Athletic Endurance Reformer

Hi. I'm Delia, and today we'll be doing an athletic flow on the reformer. And behind me, I have the Allegro 2 reformers. So I'm gonna walk you through a couple of things before we get started. I do have the reformer on a yellow spring, so that's the lightest spring. And I do have the, foot bar at its normal height, and I'm gonna be stepping into the well of the reformer.

So as I go into the well of the reformer, just be really careful. And I only tell you to be careful because I have done this myself. Do not trip over the straps as you're walking in. Let's start by facing the carriage and go about an arms distance away from the blocks, and then you'll know you'll be in the right position for the first few exercises. Standing nice and tall, reach those arms up to the sky, take a huge deep inhale breath Let's fold forward bringing the hands towards the toes for your warm up, soften your knees, dropping your chin towards your chest, and then slowly roll up one vertebra at a time and reach those arms up. We'll do that three more times in hill breath.

Exhale as I fold forward, softening the back, softening the shoulders, softening the knees, and then lifting through the arches and inner thighs and hips and lower back middle back, let those shoulders rise for a stretch twice more. And flex and reach your hands towards your toes. Take a deep inhale and pause and roll yourself all the way back up. This moment is for you to find all those little tight spots in your body to become present and find your breath And this is your last one. From here, just lift about halfway and gaze towards the blocks, bringing your hands onto the blocks, nice and tall with the spine softening your knees.

If you do have tight hamstrings, It is really important that those knees are soft so you don't put that extra pressure onto your lumbar spine. From here, pull the carriage towards you with long arms, start to straighten your legs, and find a big hump in your back, almost like the elephant on the reformer. And then bend the knees. Allow the carriage to go back to its stopper. And I'm gonna drop my bottom here so that I can warm up my hips as well.

Exhale breath as I flex naval to the spine. Inhale as I reach those arms forward. Twice more and flex and reach dropping that bottom down one more time and flex. And now I'm gonna hold that round position. That curve with my spine. Take two breaths here inhale through the nose.

And exhale through the mouth, forcing almost the expansion at the back body and then releasing the carriage gently into its home, and then bringing my fingertips towards the floor. Let's roll up from here. And we're gonna go into our side body. My arms are reaching up. Place the left hand over the right hand, fold forward, and place the hand on the right block.

From here around the back, it's the same exercise, except we are warming up in a lateral flexion. So feel the stretch from the left hip towards the left shoulder. So it's the same motion with the legs, exhale breath, same breath, inhale, One more time, exhale hold here for two breaths, inhale through the nose, exhale through the mouth, getting that big opening on the left side of the body, and then gently releasing the carriage back to its stopper fingertips back towards the floor to roll yourself all the way up. One more time on the other side, right hand goes over the left hand. You fold forward softening the knees. Look towards your fingertips.

Round the back and pull that carriage as you straighten your legs. And then bend your knees and drop your bottom down and exhale and flex. Just two more. Make sure this isn't feel like a twist. It should feel just a lateral flexion like a nice arch of the back to the side.

One more time, exhale breath. And then reach those arms forward fingertips back towards the floor for one last roll down and then roll all the way back up. Now there's a little platform at the back of this a 2 reformer, but even if you don't have a platform, you should be fine placing your feedback on the end of the frame. Place your hands onto the blocks, bring your feet back to that platform, or to the frame. I've done this also on a studio reformer, so it is doable. If you don't feel comfortable up here, go ahead and just place your feet down.

You can do these exercises with your feet on the floor. Feet go back up to the platform for me here. Hold. I'm in a nice plank. I'm gonna lift up into a nice pike. So a little stretch here, dropping my head towards my shoulders, resting my feet back to the frame.

Lift up to the balls of the feet, roll through the spine, and find your plank again as you pivot from the shoulder. And then roll yourself back. It is your choice. You can roll through your spine, or you could just hinge through your hips. Just make sure you feel nice movement through your back and movement through your ankles.

This is also a good warm up for the feet. One more time. And then I'm gonna set myself into this plank position for a moment and then drop my hips ever so slightly to open up my chest into a little up dog or a little up stretch and then flex through the spine, bringing my feet back down towards the floor for one last roll down fingertips to the toes, roll yourself all the way up, and you are done inside the well. So I'm gonna step over to the outside so I can face you for the next few exercises. Grab onto the strap, and there is the yellow spring, which is the lightest. You can do more. So these are all suggestions for spring load, so you do what you need to do for your body.

I'm gonna hold on to the strap with my right hand, with my left side of my body facing the reformer. I'm facing the upright. So I'm at a diagonal line and be giving this myself enough space because I'm gonna be going into a squat. So test your squat. Okay? I actually could probably hold on to the shorter loop for this one.

