Core Base Reformer

Hi. I'm Courtney. I designed a reformer class for today's workout that has no loaded flexion. So if you shouldn't be lying on your back, curling up into a bunch of crunches and doing things like the hundred, You're gonna love this workout. This is also what I would call a foundation workout or a base workout. I've taken any falling hazards out of the Miller, and it's just a solid full body class that you're going to love. Let's get started. I have one blue spring on my reformer, and I'm just gonna start facing back and just kinda get warmed up with some squats, sitting my hips low and rising all the way up.

So as I squat, you can see I'm pushing my hips back, My knees are driving over my toes. I tend to do this little thing with my arms where they come up every time I go down. That is unintentional. You can do anything you'd like with your arms. About 10 here, driving the heels into the floor, It's almost like our footwork, but it's standing last two.

And then one more like this, and one. Now grab the strap that's closest to you. If you have the option between a long and short loop, just know the short loop's gonna be a little bit harder slightly angle yourself and step back so you've got some tension. Nothing really changed. We're still doing a squat, but this time it's a row. If you want the exercise to feel harder, grab ahold of that short loop, or step backwards.

10 on one side and 10 on the other. The beauty here is the reformers allowing me to kind of lean back into my squat a little bit more than when I don't have the resistance, one more on this side. And switching the arms, pushing back. Whole body movement right away. We just dive right into it.

Low squat and lift. Notice if you're leaning like this. Try to avoid lean back into the heels, lean back. And if you're having a hard time leaning back, you probably need more attention. Sit back a little bit. Last two, and last one. Now hold on to the strap. Face your machine and take a wide standing position, arms out like a t.

Two moves happen at once, sit low into a second position, squat, or plie, and hug a tree, and then inhale open. Exhale as you get low and inhale open. If you're looking for more range of motion or more tension, step towards your foot bar. If you have a short loop, you can hold that as well. Spine is tall in this move.

Dropping it low, lifting high. I'm trying not to twist. Last three, and two, and then I'm gonna stay in that low position, interlace my hands rotate towards the ropes. There's no tension, and then use those deep core muscles to rotate away. Big exhale as you twist.

Try to keep the hands away from your chest. Elbows lifted high. Shoulders stacked right over the hips. Big exhale as you rotate one more time and rise all the way up. Hook up that strap, stay beside your machine.

We're gonna face back for this next one, bend deep into a squat, hand closest to the shoulder block goes on. It's a forward press, abs are tight. You might slightly angle yourself so you feel stable every time you push, step a leg back, and then the opposite leg back. And step. Now I didn't say it at the beginning of class, but I did build in another class that goes right after this where we do all these same exercises with more challenging variations. So if you've done this class a bunch of times and you wanna step it up, there is a class waiting for you.

Last two, two, and one. And rise. Okay. We're gonna take this down into a low plank position. So onto the elbows and forearms, we go hold the shoulder blocks, curl the toes onto that platform. I always press it with one leg kinda settle in, and then the other.

Hips are tucked, core is tight, elbows are pressing forward. Elbows are right under the shoulders. Chestbone is pushing up. Ten, twelve, 15 reps. Those are all good goals to have.

I'm going for 12, so I've got four more. Big exhale, four, head up and line with spine, three, two, and One. Bring it on home. Walking the hands forward to the shoulder blocks, we're gonna move into an upper body flow. I'm gonna grab the left loop.

This is a strap I was using before, and I'm gonna hold nice and high right above the metal clip or the knot. Knees wide under hips. It's a straight arm pull, and down. And I wanna stop that hand right under my shoulder, so I still have tension. My spine is long. Had reaching away from the tailbone.

My sit bones are kinda lifted. About eight here is a great number. If the exercise ever begins to feel too heavy, you don't have to change your springs. Remember we're still in a blue, you just change your grip. You just hold a little bit.

Closer to the loop itself. Now the next time the arm is up, you hold it high into triceps, we go, bend the elbow and kick it back. That stabilizing arm is soft. My fingers are wrapped under the headrest, so my wrist is long. Notice that I'm not in a flat hand.

