So for single arm, set your shoulders first, and take your right hand and rest the back of your hand on the back of your pelvis. There you go. Now, set that weight bearing shoulder and on the exhale pull. And just bend to the degree that you can do it with good form. Do four reps. Feel the tone of your inseams.

Notice when you turn on your legs, it makes the arm a little easier. Easy for me to say when I'm standing over here. One one more. And then nice and slow, switched to your own Tom. Again, set that weight bearing shoulder, feel your body line, and then pull from the underside. Four reps.

That's it. Feel that control. There you go. Feel that from the under. There you go. Nice and strong. Two more.

And one. Great work. Now from there, as you bring it back to both hands, you just have one more set. You can let yourself in so you can come out of tension for a moment. You can walk the carriage back to the start just for a sec. And just take a breath and rest just for a moment.

Now in the last version, when you do both arms, we're gonna add upper back extension. That's it. So when you're ready, you can walk yourself forward again. Take hold of those uprights. Feel your body line again. Now set the shoulders.

Pull. Now slide the heart forward after you pull the arms forward. Let the you're gonna pull yourself forward with bent arms now start to extend. There you go. Then lower the spine, then let the arms straighten. Just take your time. Pull first, then add the extension.

That's it. And just do two more. Failure you're using the whole back chain and your legs in in seams and core muscles for support. One more. Great work, you guys. As you finish the one you're on, you walk it back in, take the straps in your hands.

We're gonna go into pulling straps from there. And I re I recommend you reach through the straps so you can hold the rope to the just above the buckle so you get a little more range out of your arms, and then take your arms outside the rails. Now, tone your legs down before you start to pull, take the head of your arm bone right where your arm meets your body, a little more away from the floor. So the top of your chest is open, then lengthen through your neck. Now exhale, pull the arms all the way back to your side, just straight spine.

Do that for four reps before we even add extensions without even lifting your torso. Do that four times. But see if you can feel that you're turning on front side back inseam. So you feel like the whole body is a strong straight line. Next time you pull, hold that straight strong line, now add your extension.

And then lengthen back down. Do that three more times. Of course. Yeah. Pull first and then add your extension. Exactly. There you go.

Nice. One more. Now next time you pull and you're in extension, hold it, rotate your palms to face the floor, Now open out into the t, staying extended, and then back to your hips four times. As you pull, think energy out the crown of your head, out your legs. That's it. Just one more. And lengthen down and rest. Great work, you guys.

We'll put the straps on the poles, and then help yourself up when you're ready and take off your your box. We're working. And then we're gonna go to, middle bar, like you would for footwork, and then put on two outside red springs for feet in the straps. And you can come on down when you're ready and put the feet, put the straps on your feet when you're ready. And once you get your feet in the straps, you can press the legs out to a 45.

There we go. Now from there, once you've got your legs out there, come back to that awareness of your pelvic position lying on your back with your arms long. Just go into turnout and just tone the back of your arms and feel how you have this nice aligned torso and body position. And as you breathe in, bend the knees in towards the armpits, exhale to straighten, and use it as much as a leg, stability exercises, a breathing exercise, Feel like you're oxygenating your body fully inhale as you bend, empty as you straighten. That's it. Nice and smooth.

Do three more. Go for evenness on both sides. One more before we change it. Now press out and hold. You're gonna go into Peter, pan, let one leg stay straight as you bend the other, and then zip back to the center.

Challenge yourself to keep the pelvis level. On both sides without hip hiking. Breathe all the way through. You're gonna do four each side. That's it.

After this one, two more each side. Breathe all the way through it. That's it. Feel the breath even into your side, back, lower ribs so you can keep the the length and support of your lower back just with the awareness of your breathing. One more each side.

There you go. Now, did you get back to straight, go into parallel and come straight up into straight leg pulls, then pull them back down. Get the feeling when you're coming up that you wanna keep the pelvis heavy. And then pull down, go for evenness. One more. Now next time at the bottom, go into internal rotation, turn the feet in slightly, and now do four more.

Who knew? There we go. That's it. And two more. There we go. And one more.

And next time at the bottom, you know what's coming, go into external rotation, turn the feet away and do the same thing. So you hit all those hip, foot to hip muscles equal opportunity. That's it. Two more. Now as you come back up, go back to parallel, and we're gonna go right into double leg circles. So pull, yeah, you can just go straight down the middle, then open out to the side, up and in, Go for equal pressure through the strap all the way through.

That's it. One more in that direction, and now reverse. That's it. Just two more. And one. Now let your legs come up shoulder width apart and take hold of the straps or the ropes with your hands. Now, tone the front of your thighs, your quads, and keep your back of your pelvis heavy, and just add a little resistance like you're pulling with your arms without letting the pelvis change just to get a little deeper stretch.