So just test it and make sure you feel comfortable here. It's not gonna be the most perfect squat. Is just enough to fire those big muscles on the lower half of the body. Now add a little row. So how far you stand from the upright will be dependent on how much resistance you want or can do.

And when you row, your palm can rotate up. Your palm can stay facing in. So whatever you wanna do with that shoulder. Now you could add a little rotation. So as I row back, I could bring that gesture arm forward as I pull with my strap arm.

And then you can feel that right glute fire just ever so slightly leading with that hip. This makes it a little bit more dynamic and a little bit more athletic one more time, then forward and hold. So just a little bit of endurance on those quads, I'll drop down into my squat. Pull for that row and then pause here for some pulses, feet are flat to the floor, feet are parallel, shoulders are back, abs are pulled in. All the goodies and Pilates for 4, 3, 2 and 1.

And stand. So now I'll face you guys. Legs are going to be in a wide stance. Toast pointing out and make sure that your hip, and knee, and feet or all in the same direction. And you can test it out by bending the knees. And if the knee is coming forward of the foot, then you might wanna bring the feet in just a bit.

So the knees go right over the second and third toe. Holding onto the straps with both hands, we're gonna go into a little bit of rotation. So rotate the upper body towards the upright and pause. Shift your weight towards that knee that's closest to the upright. I'm gonna take my weight over to the other foot.

So now I'm staring right at the foot bar. Then I'm gonna come back and stare at the upright. And I'm actually gonna give myself a little bit more resistance. So I'm gonna rotate to the left, for me, rotate to the right, shifting that weight from side to side. When I shift my weight, I wanna make sure that I am keeping my chin, my sternum, and my fits fist in the same plane of motion rotate. And, again, and exhale.

And this feels really good on my legs. It's giving me a little bit of an inner thigh stretch as well. I'm working through all the muscles, the rotation of my back, 2 more, last one, and then return. Keeping that strap in the hand, we can rotate and face forward now. So same thing. The further away you are from your uprights, the more resistance you'll have.

I'm gonna start with the shorter, strap. I might need to switch to the longer strap. We'll see. Take the outside leg forward into a lunge. And then the leg that's closest to the reformer will be behind you in a lunge position, either under the knee or slightly back. You will load the knee a little bit extra if it's underneath your hip, but it depends on how you wanna work today.

Take that arm to a w or half of a w position with the palm facing up. I'm actually gonna switch to that longer loop for a little less tension on my shoulder. Square those hips off. Take your free hand to the quad that's forward so that you can support the upper body. Press the arm overhead.

Once the arm is overhead, make sure you've got a nice long line, and you're challenging here because of the unilateral work with one side. The stability of the spine. So make sure that everything feels nice and straight. Bend your elbow and press. Shush, exhale to exert and reach forward.

Inhale to bend. If you're feeling this into your lower back, either loading up too much resistance, or you need to do a little bit of a tightening of that core, pulling the abs back and in, and square those hips off. This is a great place also to stretch that back hip flexor. Put that weight on that forward leg and low that left gluten quad. Arm will stay in the air. Hold.

Bend your elbow. Let's do some triceps. Your press. This is a little bit harder, so I'm just gonna walk myself back, exhale, and reach. On to reach. Just two more.

Last one. And then go ahead and return that carriage gently into the stopper. A little transition exercise on the reformer before we do the other side, and then you'll get to see the backside of me. But there is one yellow spring, another reminder, so the carriage does move quite easily. So be really careful here.

For safety, I'm gonna place my hands on the bar. Feet to the front of the carriage, toes pointing forward. K? So I've got a nice little stretch here, actually, so I can feel my, hamstring stretching. Careful. There's no pressure onto the back of the knee. As I grip the bar, my thumbs are forward with my fingers, and my elbows are back.

This is gonna support my shoulders. As you press the feedback, be really careful. Find a sweet spot. And it may not be all the way back for some of you, be with the yellow spring, but I'm gonna try to get to plank here and hold. And then from there, draw the carriage back in as I drop my heels.

So my feet are flat again. And move through my ankles, press away. Feel all ten toes, and then repeat and return. So this is gonna support the shoulder. So strong shoulders. Strong abs and back, hip mobility, ankle mobility, and a stretch on those toes. Just 3 more. I'm a horrible counter. So, do as many as you'd like.

2 more. I think that's a prerequisite for Apollo's teachers to be a horrible counter. One more time. Reach back and hold. Shoulders are strong and now tuck the knees in.

Squeeze those inner thighs together. They're really helpful to support the lumbar spine, and I do have a bit of a wonky sacrum on one side. So I love to squeeze my legs together. It does help support to have both legs working, strong inner thighs. One more, legs back, bring it in.

Fold it forward for a nice stretch. Believe it or not. That series was your break. Step off. And then we're gonna do this all over again on this side.

