Ed's Go-To Reformer Flow

Hi. My name's Ed, and I'm gonna take you through my go to reformer session. It'll run for about 30 to 40 minutes. So I hope you enjoy moving along with me. Here we go. Alright. So I'm gonna change my reformer to 1 Ed spring before I get going.

Foot bar is down, but I'm gonna first start with a roll down or 2. So I'm standing with my feet in a parallel position. Arms alongside my body. I'm gonna take a breath in to prepare. And as I exhale, I allow my head to be heavy and just rolling through my upper back mid back. As I get to my lower back, I'm really bending my knees just to allow my spine to soften.

I inhale. I exhale. Focusing on weight evenly distributed through both legs. And coming up to tall standing, I'm gonna repeat that one more time. It just feels great to start the session. Inhale and exhale. Head goes heavy.

So I'm rolling down, bending the knees. Neck is soft. Arms are straight. I'm resisting the urge to push my shoulder blades forward. So I've got a little bit of rhomboid connection in hail and exhale. Again, pressing evenly through both legs.

So this is, in my mind, this is the start of my footwork as I'm doing my roll down and up tall. Okay. So I'm gonna, like I said, I've got one red. I'm gonna go into a seated position, and I'm gonna do a roll up on the reformer. So I'm gonna move a little bit forward. So I have a little bit of space behind me for my lower back. I'm gonna take my straps on the short end.

I'm gonna find my c curve position. So I'm rounding through the lumbar, shoulders over the hips, and my eyes are moving forward just towards my knees, and I'm gonna slowly start rolling back. I'll start finding a little bit of resistance just to assist me here, allowing my lower back to melt. Inhale and exhale. So, of course, we can't go all the way down. So I'm stopping in the chest lift position, but I allow my body to come all the way forward and losing resistance.

I'm gonna stack my spine up tall, scapular, retracting slightly, horizontal shoulder abduction. And I bring the arms forward. And I find my c curve once again. And rolling back. All the way down trying to find my lumber on the mat Still keeping the collar bones wide and lifting up, rolling through, finding my c shape, stacking the spine up tall, scapular retracting and opening up wide across the chest.

Deltoid posterior is active upper back extensors. Arms coming forward, finding my c shape once again, and then rolling down and back. So it's got so many nice elements to this roll up. And exhale the abdominals, the hip flexes, the stretch of the back coming forward, stacking the spine up tall. Straight elbows and opening up wide across the chest and bringing the arms in.

Finding my c shape, and I'm probably gonna repeat this twice more. Feels like a good move to do in the beginning of the session. Inhale. And exhale. And, of course, I've got the one red, but if it's too difficult, the shoulder horizontal AB Duction, you could always drop to a half a spring, stacking the spine up.

And opening up and arms coming forward. As I get to parallel, I find the c shape and drawing back. And up. And forward lift. And open wide across the chest, wide across the chest, find that tall sitting position, and then bringing the arms forward.

And then we'll hook our straps. Okay. So I'm gonna turn around. I'm gonna set up all my springs on. And I'm just gonna go into the Pelvicole a couple of times.

So I'm gonna roll on to my back, and I generally use the half of the foot plate and the foot bar. It depends on the angle of your knees and your hips which comfortable for you. So I'm gonna take a breath in to prepare and exhale as I articulate up off the mat. Rolling up one vertebra at a time, and I wanna achieve a nice long line. So my long line is from my thighs across my pelvis to my rib cage and inhale and exhale. As I melt and release back into neutral and inhale and exhale. Peeling up off the mat, keeping my thighs parallel.

So I don't wanna splay with the legs, inhale at the top, and exhale. And back into neutral and inhale and exhaling. Shoulder extensors, are active throughout the whole movement, inhale, and exhale. And inhale. And exhale, inhale at the top, and exhale melting down.

And I'm gonna do one last one. Inhale, posterior tilt, focusing on the hamstrings, the abdominals. I'm quite relaxed through the gluteals at this stage. So if I have to squeeze my glutes, it might splay the knees. But as I extend my hips, I can feel my gluteals working harder and inhale at the top. And exhale as I bring it back down all the way back into my neutral position.