For me, that kind of bugs my wrist. So I wrap my hand under. Squeeze the headrest just like I'm holding the foot bar. My goal is eight, two more Courtney. One more time.

And done. Walk the knees back and position yourself into what I call a side lounge position where I'm just propped up on my elbow. That loop I was using now goes around the arch of my foot. Still on that loose spring. So by all means, use that shorter loop, if you're looking for a little bit more intensity, find that length in the spine. It's a forward sweep, and all the way back.

And I use the foot bar as a gauge for how high my foot should be. Inhale when the leg goes forward, and exhale as the leg goes back. I'm moving my leg without moving anything else. So my shoulders, my spine, and my hips are staying really stable. Around eight repetitions here, Big stretch forward, big pullback.

Now I started today's class, letting you know there wasn't gonna be exercises that included loaded flexion, lying on your back, putting your hands in the straps and curling up and doing exercises like the hundred. Just in case you don't like doing those or you shouldn't do those. But I didn't say this exercise isn't gonna have core work. A lot of what we're doing is Courtney, booty is part of the core, abdominals, back and shoulders, bend the knee in, exhale, kick it to that foot bar. Inhale bend, and exhale kick. If you ever get tired being up on your elbow, just come down. Listen to your body.

If it feels right to come down, just come on down. You're still gonna work those glutes, bend the knee, knee in line with hip, kick it out. Last two, and last one. This next one's hard. You hold the leg long. You do two pulses up.

You swing the leg forward. Two pulses up. See if you can do that four times. Swing it back. One two. Swing it forward. One two.

Swing it back. One, two, swing it forward. One, two, one more time. Swing it back. One, two, and forward, up, up. Alright. It's working. I feel it. Hook up that strap. Come back onto your knees. We're going into a riser pull up.

So you're gonna want your knees right against your shoulder blocks. You have to walk the frame of the machine until you get all the way all the way all the way to the back. Sit the hips low, but try to keep the chest a bit lifted. And then on a breath out, you're doing this. You're pulling your chest forward. And lengthening the elbows.

So my arms are straight pulling. Now when my arms are straight, I'm still not releasing. Right? So keep the shoulders down. Just straighten those elbows all the way. No tension in the neck. This is a back exercise. Core is tight hips are low chest is lifted. This is a pole movement.

It's lengthening out through the wrists and elbows. Four more. Three. Two, and then one more time, chest goes forward, arms go straight. How do you get out of it? Same way you got in, walk slide, walk slide, easy breezy. Let's do the same thing on the other side.

Remember, we started with our squats. So let's go full circle, sitting low and rising up. The cool thing after doing a long unilateral or one-sided series is you can feel right away the difference in your body. I feel very different. In this left side of my body than I do on my right, I would consider this move a reset exercise, finding center again, and finding that sensation of moving evenly through both sides.

Last two, And last one. Then we grabbed the strap. I gave you the option for the longer short. We stand back until we have tensioned that rope. We repeat the squat, but we're adding a row.

We're staying on one side for 10. And then we're going into the other side. The beauty again, you get to lean back a lot. You get to really work that vertical alignment of the spine, sending the hips back, knees over toes, I like a narrow elbow row, you could open the elbow wide, or anything in between, switch to the other side. And remember, next class The one that builds on this, we'll be doing these movements again with some progressions.

Progressive is just another way to say ways to make it harder, ways to make it more complicated. Four more. That's four That's three, two, and one. Turn to face your machine. Open the legs wide.

Make a tee with the arms. Two moves in one low squatter plie as the arms come in. Again, this is a core exercise. So I'm working my chest muscles, and I'm feeling as my arm comes in, how to tighten through my obliques, and stay strong through my spine. Low squat.

Bring it in. If it's too heavy, you gotta step that way towards your risers. If it's too easy, you gotta step that way. Towards your foot bar. Hold the next one low.

Rotate towards. You don't have much tension at all. Rotate away. So you got a lot of tension, exhale as you twist. Keeping the hands away from the chest. Shoulders right over hips. Inhale rotate exhale twist. 30. Two.