So now strap in hand. So I've got it on my left hand. The right side of my body is facing the reformer, and I am squared up with that upright. Try your squat here with your row, and I grabbed onto the shorter loop on the other side. And again, the further where you move from the uprights, the more resistance you're going to have.

Toes in parallel, ribs are opening up just ever so slightly to give me a little bit more mobility and a thoracic spine And now you can add that rotation. So you kind of send that hip back with a little attitude, and that feels really good, actually. Exhale and rotate. And you can switch your breath up inhaling back or exhaling back will change a little bit of the objective and muscle focus. One more time, stand all the way up, drop into your squat, pull your elbow back, build some endurance in your leg, and little pulses here for 8, 7, 6, and 4, 3, 2, and 1. And Stan, So now I get to see the backside of what the rotational exercises look like.

Legs are gonna be wide, and I think I was more towards the edge here of my carriage on the other side. Dropping down, making sure that the hip and knee and the center of the foot are nice and level, and then rotate. Chin sternum fist should stay together. Rotate over to the outside leg, which is closest to the bar, and it should feel strong. Almost like if you're doing a fencer lunge, and then rotate to the other side.

I'm gonna make that adjustment. Looks like I need a little extra and reach. So again, a little inner thigh stretch with this one, which I really like. Nice hip mobility. If you're into any rotational sports or unilateral sports, this is a great exercise to strengthen the movement of the hip and having the upper body move together with that lower half of the body.

One more time, and then back to the center. Rotate back towards the uprights or, excuse me, the foot bar. So now I'm gonna send my outside leg forward my inside leg back, this is the overhead press and arm to a w position. My right hand is going to rest here on my quad. Reach overhead and exhale and press.

And I actually can't remember if I hold the longer loop on the other side of the shorter loop. This feels a little harder, but I'm just gonna go with it. Press. Just two more. Last one. Let's hold the arm out and tricep presses. Oh, I definitely held the longer loop pumping on their side, press. And 3. 2 more.

1 more And then return. Alright. So that concludes that series, but we are gonna end with another set of exercises just like before on the reformer. Toes come up towards the front edge, hands onto the bar, elbows back. Let's add a little rotation to these. So toes are gonna point towards the right corner.

I'm gonna look at my right hand because my eyes lead my spine, So if I'm looking at my right hand, then maybe my entire spine slightly rotates in that direction. From here, take the legs back, same as before when you're pointing them forward, and then pike it up in that rotation. Just make sure that from the hip to the head that everything is turned. That way you're not twisting into your lower back. It's unnecessary to take it all into the lumbar spine.

One more and pause then tuck those knees into the right elbow and press. Squeezing those inner thighs together for a little bit of support. Just one more straighten the legs, bring it up, take that outside arm, and then stretch through looking over or under that armpit. Come all the way back up. Let's turn the feet to the other side. Looking down that arm to the left hand, sending those legs back, and then piking up.

The hard part isn't so much pushing out, is controlling and pulling it in without banging into that stopper. This is a great exercise with less resistance to work on the negative part of the resistance versus this is pushing away as the positive, and this is the negative. One more time, hold it back, and let's tuck the knees in towards that left elbow squeeze 1. Exhale and press 2. Looking towards that left hand.

3 more. 2. Last one lifted all the way up for a nice stretch. Take that outside hand, thread it underneath for a nice little stretch, and then you are done with that entire set of exercises. Now we'll be switching spring. So I'll have a seat, and switching to a blue spring. So blue on and then yellow off.

Now with the blue on and yellow off, I'm gonna sit a little bit closer to the blocks just right here. Okay? Then I'll take the strap. That's the closest to the blocks and place it on my thigh. That's the closest to the strap. Once you get in here, that outer strap, you might need to make an adjustment as to where you're sitting because if you're sitting too far away, then it might be too much resistance. Okay?

Sitting down towards the front edge, my hands are here to support as I roll back. So I'm gonna roll back until I'm lying completely down, and I could bring my legs up to a tabletop position. Interlacing the fingers behind my head, I'll drop my head and shoulders back. Now what you wanna make sure is that your shoulder blades or right at the sweet spot there at the edge of the carriage so that the thoracic extension feels really good because your upper back needs to do what the neck is doing and vice versa. So let's lift the head and shoulders up and do a few ab curls. My legs are squeezed together, but I could definitely feel my inner thighs working on that right leg to hold a carriage steady because it's holding against resistance.

3 more. 2. Last one. And I'm gonna hold it right up here and pause. From here, the right leg with the strap on it is going to lower towards the floor into a toe dip. Hi.

So now you can see my face there and then lift and then lower. I can't grimace anymore, if you can see my face. 3 more, 3, 2 more. Last one, knee comes back up and then the head and shoulders come back for a rest. And that is optional.