And just take three or four breaths there. That's it. Two more breaths. And one. And then bend the knees and take your knees towards your armpits and see if you can keep your lower legs perpendicular to the ground. So you're you have your feet like kind of up like here, like happy baby. To get that nice hip stretch.

There you go. And just breathe into that equal pressure. So you're getting that nice inner thigh opening, hip stretch. One more breath there. And then nice and slow as you bring your heels down, help yourself out of the straps. And then you can put the straps on the poles.

And when you're ready, you can roll it to your and help yourself up, we're gonna go into a kneeling arms. So for kneeling arms, I recommend one blue, and you'll face the foot bar with your feet against the shoulder blocks, like sit back and like a kneeling position, then just reach back and take hold of the straps when you're ready. There we go. Now just carefully come up to tall kneeling with your arms low. Now bend your elbows a little bit. You're gonna do a hip hinge arm scoop.

So as you start to hinge from your hips, the torso will go forward on a 45. Now extend your hips and scoop your hands to eye level. Then lower the arms first, then control the hip hinge. That's it. Then scoop from your pelvis and then scoop the arms. And I recommend you keep the elbows just slightly bent the whole time. That's it. I feel that scoop so the pelvis initiates.

The arms follow. There you go. Three more. That's it. Good. You guys. Two more.

Excellent. One more. Next time you come up, stay up, and then lower your arms to hug a tree position. Little below your shoulders, elbows wide, then inhale to open. Exhale wrap around that tree from the back to the front.

That's it. Nice and fluid. Start to feel everything you've been working on your tying together, the back down into your centerline of your legs. Nice tall spine. Two more. There we go. One more.

Next time you come forward, lift the arms a little higher for salute, bring your first finger thumb together. Now feel the tone in your hips and maybe just lean like a half inch more forward from your knees. Inhale to bend. Exale the press. That's it. Ice and fluid.

Full body. And as you through the crown of your head, connect your sit bones to the bottom of your shoulder blades to the heel of your hands. Two more. And one. And then carefully lower the arms. Place them on the poles.

And we're gonna go into, flat back elephant. So I recommend you go to either a red and a blue or two reds. And then when when you're ready, come up to standing with your heels, right up against the shoulder blocks. Now with your heels against the shoulder blocks, let your hips go a little forward so your hips feel like they're more over your front of your feet instead of back. And now does you tuck your chin in? See if you get a nice straight line from the crown of your head to your tail. Even if you gotta bend your knees a little bit, you guys don't, because if you're at home, if you do, that's totally fine.

Now keeping your heels heavy, press back to where the heels don't lift at all. And then draw in, feel how this tail can lift slightly as you come in. Press away, and then feel that lift. There you go. That's it. And just do four more like that. So you get that nice line head to tail and one more.

We're gonna take it into walking. So the next Tom, as you press out, stay out, bend your right leg and control the end with your left. Now press out with your left and switch at the back end So the straight leg controls the movement in and out. That's it. There we go. And just two more each side like that.

That's it. Good. One more each side. Last one. And then when you're ready, bring it all the way in, carefully step off the reformer. And now we're gonna go into standing. So you wanna put your foot bar down.

It will have you guys face in towards the middle of the room. And I recommend you put on one red spring You wanna move this guy out of your way. There we go. And then make sure you step up onto the dock before you step onto the boat. And then put one foot right on the edge of the moving carriage, then look down at your feet and bring them into peril and make sure they're even with each other. So this is called side box. So as you bring your elbows in tight to your body with your palms up, do a 45 degree hinge squat and hold that. Now from your outer borders of your hips, equally push the legs apart. Now keep the carriage still and straighten the spine and straighten the legs and bring the torso vertical. So you'll bring your torso right up.

And think of doing that with a carriage still. So go down, press out evenly and hold it. Now now when you press out just press press out without straightening your legs. Keep them just as bent. Now hold the carriage still.

Now as you straighten your legs, bring your torso vertical. Then come in. There you go. Now we're talking. Then go down into that 45 degrees squat. Press out evenly.

Carriage is still straighten your legs, straighten your body, and come right back in. There you go. Do three more. That's it. Press out nice and smooth. Straighten. Come up and in. Two more.

Feel how you're working that connection from your feet to your hips, postural muscles, one more. There you go. Now next time you go down into the same position, stay there and shift your weight towards the platform. So so so go go down again and hold the down. Now shift your weight over towards the platform.

Now imagine your pelvis is not gonna move. Now just extend the the carriage side leg, but absorb the standing leg. So if you have the standing leg, gives you the strength to drive the other leg. Exactly. Two more.

And one, as you come in, stand up straight just for a moment. Now go back down again. But this time, before you move the carriage, shift on to the carriage side leg, now drive the platform away and see if you can keep that standing, that bend leg under you as that's the challenge. Do that for four more. Take your time.

That's it. Good. One more. Great work. And then come all the way up and in, and we'll carefully step off and turn around side too. That's work. There you go.