Good. So I'm gonna pop up I'm gonna pop up my foot bar. I'll keep all my springs on that I had. Alright. And I tend to use quite a low foot bar because of the angle of, my femurs, because I've got pretty long legs, even for my height. Alright. So I don't want to be into too much hip flexion, but this is gonna feel good. So I have my legs parallel.

Arms at my sides. I'm in the heel position. And from here, I'm just gonna press the legs out straight. Focusing on really drawing up through the kneecaps. And then from here, I'm Botha bend the knees to about halfway.

And I'm just gonna do five little pulses. I'm going 1 and 2 3, 4, and 5, and all the way home. Touch. And so from here, I'm gonna change to the tow position. So I'm parallel. So, again, if you end up so you see, I come off the stopper a little bit just to give me a little bit of space behind the knees, and I exhale as I press out fully straightening out my legs drawing up through my knees.

I'm thinking about my inner thighs in this position because I would tend to wanna roll, and I'm gonna bend the knees to about halfway. And I'm gonna do five little presses and one. 2, 3, 4, 5, and bring it all the way in. I'll do the same in the small v position. So fully straightening the legs out.

Just drawing up through my 5. So this is just a reminder for me to straighten my legs when I can, tightening through the thighs, and then I'm gonna come back into halfway. So really waking up the legs. And 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and I'll bring it home. So from here, I go back to parallel.

Mhmm. And I'm gonna press out once all the way out. I'm gonna do 5 calf raises, so I lower the heels, and lift. Again, focusing on the inner thighs. Lower the heels. And 2. Lower the heels. Straight legs.

3. 4. So I'm working in the gastro. 5. Keep the lift.

Bending the knees. Get a little bit of a softening. So I want about a ninety degree angle at my knee joint. And then from here, without moving the carriage, just lift the heels and lower the heels. And 2 and down. 3 and down.

4 and down. So I'm keeping those thighs active, 5. A little bit of work through the Solius, 6. This, I'll do 10, 7, 8, 9 and one more and 10 and midway with the heels, press the legs out straight, and bring it all the way. Home. Cool. So I'm just gonna pop up.

I'd like to use 1 a half springs here for a little bit of abdominal work. So that's a red and a blue. I'm going down onto my back. A little bit of space between myself and the shoulder pads, and I'm gonna take my straps. And I'd like the just to make sure we don't have any tangles here.

The the short loops And I'm gonna start with a 100 prep. So I'm gonna press down with my arms. So until I have vertical arms, shoulder blades down, lifting the legs up. And as I exhale, I come up into a chest lift, reaching away with my arms, moving the carriage back, floating the arms, lowering the head and the chest, And again, 2. Shifting and up and back.

And 3. And up and back and 4 and up and back one more time for 5 and up and back. So I'm going to do a preparation exercise for the jackknife. Right? So I use the same one and a half springs, and I'm gonna set up from the tabletop position again. So I'm gonna bring the legs up 1 and 2. Arms are gonna press down alongside my body.

I'm gonna bring my knees in towards me. I'm gonna roll the pelvis up and back. Keep it there for a sec. Slowly roll it down. And then as my legs are getting to that 90 degrees at the hip joint, I can float my arms back up to the vertical.

So I press down with my arms, So try take your time here, bring the knees in, and peeling the spine up off the mat, using the abdominals to float the pelvis, rolling back down as the legs are getting back to that vertical 5 position, arms come back up. Arms down, knees come in, abdominals exhale. Add down. And, it's come up. I'm gonna do twice more and press and lift and down and away one more time. And press and exhale.

Rolling away, lifting up, and we need to keep the same resistance. So I'll hook My right strap. Mhmm. So I just gotta find the hook here. There we go. Almost there.

Pressing out with both legs, and I'm gonna put my left foot into the strap. Alright. I want my left leg to be more or less vertical, keeping the carriage secure. I'm gonna bend my right knee to the tabletop, slight softening in my left knee, and I'm gonna press down extending the left hip and bringing the leg back up. So I'm working in through this hip extensor. Inhale. So this is great if you've got a bit of hyper extension in the knees.