Chin to chest back to your ab curl. Now I'm gonna drop that right leg down and turn towards the knee that's not or that's doesn't have the strap on it, but is bent, and then return Adding those obliques rotate 2. And again, and 3. Let's go for 2 more. 1 more.

And return. I'm gonna grab onto, the blocks to sit up all the way and then grab onto that strap. We're gonna continue to work with a strap. So now If you're familiar with the half rollback on the mat, we're gonna go into half rollback with your feet down holding onto the strap. So I'm gonna sit a little bit closer and make sure that the strap, knows maybe between the legs here. As I roll about halfway back, and then I roll back up.

So I have to maintain that resistance on that side, which it wants to pull me towards the upright. And I'm thinking about lowering back from the right side of my spine is where I feel the most work and rotate or, excuse me, and roll. Now we're gonna go back into that position, but we're gonna hold it. So roll back and hold and then take the outside leg up to a tabletop position. From here, obliques to the side.

Make sure you have a nice comfortable c curve in your spine, If there's any pressure into that lumbar spine doing these exercises, keep the foot down and continue moving with us throughout these exercises. But there's no reason to put that extra pressure if it doesn't work for you. And last one, and then hold Now here's the last challenge here. You're gonna take those legs up to a tabletop position, and the language would be maybe a teaser prep. So from here at about four rotations to the opposite side of the strap to Last one and then bring it back to the middle and lift and lower from the chest for 1.

2, let's just do 4, 3, and 4 feet come down. And then the strap comes down. A little mermaid stretch now. So I normally do the mermaid with a one red spring. So this will change it just a little bit.

I'll have to work a little bit more here and a lot less here. So my left hand will go forward to the shoulder. Right palm will face up. Both arms will stay as long as possible. So press the carriage away. And as you see, as I press away, I'm lifting my hip with me. I want my hip to move with my spine.

It should feel like a nice diagonal line from the tailbone all the way to the head and just bring that arm overhead for a really nice stretch. As I come back, the hip will drop and the arm will drop. And again, Inhale. There's many ways to do the Mermaid. This happens to be great for the programming of this class, and it feels good to me. So reach and stretch and return.

Just three more for five total, if I counted correctly. Yeah. 2 more and reach. Last one reach and now hold. The hip again is lifted.

The hand is behind the head. Now bend the elbow and press out 5 times one inhale. Exhale too. Now what's working more than my arm is the ability to keep stable throughout my torso. So I feel a lot on this outside oblique. One more time as I press out, I'm gonna pause and then rotate, look down towards the spring load, and then back.

There is a lot of rotation in this, class And rotation is really important. If you're trying to work your body, athletically, it challenges you unilaterally, which is important for balance of those muscles. Let's just do that one more time and then bring both hands to the bar for one last stretch. And then you're gonna go ahead and come all the way up and, of course, counter stretch because that feels really good. We're gonna do that series all over again.

Now you get to see the back. Okay? So I'm gonna turn, have a seat and then we'll grab that strap. Now that strap goes over that inside leg here, and then you'll apply all the way down onto the carriage. So my hands are to the front of the frame, and I'll drop the shoulders down. And then the legs will come up to a tabletop position hands behind the head. So here's my thoracic extension flexion.

Again, feeling my inner thighs And I'm a little bit more shaky on the side, which makes me think there might be some more instability happening here, which is nice to know. 2 more. 1 more. Let's hold it steady and then dip that spring leg up and down 1. And let's just do 5 and 2. 3. So everything down this chain obliques to the inner thigh should be working.

Now as the leg dips, I rotate to the right leg and then back. The goal is for rotation. It's not to get the elbow to the knee. So keep those elbows nice and wide. 2 more.

One more back to the middle, grip whatever you need to to make it graceful to come all the way back up, and then the strap comes out of the leg and into half rollback. So from here, hands are out in front, and then you're gonna roll back, and then you're gonna roll right back up. And so you have to really work on keeping the spine nice and steady. Palvis tilts to lead, head just follows. It just drops into position.

Last one and back, and now take your outside leg up and rotate to the right one. And exhale and to. And just to keep the leg up without resistance, we'll work that quad, that whole squad system over the hip. So your hip flexors to more Just like we did when we were standing, you've got the chin, the sternum, and the fist, all in alignment. Now hold center. Find your teaser, pause, and rotate for 5.

Sh4. 3. Last one. And just as a reminder, I didn't say it on the other side, but you can always just use one hand and hold on to the carriage if that works better for you. Now both hands here, same with these, pulsing it up. You can keep your hands together in line with your sternum, or you can have one hand down and assist.

