Zesty Strength Reformer

Sarah Berticelli here. Let's do a grounding yet energetic workout. We are gonna use this ball for a bit of the workout, and I'm also going to use the handles. So make sure and have yours available. If you don't have your handles, you can do without, but it's nice if you do have them.

So we'll begin on the back end of our reformer with a blue spring, and I'm gonna place this ball up on my inner thigh so much that I feel it on my pubic bone. And my placement of my feet is so that when I look down, I can't see my toes, but I can see most of my foot. And that's gonna depend just on where you are and what you need. So I'm squeezing this ball with a lot of intention. Really using my inner thighs here, and boy, does that feel nice? Long through my back, take the arms wide, lift the palms up, take the arms down, and let's roll down one vertebra at a time, catch the edge of the reformer, And let's take a moment to really feel the hands. So press through the thumb and the first finger.

Look at your wrist creases and make sure that they're even. I noticed that a lot of people have one hand in one direction and the other direction and see if you can even out your wrist creases. Lean your body weight into your arms and now look at your elbow creases and make sure that they're facing kinda diagonally inward. Some people fall into too much internal rotation. Some people hyper extending in too much external rotation, but find that sweet spot. And then press into the arms and lean your body forward, stretching your wrists a little bit, and then press back.

So I'm not yet moving the carriage. And the focus here is more on what my wrists and my arms are doing for a moment. And where can I go? Yeah. And then come back and just one more time. So press into those hands just like that.

And then come back. Now let's round through the back, actively. Look at your ball here. Press into those arms. Now you're gonna push a little with your arms.

And then you're gonna continue going forward until your back is flat or straight. And look at your elbows and make sure you haven't lost your way, pressing through first thing, finger, and thumb, rounding in So think about your arms first, reaching forward. The arms and the body move as a team. So now you're gonna find your flow, and you're gonna find your alignment. So you're gonna see each time if you can come all the way into the stopper, So it's a spine here, arms kinda complete the move, and then arms start, and then the whole body is involved.

So let's try that again. Spine is moving. Arms sort of complete the move. Arms start and then extend forward. So let's go ahead and round in, come all the way to the stopper, shift yourself back to your feet, and then lift off.

Stand up. We'll add on, take the arms wide look up palms up and then we'll roll down again. So take that same hand position. Be mindful of where you are. And now reach forward again. Find that flat back position where you feel comfortable, but you're also confident that your elbows and your hands are in the right position.

Let's stand on the right arm. Kick the right leg to bend. So I'm squeezing the ball still. Take the other arm forward. Can you keep this and round in and reach forward?

Woo hoo. That takes some balance, my friends, round in, and reach forward. And round in and reach forward. 2 hands on the bar or 2 hands on the reformer, 2 feet down. Changing the relation, the relationship So stand on now. The other arm, that's my left arm. I'm gonna kick my left leg to straight, and I'm going to stretch my arm out. And then you can just hold this if you need to, or you can round, really squeeze the ball, and you can reach.

Be mindful of all the things. It's harder to do when you're having to balance, but be mindful, and try to keep the arm in position, the hand grounded, all the things. One more time. And reach forward, hand and foot down, stretch your body out, round your body all the way in, feel those inner thighs, and let's move on to our reformer. So we'll move into our footwork springs.

So I like to use 3 reds in the blue. And on this reformer, I'm up on the, buttons rather than the hook. So that's the stronger spring, but you're gonna do what works for you. So slip yourself onto your back. Oops. I would like the headrest to be down, please.

So slip yourself onto your back. And let's place the ball for a little bit just between the thighs higher up closer to the knee, but still between the thighs. So with your feet on the bar, feel your body here. And then let's feel nice and grounded through the rib cage and so much so that if you hug your arms across, reach across so much that maybe you can tap the reformer with your fingers. Right? So I'm gonna keep that hug there, and then I'm just going to take my legs a little bit side to side. So with the hug of the arms, feel how you try to create opposition is what I'd like to say.

So just breathe naturally and try to create opposition. So as you twist one way, you're gonna squeeze the arm across a little more. And when you twist the other way, you're gonna squeeze the arm across a little more. And then continue to do that and actually push down into the ball with the leg that's going across. So you're squeezing and pushing down into the ball.