One more time like this. One, open it up and hook up that strap. Turning to face back, come into that low squat. Remember the hand that's closest to the carriage is the one that's pushing forward Step forward if you want to feel more resistance, step back if you want less, and then add that leg tap when you push the machine forward, one leg goes back. Push. I love this because I can really feel those deeper muscles in my spine, in my core working to stabilize me against this little bitty challenge in the standing position.

Push, chest is low. Press So this is a push exercise. We're playing a lot with this push pull choreography in this workout. One more each leg, I'm alternating legs, and bring it all the way in. Back into that low plank position we go down onto the elbows, hold the shoulder blocks.

Again, I usually get in with one foot on, so I'm prepared. And then the other. Here's the difference, instead of the elbow slides, bend the knees, push out pause. Bend the knees, push out pause. Still working ten, fifteen reps, Whatever feels right for you today. This is these are ways that you can change up the exercise. Do a little more if you're feeling stronger.

Four more for me. That's Courtney, two, and one. And knees go down. Don't forget to walk forward a little bit and place the hands onto the headrest. I'm a big fan of the headrest versus the shoulder blocks for this move because I wanna try to get the spine into that long vertical line parallel to the ground. The higher you hold on the rope, The heavier it's gonna feel lift and lowers the hands right under the shoulder and lift. Eight repetitions is your goal here.

This is a back exercise. So you're feeling those strong muscles behind you working to pull the arm back. Right by the hip, crown of the head reaches forward, ribs closed. Three more. Three two, and then hold the arm nice and high into the triceps we go, remember change the grip if you wanna feel less resistance.

Squeeze the elbow high, keep it lifted, keep it stable. These four point kneeling moves are like preparatory exercises for planks. So don't forget about the head, chest lifted, core tight, three, two, and one, we keep that loop, walk it back, and drop down onto your elbow and forearm. This is the move where we use the strap around the arch of the top foot. The shorter loop is definitely gonna make it harder. Not too hard though.

You can do it. Eight sweeps forward and back. Inhale forward, exhale back. I'm using the footbar as a guy that's about how high I want my leg to be. I'm constantly reminding myself of my upper body when I do this move, stacking the hips, And I'm allowing this maximum swing forward. Like, I'm going for length here. I'm not trying to hold back. Yes.

I am trying to keep my top hip in alignment with my bottom hip, but I wanna feel that hamstring lengthening when I do this move. Last two, and into the knee bends. Keep the parallel shape. Push. So I'm working to keep this top side of my body long. And the way that I keep the top side of my body long is by keeping the bottom side of my body lifted.

See if you can feel that. Top side long. Four three two. Now hold that leg straight. Remember this one up to go forward up to go back four sets up to go forward, up to, go back two more sets, up to, and swing it.

Last time, lift, lift, and lift, lift. Awesome. Bring it in. Pivot coming back onto the knees. We've got another set of those riser pull ups, a little bit different this time. So walk the knees all the way forward. Again, hands to the rails, walk it, walk it, walk it, walk it, Hold on. Okay. So sitting those hips low.

Let's practice what we already learned, which was that pull. This is a great place to continue. You don't have to make any changes. If you're looking for a step up, a little bit more, single arm pull, I switch when my arms are straight. Pull.

I switch when my arms are straight. Pull with one arm and then alternate. Pull. And I'm trying to keep my back long. Not trying to lean side to side.

And switch one more each side. Pull and pull. Remember how to get out? Just slide it back. And come all the way in. Alright. Let's grab those long boxes.

Place them on the machine so it's parallel to those shoulder blocks long box style and I still have my blue spring on. Haven't changed it. When I come onto the box, I'll be lying prone onto my stomach. Head goes towards that foot bar. Chest comes off.

Start by pressing out. Now here's a few tips. The more of your chest that's hanging off this box, the harder you're gonna work. Legs apart or together your choice, hands are nice and wide. I want you to start the move, just kind of figuring out what's going on, bending the elbows pressing.

Shouldn't feel very challenging yet. We're gonna get there. This should feel like the riser pull ups you did, except it's the opposite movement. It's a push instead of a pull. Okay. Single arm time. Here we go. One and one.