2 more last one feet come down. I think that was all on that side. Strap goes over the l hooks and now into your mermaid. And you could probably see the hip better on this side when I go to lift it. Sits bones stay down, went to start.

Doesn't matter what your knee is doing. If it's really uncomfortable, please place a pad underneath your hips so that you're not straining your hip. Right hand slightly forward to the shoulder, left palm up. I'll naturally start to lift my hip as I lean. So now I've got, again, long line. Hopefully, you can see that from the tailbone to the head and then all the way back up. And, again, inhale. And exhale, the longer you keep your arms, the more of a stretch you're gonna get on that side body.

So try it. If you lean over and bend that elbow, you're not gonna get as much, or it's gonna feel completely different. Now lean up and over, line that hip up, hand behind the head, and then just five arm presses. And just like on the other side, that oblique, that's away from the spring, is gonna work the hardest. And this should be an okay load for the upper part of the body, probably not as much as you can handle, Now hold it here. Rotate back and again and inhale. Exhale.

I love inhaling on rotation because I feel like it expands those ribs nicely. 2 more. Last one. Now both hands on for one last stretch because, you know, why not? And then return up and over counter stretch. And we're done with those.

I'm gonna stand up to face you. So we are going to continue with the blue spring and do a little transition exercise. This is gonna be the last series before I have you switch spring load. So drop to your knees, and face side. Take your forearm down to the carriage, and I like to place it on the outside so that I can grip the block.

And then place your feet on the platform. My outside leg is forward of my inside leg. This is just a hold. This is an endurance exercise. So I'm gonna push up out into a side plank and hold.

You can add a variation of your arm here, to the ceiling, arm by your side, arm backed up and over. Whatever is going to challenge you, just pause for 3 more breaths, 2. And one last breath, and then return. Knees drop. Face the carriage on your forearms. So now I've got my forearms inside the blocks.

This is dependent on your shoulder width. You can go out here. And if being on your shoulders really is not for you, Just put your hands somewhere up top here, but continue. So forearms for me down, I've got narrow shoulders. Feet are going to be together, and you're gonna press out to a forearm plank.

Pause here and breathe nice and strong. You can pull those push those arms forward if you really wanted to challenge your shoulders. Hold for 4, 3, 2. I'm gonna lift up for little extra challenge and pause and then place my knees down, and you can push out and back if you'd like. So rotate to the other side. Forum goes to the outside of the block.

Fix that hair. Outside foot goes on the platform in front and then the inside goes back. Interthighs play a huge part here. My hand is on the carriage. Push out. Squeeze those inner thighs.

Hold. Here we go. Arm reaches up. For me, I'm gonna take some breaths here. I can play around with the arms. Keep those hips nice and square. Again, inner thighs super important.

One more breath. And then place the knees down and then just into child's pose. So with that last series, you can play around with a ton of programming with that. You can go in and out with the knees, hold, move the arms, even go into a little thread the needle, whatever works for you, and then all the way back up. So now to a red spring.

Alright. So red spring on, which for some of you that don't have color coded springs, it's the heaviest spring. So it's just one. I'm gonna go into onto my back. So I'll be lying down for the next few exercises. So once on your back, Just make sure that your head feels comfortable here.

I don't recommend lifting the head for this because we are gonna be lifting through the hips, but it's completely up to you and how comfortable your neck feels. Grabbing onto the straps, you'll hold onto the shorter loops. Rule of thumb here is to have a couple of fingers away from the blocks so that way your arms can move freely with these exercises. First things first, legs to tabletop, arms loaded. So the arm should be right in line with your shoulders.

Hopefully, that's what it looks like here for you guys. And then you're gonna take the arms a little bit wider. And we're gonna go into a little supine spine twist. Supine, spine twist. Say that fast 5 times. Supine, spine twist.

So from here, what I'm trying to do is add rotation from the ribs. So if you were sitting on your bottom and doing the spine twist, It comes to the movement initiates to the same part of the back, except it's the lower half of the body moving, and my upper body's gotta stay nice and quiet. One more inhale, exhale draw the belly in. Reach arms ups and put your feet down to reset. I needed to reset there for a second.

You can rest in between. Legs back up to tabletop. Arms now are gonna come all the way down. So I'm pressing my hands down onto the carriage, shoulders wide, feet are gonna be a little bit higher than the knees for a little roll over prep. So I'm holding the tension down.

My back of my head is pressing into the carriage. And I'm peeling my spine off. Now I won't say this to anybody that I'm teaching, but your head is not responsible for your rear end. Mentally, it might be, but physically, no. So make sure that your head isn't working or your neck to lift your bottom up.

And you may not lift very high, but if you feel it, then you're doing the work that's necessary. Now take the legs back to its tabletop, reset with the arms up. I'm doing the full rollover. So if that doesn't work for you today, because your back is tight for whatever reason, doesn't work, just keep doing the rollover prep. Hands come down.