So you're using your adductor there a little bit. And squeeze. And let's just do one more. Breathing and moving my friends and squeeze. Beautiful. So place the ball again high up on your pelvis or high up on your inner thigh so it's actually touching your pelvis, trying to stimulate some of that inner core.

Heels are on the bar, set yourself up, grounded through the rib cage. We're just gonna rock and roll here. So stretch those legs to straight and in. So you're gonna breathe and move and find your rhythm. What's important to me?

Squeeze the ball a lot at the top. So if you're already getting tired, it's probably an indication that you need to use all of your inner thighs and your inner core a little more. So try to stay with it if you can. But really focus on squeezing the ball a lot. My ankles are flexed. I'm breathing, and I'm moving at a pace that suits me, which is kind of brisk.

You could slow down if you needed to. Or you could speed up if you wanted to as long as you feel safe and you straighten your knees all the way. Come in, and let's put the toes now where the heels are. So squeezing the ball still very actively. Make sure you feel secure with your feet and out we go. So we're trying to keep the foot height the same. So when your legs are straight, that's where you can establish the maximum height of the heel. And then it kinda stays there.

It does stay there when you come in. Which for many of us feels like our ankles or our feet are moving, but really it's your ankles that are moving. Breathing in, squeeze the ball, really squeeze the ball at the top. My clients, in my studio, I say pull it together. So really pull your thighs together.

Stay out here, please. Feet only move down and up. Both legs are working down and up. Squeeze hard 5, 4, 3, 2, and just one more time, bend the knees in. So lift the ball out. Place it between your heels.

You wanna kinda be on the back of the heel. And then place your toes on the bar. So I'm in a v position, but I'm squeezing the ball, not with the inside of my foot, but the back of my heel more. So I'm remaining in rotation here. So out we go. Feel the rib cage, feel all the things, find your breath. Do straighten your legs all the way, but focus on the rotation and the squeeze rather than those of you that tend to hyper extend could possibly do that here.

So squeeze the ball as you straighten and rotate outward using glutes, using inner thighs, and also really feeling the quadriceps helping you complete the move. Beautiful. Find your breath. And just one more there. So now we'll go ahead and put that ball down and kinda out of the way for a little while, so I'm just gonna tuck it underneath my reformer.

Heels wide on the bar, flex your ankles. Out you go. So I'm just gonna take a little look, make sure I'm in the right position, and then out we go. Now I forgot to say that I really, really like to use my eye gaze, and I would like you to be mindful of not looking at your feet here. But see if you can look around the room a little bit and focus on something up or even behind you rather than down. Think about that.

Both legs working equally, straightening the legs completely. Last one here. And gently come on in, put the toes down on the bar. How'd we go? So feel your rib cage grounded, feel the backs of your legs, and finding a pace that suits you with your breath.

I really like to work on a long, slow breath while moving quickly. I think that's a really beautiful challenge, especially when we're in life and working hard. It's nice when you can slow the breath down. Helps your body stay calm, last 2, and last one. Feet come in all the way together just to feel where center is separate a bit.

Frances happen now, so we press out two legs, change, hence change. So keep the prancing going again at a fay at a pace that suits you, feel free to go slower or faster. Do use both feet for both parts. So there's an up and a down. Rather than a shift shift, hopefully that makes sense.

Find your breath. Find your ease. And let's hold the stretch for just a bit on one side. I always like to adjust my foot. I'll always close my eyes here and just swirl around in the stretch, breathing in, and breathing out.

Change sides. Breathing in, grounding through the rib cage, and finding what suits you here, breathing out. So press up with both feet, come in, slide your right heel onto the bar, other ankle is flexed at tabletop. Out we go. Just gonna do a handful here, literally a handful, so about five. Feel the leg.

Make sure you have power here and one more. Now if you need to change the spring, if this is too much, change it. Other side, here we go. Flexankle 1. Squeeze the inner thighs. Imagine you have the ball.

Good. Just one more, please. Same thing from the toes, see if you can set it up and continue on. So because we're in more plantar flexion here, you can point your foot if you'd like. You can do whatever you'd like with your foot. Just wanna keep the pace, keep the flow here, last one.

I find that footwork is so important for me. I changed sides in case I didn't say that. I thought it, but I didn't say it. And here we go. We've got 2 more here.

And one more, please. Come all the way in. Go ahead and hug those knees into your chest. Lift your head up. Tight bowl.