And again, this is not just about what's happening in my arms. I feel those deep muscles in my spine, in my back, in my core working to stop me from twisting or turning side to side. I'm doing my best not to look up like this. Trying to keep the spine long. I think of a torpedo or bow and arrow. Right? I'm gonna arrow flying through the air. Leggs are active.

I'm gonna do one more in each arm, shoulders are staying down, and then we go into swan. Now, again, you might wanna scooch forward. The more of the chest that hangs off, the more work you'll get. I push out until my arms are long and I'm gonna leave them long. Now it's time to look up, lift up, bring the carriage in.

My pubic bone stays on the box. My hip bones might come off. So I'm trying to push my chest forward and through my arms. Feels good to extend the spine. If your legs are lifted and active, try to leave them like that.

Don't make this a boomerang. Don't drop the legs every time the chest comes up. Big lift. And as I lower core stays tight, last two, and one more like this, pushing the chest through the arms, nice wide collar bones, and One, bring it on home. Slide off to one side.

And before we go into the next move, the only thing you need to do is bump your foot bar down. That's for later. We'll take a seat onto the box this time facing back. Make sure you have room to lie down and lie down, hug your knees into your chest and curl up nice and high. So this is a flexion exercise.

But not loaded. So I don't have any resistance into that curl. So I am up into that spinal flexion. Hands come behind the back, find that tabletop position, lower the chest, and then exhale lift. Lower, and exhale lift. And if you're looking for more movement, you could scooch off this box a little bit more dropping even into more extension than you see me coming into. We're gonna add a leg drop as I drop my chest. One leg goes down.

I'm trying to feel for that headrest. Lower and lift. Lower and lift. One more each side, and adding our crisscross. So I'll turn to one knee extend the other leg and then exhale up and over, I go.

Using my hands behind my head to help to support, trying to keep that care as steady as I can. It's not a very heavy tension, just one blue. Four four three three two two one and done. You can hug your knees, rock yourself up and scooch back so you're comfortable in that box. Okay. Grabbing a hold of our straps, again, using long or short, if you have the option. The difference is the short will feel a little bit harder.

I'll roll back into a c scoop, stabilize my spine. One arm goes high, one arm goes low, and come back through center. Opposite arm goes high, opposite arm goes low, come back through center. I'm trying to keep my chest relatively open here. I'm looking down at the arm that's low.

And I'm doing my best to pull evenly with both. So it's not dominating with one, trying to keep those straps tight, adding a leg lift to spice things up. If you want to, one leg comes up. And take it down. We'll play with the balance position in the next class, the one that progresses after this.

And lift, working the backs of my shoulders. One more each side. And done. Keep those loops in your hands. Again, make sure you've got room lie down and draw those legs back up to table. Bending the elbows as move number one, extending the arms and legs the same time as if you're doing double leg stretches, move number two.

Bring it in. So I'm going in reaching long. The whole time I'm staying up in my curl where I look Miller, so I'm looking down at my abdominals or at my thighs, not at the ceiling like this. It's a lot of neck. Three two and one. Well done. Use a little momentum.

Rock yourself up and hang on to these bad boys. I'm gonna thread my legs through the straps. My preference is the short loops based on kind of the length of my legs and how the equipment's set up. So you might play with this at home. You might use the long loops.

You might shorten your ropes a little bit. Play with it. What you want to achieve is enough tension while you're in this position that it feels appropriate to work your core and not too heavy that you feel it in your back. So go ahead and make it your own. Hands go behind the head, sending the legs out, and bringing the legs in. Inhale extend and exhale pull.

The lower the legs go, the harder you're gonna work. So make this your own. Stay up into the abdominal lift. Three two one, hug your knees. You get to take a break.

Drop your head. Some people like to drop it all the way back. And come on up. Second's at little bit harder. You can do this. We're gonna add the twist that we practiced earlier.

So hands go behind the head. Lakes are doing the same thing. As the legs go out, you're in the curl, as the legs come in, you're in the twist. And twist, exhale scoop, and twist. Two more.