Legs extend long. Legss lower slightly to load the lower half of the body. I'm going to roll over until my legs are parallel. Legs open about the width of my blocks. I could see them in my peripheral, feet flex, You roll down.

Once the hips touch, the arms come up and the legs go back together. Inhale arms down and then exhale roll over. Inhale open flex roll down, legs together, and arms up. 2 more. Make sure that you're not going any higher than those shoulder blades. Don't wanna put that pressure onto your neck.

I want you to think of the head and shoulder to shoulder as little triangle, maintaining that strong triangle, and then the legs together. And now we're going to, do the reverse So legs open flex as the hands come down, and then you roll over, you squeeze the inner thighs together, you roll down the hips touch, the arms come up, the legs open, they flex, hands down. At exhale, legs together, point the feet, roll 1 vertebra at a time, and then arms up, feet flex. I believe we have 2 more. Inhale. Point. As you roll down, imagine somebody's gotta hold of your toes. So you've gotta really slow down your roll and then up and flex.

And last one legs. I'm checking out my knees, roll down, and then back up, and then hold. Okay. So one more exercise here in this supine position with the hands and the straps. Okay. So legs come back up. I'm gonna do my version of jackknife. So extend the legs towards the ceiling and bring your arms all the way back down.

You're gonna roll over, hold, This is here in your rollover position essentially. Start to tighten the glutes to reach your toes only as high as you can maintain that jackknife position. Roll yourself down and feel free to bring your toes back behind you so that you can safely bring your hips all the way down to the carriage. Let's do that again. Hands to the carriage, roll over, lift, inhale, lower, Exhale, and then arms come up.

Don't be afraid to use those arms. This is a great place to work those triceps, exhale breath, and lift. Triceps on, roll it down, Feel the length in your spine. Okay. We're gonna do that one more time. This is a good cue here.

Legs heavy. Legs heavy. Back heavy. Legs, light, light, light, light, light, and then release. Those those are those are hard. We're gonna place the straps along loops over the l hooks. Let your legs just hang for a moment.

You take your time. Put it on pause if you need, but we're gonna roll up so we can change spring, but might as well work while we are at we are at it. So arms to the ceiling. Let's roll up nice and slow. And then roll yourself all the way back down just for 4.

Just to get your upper body in flexion and reach, hands to the bar if you need it. It's better for you to hold the legs and assist yourself up, then to jerk yourself up, and then use the wrong part of your body to do it. And one more time, and lift it all the way up, grabbing onto the bar, and then placing your feet on the floor. We're gonna go to 2 red springs, but we are gonna lie back down. So two reds, so two full springs.

I am gonna move it to the outside red springs, and I'll explain later why. But if you have the ability to do the outside springs for now. Fee in the straps, which I'm extremely psyched about. So we're gonna roll all the way down onto the back. Now you know that the reformers got most of them. Have a shorter loop and a longer loop.

And most of the time, we use the shorter loop for our hands and the longer loops for our feet. I just want you to know that you could do either. I am gonna do it on the long loop, but you can put your feet on the shorter in the shorter loop for instant extra resistance without having to get up and, move some springs around. Okay. So now legs nice and long so with your feet into the straps and your arms nice and long, hips pressing down, Let's take the thumbs to the ribs and the forefingers to the hips, and then just go into a little lift and lower of the legs. The reason I'm having you do this is because I want you to make sure that the distance between these two points doesn't change.

If the distance between these two points doesn't change, then you know you're using your hip joint more than you're using that lower back. You want that lower back to remain stable. Now arms down by your side, let's go into some leg circles. It doesn't matter where you start in what direction. We're gonna do both directions here in a bit anyway.

So legs lower. They circle around and back together. Now to add a little element of lower abdominal work and a little bit of a challenge, I'm gonna continue with these circles in the same direction, but I'm going to add a little hip lift, legs together, spine rolls down, and repeat. So as the legs come towards you, it's like a little alley ope, but an alley ope with control. Inhale to open the legs circle up and lower. And let's do that just one more time. Inhale.

Shhhale and legs reach out. Now let's reverse those circles. Keep those hips down. And keep that distance between the hips and the ribs the same. Toes can be pointed out.

Toes could be in parallel. Whatever works better for you. I'm turning my feet out to get a little bit more range of motion. And to get that little extra squeeze down with the glutes. Now we'll add a little alley oop. So legs come up, legs open, and you roll down.

Very similar to the long spine. Exhale, and then roll back down. Let's just do 2 more. Shush. Lower the hips. Legs back together. Last one.

Legs open, and then they lower and you pause. From here, we're gonna go into what I call medium spine. So there's long spine, short spine. Let's just call this medium spine. So legs will come towards you.