And let's roll to our side and come on up to a seat. So keep the current spring on for now, and we're just gonna swivel around. I like to put my heels basically up against in the the groove where the headrest and the carriage meet. I'm gonna take my bottom toward the edge. I'm gonna lean back, take a little break here, a little thoracic extension, not a day goes by, where I wanna work a little thoracic extension.

And I find the foot bar a really nice place to lean in and stretch here. I'm gonna actually change my feet here. I'm gonna put them up against the shoulder rest and then do that same thing so that I have just a little bit of teeter totter room here. What do I mean by that? So as I go over, you can kinda let your bottom lift up a little bit, much like you would do with a foam roll. That should feel nice.

If it doesn't feel nice, don't do it. So let's make a a little choreography here. We're gonna go over into extension. Hands are, holding the head. And then you're gonna use your abdominals, flex your spine, and round forward.

So using the abdominals here to make this shape. And then over into extension, feel free to look around and then flex your spine around. Now we're gonna keep the spine flexion. Take your arms down by your side. Use your abs to push the carriage out a little bit and pull in.

So you're using your abs to push and pull in. Do that again. There's a lot of spring on, and I'm just asking you to feel that those abdominals can lead the movement So we are preparing my friends for our tendon stretch. Take your two legs out in front of you. Arms are out in front of you.

Hands go down. Same idea. Push. Push, very small movements. So it's a pelvis movement and a low back movement. Rest that. Take one leg up.

Take the other leg up. Come off the foot bar. Stretch your two legs to straight. If you need to stay on the foot bar, go ahead. But if you can, you're in a teaser shape. Feel that shape. Lower your legs a little.

Lower your legs a little more. Maybe lower your legs a little more. Hug your knees in. Let's move on. So find your ball. Hopefully, it didn't roll away.

We're gonna change the spring as well. Boy, that would have been really, really hard to do with that spring. So one blue spring is probably what you wanna be on for the knee stretches. Kind of my signature move, I think. Please take the ball and place it again high up on the inner thigh so you can squeeze all the way to your pelvis here. Try to bring your knees together if you can.

So you're having to squeeze that ball a lot. I'm about 6 inches behind the shoulder rest, and then I'm gonna place my hands on the frame. Spend a little time getting a big stretch through your thumb joint here. So I want there to be a strong connection point, a line out through the thumb. And then wrap the hands around if you want to, lean into the arms, round through the back, pull the legs in, squeeze the ball, put the focus on squeezing the ball, staying rounded through your spine, and breathing.

And then just check-in here with your hands and make sure you've got a good grounded hand. Now, of course, if you have a different reformer, you might have to modify this a little bit, but if you have a reformer where you can put your hand on the frame, then this is what we're doing. Go ahead and take a rest here. So squeeze the ball, spin your feet out, push into your feet, move your knees out, lean over. So I am in my left arm, my legs have gone over to the right. I'm in my left arm.

I'm lifting up through my shoulders rounding through my back as I pull in and out. Now I'm squeezing the ball the whole time, but I'm really moving primarily with just the one leg that's still resting on the carriage. Do 2 more here. Good. And one more. Now you can get to the other side however you want. You can kinda walk, hip hop, take it out, whatever, but I like to just kinda shimmy over there.

So shift to the other side. Now I'm leaning into my right arm. I'm curling my pelvis underneath me, lifting through my chest, the back of my chest, and I pull in and out. Beautiful oblique work. Do squeeze the ball the whole time.

It's amazing how much more we feel the abdominals when we learn how or when we really activate those inner thighs. Last one here, and then we can rest that. Beautiful. Let's come out of that. Have a seat. We'll put the ball down again. So it's kinda out of the way for now. And, we'll be on a red and a blue for your hip work spring. So let's go ahead and lie back down on the reformer.

Settle in. Always take a moment even when we're moving briskly to feel that you are grounded and in the right position. Find your straps. Put your feet in. Start with frogs, please. So we're breathing and moving.

My legs are going out and in. My rib cage is grounded. My neck is at ease. My arms are long. Both legs are working equally. Check-in.

Press out with one leg, and then press out with the other leg. To be sure that both legs are, in fact, involved. And then go back to two legs moving together, one more. 2 straight legs. Let's go up and then down. Do that again? Up, pelvis stays grounded, and down. And now a circle. So we're gonna go down through center, come around, find your top, kind of brisk circling here.