One more. Find center. Give yourself that squeeze. Maybe the stretch rock and roll yourself all the way up. Sliding your legs out of those loops. We're gonna work our body in the opposite direction into a swimming exercise on the long box.

Two ways to get into this position. One is what I call straddle scotch, and the other is come off the machine and get back on. So you can pick. Chest is lifted, legs lifted. Let's start with the hands on something stable and just practice what's happening in the legs. Thighs off the mat, legs straight.

That feels good. Yeah. Then you reach the arms forward and you add the arms. It's opposite arm to leg ten seconds. Ten nine eight seven six five four, three, two, one, and rest. Scooch forward. So a lot of the chest hangs off the box. In fact, I wanna come so far forward that my head can touch the headrest.

All the way down. Reach the arms long onto the rails. You're gonna pull out a little bit, so you have some tension to start. Pew big bone stays down. Not a lot different than the swan.

We did. Kind of a combination of the swan. And the riser pull ups. Drop all the way and then pull. Chest comes through the arms. Notice where my thumbs are. I don't wanna run them over.

They're on the top of the rails, right, not on not wrapped. Drop down, lift high. Even when I'm down, I'm still engaged through my abdominals. Pull the chest through the arms. Three two wide collar bones, head reaching away from the heels, and one. Bring the carriage all the way in and slide yourself off.

We're gonna keep the box on. Instead, we're gonna move it into a short box position, depending on your body and your alignment. You may change so the box is over the shoulder blocks or in front. I'm gonna go over. And then we're gonna change our springs for the first time today. One red spring comes on, and that blue spring is off.

So you have one spring on and the color is red. In preparation for a couple moves down the line, Let's bump that foot bar back up. Sitting on to the box. Your feet are gonna go underneath the foot strap, heels down, knees bent. So I don't have a lot of tension on here.

I'm pulling my hips towards my heels to keep that carriage closed, reaching arms, finding that posture, rolling back into the spine, gaze forward at my toes, lifting the arms in the low c scoop, exhale as I come forward, inhale rebuild the spine. So exhale roll back, lifting the arms, dive forward, and rebuilding. Two more times roll back arms frame in the face. I look to my toes, pull the abdominals in, and rebuild to what I think is my best posture. One more roll back.

Arms up. Dive forward. And bring it in. This time, it's a flat back. So I'm not gonna roll back in my hips.

I'm leaning using my abdominals to brace the shape of my body, lifting my arms, usually gonna quiver on this one, sit as tall as you can lower. So the move is lean first. Lift the arms hold. Everything comes up in one unit, and then the arms coming down. Lean first. Lift Miller the way up you go and down one more time lean, lift up and down.

One leg comes out. Take your turn. Coming into our side bends, let's set it up, one hand onto the headrest, stack the hips, stack the shoulders. You want that foot in the strap lifted, tight, and this is my foot. I want my toes sort of turned down, so I'm hooked in.

Hands come behind the head, low. And up. Hips are staying stacked, inhale as you go down, exhale as you go up, keep the head in line with your spine, low and lift. Five four, three. Two. One more time. One, take your twist. I know you want to.

Both hands go onto the frame. Score off the shoulders. Now the foot that's in the strap is gonna come out. The foot that's in the strap is gonna go higher than the foot bar, and you can rest it there for a second. Okay. So this is our rotated glute series.

I'm trying my best to Courtney off my shoulders. I'm feeling this deep like therapeutic rotation in my spine. Then I lift my legs as high as I can, and I'm only focusing on the up, not the down. I'm feeling this exercise more into my obliques, into the sides, into my core. Yes, glutes too, but all the way up higher. And for me, I have to really push down into this left hand to get that twist and up and up and lift. We got five, four, three, two, hold it high, circling. I think that this movement is a fusion between like a swan and our matte hip extension series.

Reverse those circles up and around up and around five, four, three, two, one, mind that foot bar and come all the way up. And I like to take a little counter stretch. Just sort of go in the other direction. Open up that side. Cool. Let's do it again. We're gonna start from the very beginning, though.