3. To work on that co contraction between the quad. And the hamstring and in and in 6. I'll do 2 more and 1 and in and 2 bring it back home. Good. So we'll find the foot bar, and you wanna find the little hook to hook your strap back on.

Other side, So I'm pushing out left leg, right leg into the strap. I wanna end up with a vertical right leg softening my knee. So this is my more challenged hamstring. Bending my left leg to the tabletop and inhale. Add in.

Add inhail. In. I'll do 4 more. 1. 2. And inhale. 3 in here. One more. And and all the way back up to the vertical, we'll find the foot bar.

And we'll hook the strap. Alright. So I'm gonna stay on the 1a half springs just to keep things uncomplicated. If it feels too heavy for you, please, by all means, I'm gonna go into the semi circle. So I'm gonna drape my legs over the foot bar. And what you'll notice is because I'm pretty tall, I don't get much range in pushing the carriage back But what I do get where I'm very lucky is I do get a really nice stretch around the thoracic area because of the the placement of the carriage. So I've got my hands on the shoulder rest. I'm gonna lift my pelvis up, and at the same time, straightening my arms.

I'll step up onto the footbar, and I'll start up in the bottom left position, really focusing on keeping my elbows as straight as possible here. I draw in as close to the stopper as I can, but by no means, on the stopper. And this is where I roll down trying to get as much flexion as possible, releasing my pelvis. And this is where I am a little bit lucky is that I get that extension in my thoracic spine, because of where the carriage hits me under the shoulder blades, I push out, and you'll see I could hit the top, but I've Botha stop just a little bit short roll up, keeping the tension through my legs and shoulders, triceps, and then I draw back in. Getting that beautiful stretch and just trying not to lift my heels too high. And I exhale as I roll back down. Elbows stay straight.

I push out, so it sets me up for any overhead positions this exercise. Roll up and drawing in. I'll do one more in this direction here. So I press down with my spine one vertebra at a Ed. Lovely stretched through the thoracic area here.

Elbows. I'm trying to keep them straight. Press out through both legs. Not quite to the end of the bed. Roll up. Without lifting my heels, drawing back in, trying to keep my heels as still as possible, pelvis as high as possible.

So I get a beautiful stretch across my quads. I'm really trying to go in as deep as I can. Now I reverse, I press out, gain almost to the end. I roll back down, pressure through the arms, and gliding back in, and rolling up, straight arms, lifting, getting that beautiful stretch across the quads, pushing out, and rolling. And down one more time.

And in and lift up. And here we go. I push out. I rolled out. I draw back in. And from here, I'm gonna come up into my left.

I wanna get my final little stretch. I draw in, in, in, and to come out, I can just let the carriage slide in. Drape the legs and bring it all the way into the stopper, and it feels amazing. Alright. So I'm gonna have out one red spring, but I'm going on the highest gear. So I want a little bit of resistance here.

So I'm going into my stretch. So I'm Botha do the lunge forward. Alright? So just make sure your foot bar is locked in. You're gonna go into a standing position.

Right, one foot up at the back at around 60 degrees. We're gonna step the other foot up onto the foot bar, and I'm going onto my fingertips here, lifting up with my sternum, dropping with my pelvis, taking 5 breaths. 1, 2, 3, 4, And 5, then I wanna place my palms down without dropping my front heel. I'm gonna start straightening out with my front leg, thinking of that right sitting bone drawing down and back. And gliding back in, finding the fingertip position again, lifting up through the chest, and I'm gonna change. So I step out. So I'm gonna step through a front support position, bump, pushing up out of my shoulders, and I'll go into 5 push ups over here.

So I'm bringing my carriage a little bit forward. And in One more. Draw through the upstretch. And then I'll bring my other leg through. So I step onto the bar, I press out into the lunge, chest is up, shoulder blades drawing down, and back back leg as straight as you can, a little bit of energy.

5432 and then hands down. I press out front leg immediately. I'm thinking of my sitting bones going out without dropping my pelvis. So I wanna move out on that horizontal with a pelvis to 3, 4, and bending the knee, gliding back in. I'm lifting back up into my position here. And I'm gonna step it out, bring the carriage in.