Just feel and enjoy the movement in your hips. Last one. Reverse, please. Around. And around.

So kind of like to move through some of these exercises a little bit quickly just to get off that first layer of crust. And then we're going to work on more range now. So here, will you make crisscross applesauce or cross legged position? Here, one leg is on top, one leg is underneath. You're gonna push your knees away from you while you allow your feet maybe to come in more. Perhaps you feel a little stretch.

You wanna dig into that stretch and try to use those muscles that are stretching to push your legs back out to where they came from. Other leg goes on top. So my ankles are a little bit flexed. I'm opening my knees, my feet come across. I'm using glute area to push out, straighten the knees, land in slight internal rotation.

Now we do that quickly. This is gonna take a little bit of practice. For you to know that you're using the right muscles. A lot of people, when I teach this, first, will do a knee movement, try to think of it really as a rotational movement at the hips. Now we continue, but I'm gonna do it with my right leg mostly. My left leg is just getting out of the way.

So my right leg is maneuvering the spring, and I'm using my hip in a really beautiful functional way. Some people might look at this and think that it could be tricky on the knees, If it is tricky on the knees, don't do it, but I find that it's actually quite therapeutic for all of my clients with knee issues so far. So it feels really good to them. They just have to figure out their level. So let's do the same thing with the other leg. So, repetitive movement, What I'm doing here is one my foot goes a little higher and then a little lower, and I'm fueling the movement with my hip, specifically with my outer hip muscles. My other foot just kinda gets out of the way, and just keep doing it and see if you can find something new, feel a stretch, feel the challenge.

Once again, it should feel nice. So one more there, and then back to both legs two times, Hopefully, they feel a little looser. Okay. Another new thing. You have 2 straight legs. Bend your knees to about tabletop.

Take your feet a little higher so that the ropes don't drag on your knees. We're gonna spin both heels to one side. And then both heels to the other side. So I'm going internal external rotation. One leg is internal.

11 leg is external if you wanna think of it like that. Now as you do the movement, naturally, the way that you're going with your feet your pelvis might wanna side bend a little bit. So allow that to happen and then allow the carriage to move a little bit. So I'm generating the the motivation for the movement is not my knees, but my hips as I go side to side. So now let's go ahead and everybody stay on the right side for a moment and focus on the right leg.

So we're going from internal rotation to external rotation. Go back to internal If I take my foot down just a little bit, the rope hits the outside of my leg, giving me a little bit of a grounding sensation when I go into external rotation. My other leg is just kinda getting out of the way, but it's there. Should I need it? Let's do 2 more like that? And one more, please. Really nice. Almost like a hip massage.

Both feet go to the other side. Okay. One side's always harder than the other, my friends, to see if you can feel muscles involved in this. Get the other foot out of the way, bend the knee a little bit so that as you scoop the heel around, your thigh rests into the rope and gives you a little bit of something to work against. That helps me really feel my glute when I go into external, and then I wanna feel my inner thigh as I pull it through. Don't overthink that.

Just move. That was a lot of words. Let's do it two more times on this side. And one more time. Good. Allow both legs to just bend in, take a pause. We're going to move into the short spine.

So if you need to move a little bit away from your shoulder rest, go ahead and do that now. Press your legs out to straight for a moment and then bend to about 90 degrees at the hips and knees. Let's do a bent elbow and really put attention on grounding through the back of the shoulder. I find that many people when we do straight arms, shoulder comes forward. So let's let the elbows be bent so you can be more grounded in the back of the shoulder and the back of the arm. Try it.

Out to straight point your feet. As you roll in, you keep your pelvis down for a while, but then you use those arms and continue to roll up as you get to the stopper, bend the knees and roll down. Don't really like the way I queued that, so I'll try that again. So here, all I was looking for is you're folding in. You're trying to keep something down, but you're not necessarily keeping your pelvis down. Once you get to the stopper, use the arms and the abs to roll yourself up there.

Ben those legs and then roll down. So feel free to put your arms flat if you want, but one of the things I like to do as I use this arm position is really feel the the void of weight, if you will, on my head. So as I roll up, I am grounding through my shoulders, and I'm grounding through the back of my, the back of my shoulder, but my head is not really weighted. And then as I come down, I like to almost keep my head just a little bit hovering. So I can really feel the support or the movement in my upper back. Let's do that one more time. So feel free to do your short spine the way you would like to. If you would like to change it, go for it. I just like this variation.