You're not gonna go all the way back or return the carriage to the stopper. You're gonna pause here in this spike position almost, supported at the shoulders. Bend your knees maintain parallel. Heels come towards your bottom. Roll your spine down.

Press those legs back out. We'll do that again. Legs hinge and you come up, use a little momentum here if you need to. Bend the knees. You'll keep the carriage nice and steady, and then lower the spine all the way down and press out. And again, legs hinge, hips hinge, you roll up, you bend. And the challenge here is to keep the carriage from moving off a stopper, or it's off the stopper, from moving towards a stopper, press out one more time legs up, Peel that spine off, bend the knees and roll all the way back down.

Let's reverse that. So knees bend. You roll up until the knees are about eyesight, Extend the legs of the ceiling, roll the spine down, and bring the legs out. Mees, bend, you roll up. Now if you had too much resistance here, if you had actually put your feet in the shorter loop, It might be a little bit more difficult to control the roll down with those legs because the resistance is going to pull your legs behind you and inhale bend and roll it up. Legs reach up towards the ceiling, squeeze those inner thighs together, roll yourself all the way down, and then press those legs away. And let's go into a little hip flexor stretch here.

So I'm gonna open the legs about the width of my reformer, bend one knee, place that foot on the floor. I've got my hand on the rope to control the stretch, and I'm gonna put my hand on the other rope to control that inner thigh stretch. And breathe. This little hip flexor stretch doesn't work for everybody. The other option would be to take a strap off of your foot and place that foot on the bar so you can do one leg at a time and not do this hip opener here. Let's press back out with the assist of the hands.

Let's go over to the other side. A little stretch dropping that foot. Other leg reaches over towards the corner, the ceiling, and the wall. And I'm going to do one more. So right foot comes down to the floor.

Legs go out and stretch. Try to relax all the muscles of your back because then you'll really get that deep hip flexor stretch all the way up to that pelvic bone. And then repeat on the other side for one last one. Inhale breath. And exhale. Alright. So feet out of the straps, feet onto the bar, and then try to place your you can drop the ropes to the floor, actually, which I'm gonna do right now. Just drop the ropes to the floor.

Next exercise, which it'll be the first time I've done it on Pilates anytime, but we're gonna be doing the semi circle. And that's why I have the springs on the outside. To get in the semi circle is probably the most challenging, especially if it's in a big class. So what I like for you to do is take your legs and just hang them over the bar. So the knees are just hanging over the bar.

My bottom now is actually in the well. Hands go back to the blocks, and I'm going to press the carriage back and shimmy with my shoulder blades as I extend my arms all the way out. Okay. So I've prepared for this. We've done a lot of exercises strengthening the shoulder girdle. One foot goes on to the bar and then the other, and then I'll place my heels together toes apart and hold here in this position.

So make sure that your arms are nice and strong. Drop your hips down into the spring loads so that you can feel the spring underneath you. Push the carriage back with your legs and paws. You can either straighten your knees all the way or keep them soft. Roll yourself up into a high bridge, make sure that you're on your shoulders and your head and not onto your neck, return the carriage into like a high hamstring curl, and then slowly roll your spine down one vertebra at a time and then feel for the spring.

Drag that rear end back on the spring load. Lift and find that hip extension. Return the carriage, reaching the knees over the toes, and roll your spine down. Here's your breath. And he'll press back and lift.

And exhale to return this feel so good one more time, inhale to roll down, lift through the hips, and exhale. Now opposite. So I'm up in this high bridge, staring at the ceiling. I'm gonna press the legs back. Extend all the way or keep the knee soft.

Roll your spine down. Feel for the spring. Drag your rear end on the spring and roll yourself all the way up. Inhale to press back and roll and exhale to drag it in. Let the spine move freely. Keep that tension out of your neck and shoulders.

And just one more time, inhale back. Drop your bottom down. Exhale. Return. And then to get out of this one, you'll have to pull yourself back and release that tension. Alright. Sitting all the way up, we're gonna go on to some extension.

So we're gonna grab the box and put it on the reformer long ways. But before I do that, I'm just gonna bring the foot bar down so it's out of my way. Two things you could do with the foot bar for extension. You could take it all the way down. Or you could just take it down one notch so that way you have a point of reference back here.

So if your feet start getting lazy, you'll feel the foot onto the bar. So I'm gonna leave it like this. These straps, I'm gonna place right back on to the, l Hooks, but we will not be using the straps for these extension exercises, just our body weight. So let's pull the box on top right in box, and then lie prone on our belly. So once we lie prone, chest is over the top.