I'm gonna add a blue to my red. So I've got 1 a half into an elephant position here. Alright. Trying to get my back as flat as possible. So believe it or not, I am sticking out my sitting bones. I'm gonna take my right arm.

I slide it in slightly. My left arm is going around my ankle. And then I just push the carriage away and I get into a little bit of rotation, a little bit of rotation, and, shhh, rotate, and inhale. And and inhale and exhale and inhale. Yeah.

And exhale. And I'll change. So I slide my left arm in towards the center. My right arm is going to my left ankle. Or for those of you who are more flexible, you can hold on to the shoulder rest. So again, you're trying to flatten out the back.

And as I inhale, I push the carriage away. It's taking me into that rotation. So a lot like the saw, and staying stable in the left shoulder. 1. Inhale. Big rotation. 2, as you un rotate.

3. And one more time. Beautiful. Alright. So One blue. So I'm taking off my red spring. I push the carriage out a little bit with my arms. Right? And then I'm gonna step my right foot into the gearbox.

Alright? So I'm within the springs. I'm just gonna control the carriage with my right arm and then place my left foot against the edge of the carriage. So I'm gonna move into a little bit of a hip hinging exercise. So, you know, I'm a little bit heavier, a little bit bigger, so I'm on a blue spring for those of you who wanna work on a yellow, by all means. So from here, I'm standing up straight. I'm gonna just keep my hands on my hip joint here, and I'm gonna press the carriage out and I create a little bit of a hinge at my hip.

So you see this leg's bending, but not a lot there. And then I come back up into tall standing. So I'm not doing too much with my left leg. It's just pushing the carriage out slightly, but it's really the sitting back of my right hip. That's what creates the work, and I lift back up.

Into tall standing. And again, I press out. Inhale. So I get the hinge at the hip joint here and exhale. Shush. So some of you might find it beneficial to put your hands on your hips here.

I like to get this feeling of creasing. So I place my hands into the crease of my hip joint. Then I know I'm getting the crease where I want it and up, not necessarily pressing from the standing leg or squatting. And again, one more time, so I press out, getting my hinge, see this knee is not doing a lot of bending, and coming up into tall standing. Cool. So for a moment, you might just hit the springs there.

That's okay. To switch legs. I place my foot against the carriage on the side here, coming up into tall standing, hands on the crease, and inhale and exhale. And to so I really feel that this exercise addresses the Ed component of the session, pressing away. Lovely stretch.

Of the hamstring on the way down, the straighter you keep the leg. And now you've Botha use it to bring it back up into tall standing. I may do another 2 on the side here and pressing away. Pressing away from sitting back. And, and if someone doesn't really understand the action, all you wanna describe is imagine you standing about a foot away from the wall.

With your pelvis. And what I wanna do is I wanna touch my pelvis against the wall. So you'll see, notice I move my pelvis back. I move my pelvis back, so I get the wall. And that's where I feel. Okay.

This is really working. And I've Botha a control control to bring it back up into standing. So from there, I'm gonna pop myself out. I'm gonna take my footbar down. I'm going on to a red spring.

Right? So that's one full spring for my side split. So the idea with the side split is to really control the carriage. Alright? So I want to be able to hold the carriage on the stop and hold. It's still in different parts of the exercise. So I'm gonna bring my left foot onto the standing foot plate. I secure the carriage. I bring my right foot on.

I shift my weight to the center. I'm still on the stopper. Ed is heavy, and now this is really the work is rolling up straight legs and keeping the carriage on the stopper, beautiful adductor work. You could bring your arms out to the tee, and then we inhale as we go into our side split. We hold and exhale.

Shush. And this is where the work is right here. 1, 2 counts. And inhale as I open. Maybe 1, 2 over here. And in drawing up, I'm thinking of growing tall.

1, 2, and inhale. And exhale drawing 1, 2, and inhale. 1, 2, and inhale. Big stretch. You can go a little bit further. See if you wanna get that adductor stretch going.

And up and up and find the stuffer then from their arms, and we roll down. Legg straight. And then we can bend And, unfortunately, we gotta do both sides of this exercise. Alright? So I apologize my back to you, but it'll be worth it.