I get a beautiful stretch in my upper back, and I feel quite grounded as I come through. Let's take the feet out of the straps, please. And then put the straps away and just roll yourself up and have a seat. Alright. So we're gonna move into a little bit of arm work.

Let's begin with just a blue spring. And you could do it on a hook to begin with. Okay? So I like to do this kneeling. If you need to do it differently, feel free to sit or or sit a different way, but I really like working in this position. I'm in the center here of my reformer.

I'm gonna hold the strap. And work on external rotation here. So sometimes I'll talk about exactly what's working right now. I just want you to move, and we'll do a handful here and notice how it feels. Right? So what are we doing? We're trying to open through the chest, and keep the elbow close to the body and doing the movement with awareness, but not super slow. Yeah? One more time. Now we try the cross arm pull here.

So can you reach all the way across even if you lose your lose your spring tension and pull your arm out to the side, and then all the way across again. So for some of you, this is going to feel hard. Some of you will feel like it's not that hard if you're strong in this movement. I'm using a blue spring right now. I actually like to use a red spring, which I will offer up later one more time, because I wanna develop strength in these. Yeah?

So let's do the other side. But at the moment, I am running an experiment on you all. So you're gonna sit with your bottom on your feet and do that external rotation. So right now, we're on a blue spring And for some of you, it's gonna feel easy. Some of you, it's gonna feel hard.

What I hope is to give you a little bit of feedback so that when we do it the second time, it feels a lot more grounded, a lot stronger. So cross arm pull, we're just feeling this out. Beautiful. And feeling it out. And a couple more like that, the numbers are less important. I just want you to notice what it feels like.

Does it feel hard? Does it feel easy? Okay. So we'll put the strap away now. And now here's where I would like you to change your spring and or not change your spring, but put your handles on. So I'm gonna just change those. And that we can keep them like this after we've changed them. So if you wanna put your straps, your, loops away you're welcome to, but you can keep them just like this now. How about a red and a blue spring on the button, which is zesty?

So that's a nice strong spring. We're gonna have a seat with the heels on that little groove where the headrest and the carriage meet. And then we're gonna sit back pretty far. We're gonna lean back a little bit. And just keep a nice loose grip and feel your hands nice and relaxed and pull your arms back and in a few times. So notice what that feels like.

A lot of times we talk about not white knuckling it and guess what people I think we need to white knuckle it a little bit more. So here's what I'd like you to try now. Use your hands actively, grip strength, super important. And notice what happens when you squeeze your hand actively and you let go. When you squeeze it and you let go, do you feel like your shoulders are just more ready to go, maybe? But what happens when you pull your arms back?

When you pull your arms back with that active grip, especially from thumb, around to the first finger, more muscles in your shoulder are going to be available to you. So go ahead and keep that active grip and try doing a single arm here. Just moving the arms. I didn't give any queuing. I just want you to feel. And feel. Maybe try it with a passive grip and notice if it feels different.

For me, it feels really heavy, but when I grip with my arm, with my hand, my arm becomes stronger. It's quite fascinating. So whenever we're doing a pulling exercise, pulling, it's important for the well-being of all the pieces to really get a good grip. So let's now if you wanna really try something hard, keep the red spring on the button, If you felt like before, that first thing we did was really difficult, then keep the blue spring on the button. No matter which choice you make, it's harder.

K? So we're gonna get a good grip on that handle. I'm on a red spring right now. Yeah. And we're gonna find that external rotation. So you're gonna see me sweat.

But if you can keep that powerful grip, you may find that you can do this, and it became easier as you got used to it. Right, as you do more. So now how about that cross arm pull? Now I know that's hard. Many of you will look at me and say, no way can I do a red spring? And that's okay. I'm working on strengthening my body. I'm 52, and I need strong muscles.

So I wanna work heavier weight sometimes. Okay. One more time. Good. Let's do the same thing on the other side. So you'll sit on your feet.