So hook both feet under. Heels are down, knees are bent. It's like I'm pulling my butt towards my heels. Reach forward. It isn't the head, it isn't the chest.

It's the hips that initiate, roll back, lift the arms, look down, dive forward. Re belt. Rock the hips. Lift the arms. Dive forward. We're doing four of these.

You're halfway through, rock the hips, lift the arms, dive forward, rebuild one more time, rock the hips, lift the arms, dive forward, rebuild time for that flat back hinge, lean. See the difference? Lift. Come all the way up, sit tall. Lower. Lean.

Lift. Sit tall and lower and you're still not looking up the ceiling. As you lean back, I'm kinda looking towards that foot bar, lift up, and down one more Miller, lean, lift, come all the way up and take it down into the twist. Check out the foot. So by turning the toes down, I'm actually rolling that top hip forward.

By rolling that top hip forward, I'm working less in my hips more of my butt, more of my Courtney, that's the answer right there, exhale all the way up. Inhale down and exhale up. How low do I go? Kind of as low as I can. How high do I lift? Only as high as my foot stays active into the strap. Low and lift. We got five. Pull that chin off your chest. Four.

Three, two, and one. Take a twist. Place the hands down and find that awesome rotation. It feels so good. Leg comes up over the bar, you can rest it. Okay. So here we go. Not trying to pull the carriage out, just steady my body, lift that leg high.

To be honest, I'm trying not to let that leg come forward. I'm really trying to keep it in line with my hip. If not back behind my hip, lifting up. I think it helps a lot to know where you're supposed to be feeling this exercise. It's kinda confusing. Right? What's going on? So you're feeling this in your back side.

You're oblique right here I'm pointing. In your butt right here and should feel really good in your spine, like ringing out a wet sponge and up. Chorus stays tight. Four three two, one, little circles while you're here. Anytime you circle, you gotta focus on the up, up and around, up and around, and try to keep the spine steady, reverse, up and around.

Up and around. Five, four, three, two, one, bend the knees. You're not worried about that foot bar. Come all the way up. Take that awesome counter stretch.

Feel so good and come on up. Okay. So if you have your box over the shoulder box like I do, just do a quick little switcheroony here. Put it in front. That way, the box isn't gonna slide. If your box is already there, you're ready to go.

This next move is a preparatory move. It's gonna get us ready for the next class that comes after this, the progressive class. Hands go on to the footbar, booty floats up. I'm pushing the carriage back and bending to come in. So this is like a scooter move. Knee stretches, mountain climbers.

It gets the exercise that goes by a lot of different names. My shoulders are over my wrists, and I'm trying to push all the way back to those straight legs. Now I want you to see if you can do a single leg push. So one leg is in. Push. Switch when the carrot is in.

Push. Switch when the carrot is in. Push. So we're kinda planting the seeds for these reciprocal patterns. Can you feel that? Push and push. Let's do one more each side all the way out and all the way out. Bring the carriage all the way home. Okay.

We're gonna come off the box to one side and keep the leg that's closest to the reformer on the machine. Heel is gonna be against that box standing tall. Standing leg bends. I'm gonna kick that carriage back lean forward and get nice and low and then rise to come up. It might take a couple to kinda get into your mojo, get as low as you can, kick that carriage back, rise to come up. And I am trying to straighten my back leg all the way. I have that red spring on.

I like heavy tension when I'm working my lower body, If you wanna reduce the tension here, absolutely do a blue instead. Three, two, and now stay low for one. One hand can go on the footbar, one to the lower back, scooter variation, kick that carriage, kick that box back. Push. Again, trying to come into that straight leg. All the way out. Push.

Last three. Last two, and one, bring it all the way in. Take a seat, and we're gonna repeat that flow starting from this preparatory move, heels against the box, hands on to the bar, Find that hover, kick it out. Bend it in. You've been here before. You know it. Maybe you can pick up the tempo a little bit.

Are you ready to add that single leg move? One leg. One leg. Push. Push shoulders are over the wrists, finding that full extension, and press last three to and one. I'm gonna even myself out and bring it in off to the other side we go.