Right on the front edge. There you go. Now just practice your 45 degree squat. Press out evenly with both hips. Keep the carriage still straighten your legs straighten your body and come up and in. And again, down, out evenly, straighten up and in. There you go.

Feel that foot to hip relationship. Notice as you're coming out of the bottom, the sit bones start to narrow even though you're not flexing your spine. It's just the movement of the pelvic bones when you extend your hips. That's it. Two more. Nice and strong.

That's it. One more. Great work. Now next time you go down into that same position, shift your weight towards the foot bar, and stay there. Now extend the carriage without the body moving. Feel the strength of your standing leg as you reach into the moving side. That's it. Three more. There we go.

One more. And as you come in straighten up again, just for a moment, go back down again now without moving the carriage shift on to the moving side and press the platform away. Go nice and slow so you can start to get organized around it. There you go. Oh, there you go. There you go. Take your take your time. That's it.

That's the learning curve right there. Just go nice and slow. That's it. Absorb into that standing leg as you drive with the moving leg. That's it.

There you go. Awesome. One more. Great for balance, great for a lot for hip strength. Lower back, one more. There you go. And then as you finish, straighten up again and carefully help yourself off.

Now from there, we're gonna do a lunging stretch. So I recommend you put your bar in middle bar. And go up to, one red and one yellow, and you'll put one foot against the shoulder block and one foot on the floor up by the foot bar. And the foot that's on the, against the shoulder block, you're gonna keep your knee on the carriage the whole time. That's in now as you put your hands on the bar, think of your front knee doesn't move back in space.

Your pair your pelvis goes down to push out, but the back knee will stay down. And then come up and in. Just do four and go slow and think of what initiates pushing back as your glute in the back of your leg on that back leg without the lower back shortening too much. Really get that feeling that you're opening the hip with core support. There you go.

Now next time you go into it, hold it. And on the stretch side, the carriage side reach that arm forward and up overhead. Now slowly side then towards the standing side. Just for two extra breaths breathe into your side body. One more breath.

And then lengthen all the way up. It will go right over to side too. Short and sweet. That's, and just take your time. Get your set up.

Think of the front knee doesn't move and you're what's gonna initiate the movement is your back glute and hip, but feel the support of your core as the pelvis goes down and back. See if you can find that back glute, then that's it. Then bring it right back up and then just go nice and slow. There you go. I'm just gonna give you a little adjustment. There you go. That's it. Just two more.

Great, you guys. One more. Next time you go into it, hold it. On the stretch side, reach that arm forward and up by the side of your head. Now slowly side bend towards the standing leg. Breathe deep breaths.

One more breath, and then lengthen right back up and in. We're gonna just do a seated mermaid with the feet flat on the floor. So let's go down to one red spring. And then with your when you're facing sideways, put your hand on the bar. And as you push your arms straight, let your feet do the little MC hammer walk.

As you push away. Now you'll hold them out there. I've just dated myself. Now with your free arm, take it up overhead. Now take it up on a forty five first.

Now imagine you're gonna take your spine towards that hand and then side bend, keeping that outer hip weighted, and then lengthen back up. We're gonna do that three times. Think of your shifting towards that hand, go up and over, and side. Nice. One more. Now next time you go up and over, bring that top hand behind your head, Now really slow, rotate down towards the springs, and then open and look up towards your elbow.

Just do that three times. Not forceful. You're just getting all those spinal movements to be gentle, but fluid to decompress. One more. Last time, flex and rotate down. So we're not fighting gravity here.

And then open As you come back to that square side, then reach that up arm long again, and then lengthen right back up to sitting and do a brief counter stretch the other way. That's it. Very nice. Then we'll set it for side too. Feed flat on the floor. Press away, let your feet do the walking so you can have your feet in line with your body.

Take that free arm straight out to the side on a high 45 and take your spine towards the arm to start to side bend, keeping that outer hip weighted, and then lengthen right back up. Take your time. Stay nice and long. And lengthen back up, good work. Next time you go into the side bend, stay.

Now bring the top hand behind your head. Now nice and slow, slowly rotate down towards the springs. And then open and look up towards your elbow, and do that three times. There we go. And one more.

Next time you open, then square your body to reach that arm overhead again, and then lengthen all the way back up to sitting and do a counter stretch the other way. There we go. And let's finish standing on the floor. I'll come out, get out of your way here. And when you're facing forward, just have your feet right under your sit bones. Lift your 10 toes so you can feel your foot points.

Then as you lay the toes down, do a a squat and reach the arms to the front and straight and press the arms down and back. And just do three reps. Sensing your posture, connection from the ground to your head. And then from there, just let your arms relax, unlock your knees, let the breath drop. Acknowledge yourself for your great work, you guys. Thank you.

Thank you, Pilates anytime. I hope you enjoy. Let us know how you feel about the class. We look forward to seeing you again on Pilates anytime. Thank you.