And again, tuck that elbow in, and out you go. 1. And it's okay if it's not perfect, if it hurts, stop, or lighten the spring, but I'm looking for your shoulder, your arm, to be able to do repetitive movement, and build strength. Good cross arm pull comes now all the way across. If you feel you need help with balance, remember, you can put your hand on the shoulder rest. Good.

And all the way across. What I hope is that as you do this, you feel your whole arm your whole body getting a little tired, last two here, and last one. Beautiful. Let's put those straps away and gently step up. Fun experience. Right? Okay.

So we are gonna wanna put the headrest up for the next piece because guess what? My friends, you guessed it. We're gonna do the tendon stretch. I'm gonna take that red spring and just put the outside red spring on so that I can have a place for my feet to be. Okay? So you can start by sitting on the bar. I've taught that before, but here, I would like you to be able to stand.

And do this in the way that in theory we wanna set up. So in previous classes, I've taught it sitting on the bar. Flex those feet actively and drop the heels down. That's your tendon stretch with your fingers or hands or whatever on the the reformer round up create big flexion of your spine. Place your hand back. Place your other hand back. My friends, we need to be able to press through the first finger and the thumb in this shape too.

So see if you can really put weight through that webbing there. Push into that, round your back more, and here we go through and up and through and up. Both farms are equally working through and up and last 2. And last one. So you can walk forward. Bend your knees. Walk your knees back. Place your hands up against the shoulder rest ground through your elbows.

Feel that openness through the back of your heart. Look for your foot bar. Place one foot on the foot bar at center or just aside from center because I'd like you to do this with your legs together. If you can look forward, if you need to look for it, look for the foot bar, 2 feet are on the bar, point your feet, look forward, feel the power here. Let's do a couple with the arms forward and out.

Forward and back, rather. And one more here. Now you're gonna squeeze those knees together. You're gonna bend the knees, round the back a little bit, and push out. Bend rounding the back.

Push out. 2 more bend rounding the back. Push out. And one more, push out and stay. Could you entertain the idea of leaning to the left arm?

Of leaning to the right arm. Of leaning around, and finding your balance. Perhaps your arm is up. Perhaps your hand is still on the carriage. So we're in a nice, powerful, grounded forearm plank position.

Come around to the other side. Find your balance. Feel your power, hint of a smile across your cheeks, because remember we are having fun. Find your breath, here, round your back, bend your knees, put those knees down, and come into just a nice little yummy child's pose, rest pose, for a breath or 2. Resetting and grounding.

Just a few more things to do, my friends. So we are going to do our standing side splits here. So let's put the bar down to the low position. Okay. I like this on this foot bar because or on this reformer because the foot bar offers a little bit of support. Certainly, if you need to put it all the way down on yours, go ahead and do so. So you'll step yourself up, put two feet hanging off the edge.

The standing foot, I like to use the foot bar and lean into it a little bit, bend both knees. The other foot's gonna go just a little bit behind, so I can really try to get that glute tissue to work. Lift your heart, use your belly, push the leg out and in. So think about just continuing to move. So it's like a single leg skate here. Try to feel the hip generating the force to go out and in, add a little bit of a swing of the arm.

So eye gaze changes swing. So I'm not asking for specific choreography, but I am asking you to use your eyes and look around while doing exercises that are challenging on your balance. One more here. Now sometimes we wanna take our hands down and walk our leg out to get out there, but I'd like you to work on where you can do it without it being such a leap of faith. So I'm gonna look and aim for as far out as I can step with control. That's where I'd like you to be. K? You need to put your hands down, put your hands down.

Squeeze those inner thighs. Use the glutes. Use the hamstrings. Use the quads. Use everything. You can go palms up today. Open out to the side as wide as you feel safe and confident. Pull in through the inside of the foot, squeeze everything, hold it to 1.

Go again. 2 legs are working. Pull in and hold it. 2. 1. One more time like that. And pull in and hold it.

2. 1, look to your right or look over the hand of the leg that's out there. Doesn't matter which leg you're on. You'll just turn around and do the other side. So I'm twisting with my body so that I'm using different tissue here.

We're gonna do that three times before we do the other side. Yeah? And then we're gonna look the other way. Whoop. My body twists a little bit. I'm gonna go out and pull in three times. There's one.

And there's 2. Whew, it's getting hard and hot in here. I love it. Now this is the tricky part. Can you bring yourself back to your leg effortlessly and take yourself down from there? Now go to the other side.