Again, I'm standing real close to the machine, rising up. As I go low, I'm gonna push the carriage back, and then come up. And I do tend to like this reciprocal arm movement. Right. When one leg goes back, the other arm goes forward. Big push. And up.

Big push and trying to straighten that back leg. Big push, leaning the chest forward when I'm low, rising all the way up. Three, two, and then get low and stay low. One, hand goes on to the bar for stability. I like the opposite hand on my low back.

Let's practice. There's that scooter. Lean forward, find that full extension, find that core activation, five, four, three, two, and Courtney, bring it all the way in. Nice. And we're gonna take the box off. Place it back.

I'm excited to build on these exercises with you in the next class, but we're moving on to bridge. We have that red spring on. Add a blue. So you have two springs on. One is red. One is blue. Head rest is down.

And lie on down. I always wrap my hands over the front edge of the carriage. Lift the hips up nice and high and roll your spine down. I've got the heels of my feet onto that bar. My feet are about hips width apart. The heels of my feet helping me to really activate and find that back body. Three, rolling upper, middle, lower, two upper middle lower.

And then on this one, I'm gonna stay up for one and pressing back all the way out. Hips nice and high. When I bring the carriage in, I'm not actually thinking about closing it. I'm not thinking about going forward. What I'm thinking about is going up, up with my knees, up with my hips, up with my booty.

Three Two, we're gonna play with a march exercise. A little reciprocal pattern coming at you again. One, hold it in. Without dropping the hip, see if you can lift one leg up and put it down. Then do the same thing on the other leg and put it down. Keep both feet on do a press back, and let's repeat that flow. So we're going up, down, up, down, big press out, pull it all the way in again, up, down, up, down, big push out, bring it all the way in.

Last time like this, up, down, up, down, push it all the way out, bring it all the way in close that carriage and roll your spine down. I've got good news. Reach back behind you. Find your loops. Your feet go in.

Your hips stay down. The straps go closer to your heels in this exercise than to your toes. The hips stay onto the mat as the legs lift and lower. All the way up on a breath in. Find that hamstring length all the way down.

We did a lot of good work for the back body today for the lower body too. So you're gonna feel that how good that lengthening feels now. Adding into those leg circles, we go up and around and down. And up and around and down. Line down, feeling the length of the spine, width through the collar bones, using that carriage bed as a reminder of alignment for your posture.

Try reversing the direction of your circles down and around. Meeting in middle, down and around, going into our frog, and we're even gonna go into swimming frog next. So stay low, heels together toes apart. Here is that baby frog bending into that diamond pushing out. I love this move because it really makes me feel like I'm having to think about working my left and right sides together because if I don't, my heels don't stay together. The full swimming frog, you bend, open, and close.

Bend in, open like a letter v and close. I tend to flex my feet when I bend, and then I point at my ankles when I close. See how that feels in your body. Reverse. So you go open. Come into that diamond push out.

Open, come into that diamond and push out. So I open the carriage moves, but when I bend into the diamond, it doesn't move. Do you see that? And then I press. I'm really finding that stability and press one more time and press all the way out. We're gonna finish with pad a shot or Peter pan legs. I also had somebody tell me that this reminds them of a ninja jumping and leaping through the air, I kinda like that when the most out of all the three queues, a ninja, leafing through the air.

One leg goes along, one knee bends in. I'm trying to stay square in my torso, one more each side, and almost done. Feed can come out of the straps, legs can go over the foot bar. If you're not using those loops again, you can throw them on the ground. I won't say anything.

No one's there to get mad at you. Reach your arms up. One reformer roll up is all you need. Tuck your chin. Roll yourself to come all the way up. Give yourself a little squeezey hug while you're at the top.

And rise up. Today's class had movements of the spine. We didn't do any loaded flexion. We didn't put the hands and the straps, curl up, and have resistance against that curl. But we did really work our abdominals.

We did really work our booty and we built a foundation or a base that we're gonna continue to evolve from. So stick around in this class for as long as it feels right for you. It's always good to come back to those foundations. I'll see you in the next class when you're ready to add some progressions onto what you just learned. Bye.