So you wanna make sure you feel comfortable here, and then rest everything, back down, head, wrist, legs rest on the bar. Now to set yourself up for success, let's drop the hips down onto the box, and let the feet float slightly off the bar. So we'll do that again. Hips press into the box, and then the feet float lightly up. From here, hands underneath the forehead.

So I've got one long line in this extended position. Head and shoulders drop. You're looking at the box, and then you're gonna lift up into that long line. And we'll do that again. Inhale and exhale breath. So all of movement should be coming from the mid back up.

And if you had a big marble underneath your nose, it should feel as though the marble is moving away from you and then rest the hands back down to the reformer. These are very similar to extension exercises that you can do on the barrel as well. So legs are going to relax onto the bar. I'm gonna set my lower half up. Public bone presses down.

Feet float slightly up. I'm gonna avoid squeezing my glutes instead of just gonna feel like a lift. Hands back underneath my forehead. Flex the upper body over the box. Inhale to float up.

Rotate to the right moving from the rib cage. Rotate to the left, looking underneath that left arm. Lower yourself back. To the reformer, inhale lift up. We're gonna go left this time.

Rotate inhale. Exhale center. Rotate right inhale. Exhale center and rest and repeat. You'll float up.

You'll turn. You'll start on the opposite side. Little bit of a trick for your brain. And then you don't want to favor one side when you start exercises, so it's nice to try both. So inhale left, exhale inhale right, exhale, and then rest it all back down. Adding on, hands back underneath the forehead, flex the upper body over the box, push that pubic bone down, feet float up, abs are in.

Lift into that nice long line. From here, rotate to the right, take your right arm up to the ceiling. And then reach for that back corner as you lift into lift into an extension with rotation. Keep that extension with rotation as you place your hand back under your forehead, rotate to the center, look down, rotate to the left, Take that hand up to the ceiling, lift and reach it to the corner. Make sure that arm is still in your peripheral.

Bring your hand to your head. Rotate and rest. We'll do that again. I'm gonna start left. Inhale. Rotate lift extension, hand back underneath, rotate to the center, and hold one more time, inhale breath, reach that arm out, rotate look over that right shoulder, bring that hand back underneath the forehead, bring the hands down and rest.

And one last thing for extension here before we flip over is swimming on the box. So, again, no straps, hands to the frame. Legs are gonna be a bit wider. Maybe the width of the box if that's comfortable for you. And then pubic bone presses into the box, navel pulls up, legs, lift, right arm up, left arm up, and alternate. Inhale, 2, 3, 4, 5. Imagine yourself on a stand up paddle board or surfboard.

Try not to rock that board as you reach opposite hand, opposite foot, breathing really big in through your nose, and really big out of your mouth, and do it nice and slow so you can really feel those back body muscles working for 4, 3, 2, 1, and rest. A quick child's pose or cat cow on the box. Extend and flex. And then going against all tradition, we're gonna end today with the 100. So we're gonna lie onto the box.

And this is another great reason to maybe have this bar up not so low. I'll show you here in a second why. Your legs are gonna hang on the bar. Your upper body is gonna hang back on the box. So your arms are gonna reach back, and that actually feels really good.

And if your shoulder blades are off and your arms are back, it should feel like a nice extension. If for any reason this bugged you, hold your head for support until we get into position. Now 100, your hands are gonna come to your hips as your chin lifts to your chest. You're gonna float the legs off the bar, pause. If you can hold that grate, otherwise rest all the way back down, and just repeat this. So this would be your modified hundred.

Just lift, float, and then back. Almost like you're taking a gentle gut punch. So somebody's coming into the abs. You're tightening them. You're lifting.

And then you're lowering down. Now I'm gonna do the 100. So inhale pause here. Chinda chest arms up. You float up. You pump.

It's an inhale 2, 3, 4, 5, exhale. Inhale 2, 3, 4, 5, and exhale. Inhale 2, XL 2, 3, 4, 30, inhale 2, 3, 4, 5, XL 2, 3, 4, 5, XL 2, 3, 4, 50, I can count this in my sleep, XL 2, 460 inhale 2, 4, 5, XL 2, 3, 4, 70, inhale 2, 4, 5, XL 2, 3, 4, 90. Last set. Rest gently with the feet to the bar, reach the arms back.

Open up that front body. Support your head if you need to, and then lift yourself all the way up to your seat. I'm gonna face you. Legs are just going to hang here for a quick little cool down. Let's take one hand to the side of the box.

Reach the other arm up to the ceiling and stretch up and over, and then add a little rotation, and a little extension. And let's try the other side. Arm up, hand to the box for support, draw that elbow in. And reach, and stretch, and rotate, and back, and then arms come back. And then one more as you interlace the fingers behind your back.

Let's move the chin to the chest. From one shoulder to another, and then release. Well, thank you so much for joining me for this reformer, athletic flow. I hope you enjoyed it.