So I'll step on step on with the other foot. Make sure your feet are both in line, straightening your legs, and then rolling up with a straight leg. So to hold that carriage on the stopper is the challenge. And inhale to open. 1, 2, and I'm really think of using the leg that's on the bed to draw up 1, 2, and inhale. 1, 2, and 1, 2, add. Inhale. 1, 2, add. Connect 2 more on the side and inhale.

Yeah. Get your stretch. Yes. And exhale. And the last one, we'll see if we can go a little bit further. And it's a risk.

It's a risk. And we go and we go. Can we get back up? That's the question. The question and draw. Yes.

I'm still really working. You'll see my legs there shaking. They're shaking. They're shaking, and I roll. Bend the leg.

Take that one off. Awesome. Okay. That feels great. So we're gonna do a little bit of the torso twist. So I'm gonna go with a blue spring, tall kneeling position. Mhmm. So a really great exercise for rotation.

It's pretty athletic exercise. It's got great transfer into sport. So I'm gonna take the strap with the opposite hand, and I'm gonna bring my arms to the center of my body here. And then I'm gonna derotate inhale. And exhale.

Shush and inhale. And 2 shush and in. So you wanna get a little bit of flow here. 3 shush and in. Woah, and email for 5 and email, and 6 and in. 7, and inhale.

8. So making sure the stern moves with the chin. Ah, and in one more, add and bring it back in and change round. So we wanna really keep this connection of the sternum and the chin. And, of course, you wanna try keep your pelvis as stable as possible. But because it's got a a bit of a dynamic, the pelvis might adjust. Alright? So I'll do the other side. And so you'll see, you'll notice I'm also not in a hip width, the part position. I'm in a shoulder width, the part position.

So I've got a bit of a v in my legs. So I'm gonna take my strap with the opposite arm. This is gonna be my right. I bring it to the center. So I know I'm stable here.

And in As long as you keep the tension on the ropes. And in for 5 and in 6, 7, and in 8, 2 more in, 9, and in, and and bring it all the way back. Good. So I hook my straps again. I'm gonna hop out for a sec. I'm just gonna change to 1 red spring for some back extension.

So I'm gonna bring my long box onto the reformer. Alright. And this is a a great exercise. I I'm a a surfer. So, you know, I've spent a lot of time in the paddling position. This is a beautiful exercise that replicates that.

So it strengthens those upper back extensors here. So I wanna lie with my sternum just off the edge and I'm gonna fold my straps just once here. Mhmm. So I fold. So I've got a nice thick set of straps here. That's just my preference having bigger hands.

If you just wanna hold onto the the ropes. You're more than welcome to. So as I inhale, I bring my hands towards my hip joint. Thoracic aims forward. Inhale. At exhale@enail@scapulardepression.

And I retract my scapula slightly and depressed. Retract slightly. And depressed while I extend the shoulder. Yeah. It's good. Now I'm gonna go open up my straps. Bring my hands into the short loops, bring my arms into the t position, and you'll see I'm floating my arms.

I'm trying to keep them quite high a little bit higher than my shoulder height. Then from here, I inhale. I lift as I bring my upper arm towards my Botha, and then I exhale. And as I exhale, I open, I float those arms again. And, again, inhale.

I lift. I adduct. With my shoulder and exhale. So I'm just bringing my upper arm to touch my body. And inhale, my palms are staying facing the floor, and so I'm staying in external shoulder rotation. And e mail there.

And exhale. And one more and e mail there. And hold it there from here, I'm gonna lower the arms and then just lift 1. So working that deltoid posterior area, 2, 3, the rhomboids, 4, 5,000,000 lower traps, 6, 7, 8, 9. One more time. 10.

And hook the straps. And I'm slowly gonna come out of the box. Coming to the front again, and I'm gonna finish with my roll downs. So arms, back where they started. So after those pulling straps exercises, you'll really feel that opening across the chest that length through the collarbone area.

My upper back feels really set and alive and taking a breath in and exhale. And inhale and tall one more time and inhaling. And inhale, and exhale. Back into tall standing. And thank you guys for sharing the last 40 minutes with me. It was a pleasure.