Okay. So we're gonna step up. The foot is near. The front edge here in alignment with the little black thing there. So both toes are hanging off. Both knees are bent.

I'm powerful through my ads. I am still on 1 red spring. If I forgot to say that before, I'm saying that now, but I have been on 1 red spring. Since we did the cross arm pulls and the tendon stretch. So I'm pressing out and in.

I'm waking up my glute. I'm leaning into the bar. And then now we're gonna add a little swing and a change of gaze. So I'm not trying to keep everything perfect. In fact, I'm throwing my nervous system a little bit off balance, so I have to figure things out. My body has to figure things out rather than me thinking too much about it.

Bam. Couple more like that. Reach. And reach. Let's do our side splits. So we move out as far as you can with control. Wow. There we are. Hug it in. Feel the inside of the foot weighted, grounded, send the arms, palms facing up today, open nice and wide, and pull in two legs working feel too.

1. We'll go again. Nice and wide. You go as far as you feel confident that you can squeeze in and hold. 2 and 1. And squeeze in and hold.

Everything's working. Now look over the hand of the leg that's on the reformer, platform part or the reformer bed. That's the word I probably should use. Let your body respond to the eye gaze change. We're doing three here. And one more, please.

And we pull in. And now we're gonna look the other way. Let the body change a little bit. Use different parts of your body. I'd put my arm down. I don't know why. I just felt like it, so I'll keep it up because I did on the other side.

One more time, please. Although maybe next time I'll do that. Hold here. Look forward. Bring yourself back to the standing platform. Try to do so with grace and ease, and then carefully step down from there.

Let's keep the same spring, but put the bar back up to your footwork position. So here on this 3 former, it's the middle, and we're gonna do a little down stretch. Okay? So just put those feet up against the shoulder rest, get a nice stretch through the toes. Hands are on the bar. Round yourself forward into back extension.

Let's move my foot back a little. Here we go. Down and up. Feel the glutes, the hamstrings. Feel the breath. Feel the ease.

Feel the abs. Feel the upper back. Also feel that you could, if you wanted to wiggle a little look around, see something different. Remember, you're breathing. One more, please. Untuck the toes.

We're gonna just shift right into a hip and hamstring stretch. Foot wedges up against the shoulder rest. Bend that front knee. Allow the knee to rest down and breathe in. And breathe out here.

Calm in your body. So you can stay more upright like we classically do in our Bassy work. Or if you'd like to today, you can dig dig deeper here. Sink in and see if you can allow your head maybe to rest on your forearm on the foot bar and allow a deeper stretch in the psoas there, a more relaxed stretch, much like you would do runner's lunge and yoga, breathing in, and breathing out. Know that I'm supported still in my core here, though.

Right? I'm not dumping into my low back, and then we'll come on up from there. And let's do that same stretch on the other side. Beautiful work. So here we take the foot near the foot of the reformer, tuck your toe in, bend be more upright first and feel all your pieces here. Remember at any point you wanna be able to balance in this shape.

Breathing in. And breathing out. And then if you wanna sink deeper into it, maybe let your arm rest. Your head can rest on your forearm and sink into a deeper stretch where it's more passive, more relaxed. A little bit less stabilizing.

Do support a bit with your belly so your low back is not being crunched, but enjoy the stretch. Be curious. You do you. Breathing in. And breathing out.

Let's slowly bring ourselves upright. And let's just all finish with a roll down or 2 from standing. So with your 2 feet, underneath your hips, Open your heart. Let's take those arms wide, pumps up. Feels nice. Exhale to roll down. Bend your knees as you need to.

Let everything hang loose here. Her shoulders, head, back, knees, shake it all out. And then pull it back together so squeeze the inner thighs, hollow the belly in, plug the shoulders, or roll yourself up. Let's do it like that again. Open wide.

Rolled down. So there's control on the way down, but then once we get there, let it all hang out a little bit, shake, rattle, shake, rattle, and roll people. And then pull it all together. And come to standing. And perhaps put your hands at heart center with your eyes closed.

Take 3 breaths. Feel your head stacked over your chest. Your chest stacked. Over your pelvis, equal weight on both feet. Allow your arms to come down.

Palms facing forward, opening your heart. And when you're ready, awake in your eyes, and thank you so very much for playing. I'll see you soon.