High-Energy Reformer

All right, Sarah. Today we're going to do a really fun reformer workout. Are you ready? I am ready. I'm excited. Okay, so just stand in front of your reformer. We've got a blue spring on at the moment. We're going to stand tall, reach the arms down the sides of the legs, lifting the spine tall and from there, exhaling, reaching forward, allowing the hands to reach towards the carriage of the reformer. So we're coming into flection here. Take a moment as your hands touch to deepen that flection, pressing the pelvis forward.

And then on the inhale we send the spine out into extension, keeping the hips just over the feet. Exhale, drawing me a bell medals back and pressing the chest or the sternum in the pelvis. Close together. Inhale as you lengthen the spine. Avoid shifting forward and back with the weight of your body so the weight stays consistent and balanced over the heels. And we pull the carriage in and in the healing as we length in the body, out, reaching the tailbone up towards the ceiling and excelling as we curl and take care as you go through that extension position. Not to allow the lower middle back or the middle back to hyperextend. So we keep the ribs pressed back as we take the spine forward.

And three more inhale and just moving. Mobilizing the spine, dropping the shoulders down as a carriage comes all the way into touch and inhale as we reach and Xcel as we curl, adding on at the bottom. Inhale as we reach from here, we bend the elbows, pulling the carriage in, but the elbows widen. Exhale, stretch the arms out and inhale. Feel the back, expand as the elbows widen and bend and stretch the spine as the arms straightened. And three more times bending it, feeling the length of the spines, feeling the support from the front of the body and two more and stretching out through the spine. Good. And one more time and reaching out and inhaling there and reaching the spine back in all the way. Once the carriage comes to the stopper, we just continue lifting off the reformer, rolling all the way up into a standing position. And from there we're going to come to a seated position, keeping the blue spring, placing the feet. On the headdress. You want to sit up position yourself. So you've got about, I don't know, six to eight inches behind you.

And then taking a hold of the straps just above the buckles, legs together, spine long and in here as we exhale, we're going to flex the spine, keep the shoulders where they are for NASA, establish a rounded shape and then bring that rounded shape back into the carriage. Bringing the lower back, all the way to touch the carriage in healing there. Exhale, create the curvature as you round back up so the shoulders come over the hips. Very similar to the top of a roll up and in. We're going to take the elbows to the sides and extend the spine to straight. Beautiful and reaching the arms forward as the arms reach we to drop back through the abdominals, curving the spy, rolling from there, pressing the lower back down, feeling the shoulders, reaching down the back in healing to pause, excelling. We curl, deepening, allowing the spring to give you enough assistance so that you can create more work in your own body. Lifting the spine up straight, bringing the elbows wide to the side and inhale the arms forward, curling the spine. As we exhale, feeling the energy in the legs, they're pressing towards one another. Then maybe even draw the heels back towards the tailbone just a little bit.

Feeling the backsides of the legs active, curling the spine forward and lifting back to Tal. One more time, Sarah. Reaching the arms forward, bending the spine first, so finding that deep contraction, that deep sea shade, reaching down, pausing at the bottom, maybe go a little lower, a little bit more straight with the body and the exhale as we curl all the way back. And finally, once again, bringing the elbows wide to the side to lift the spine. Inhale the arms forward. Exhale, taking the spine down again. We're going to stay at the bottom this time and create a little bit of a little bit deeper work. So we go into the mini roll up here. Exhale as you take the ribs towards the pelvis, flexing the spine and inhale back. So as we curl forward, it's not necessarily an up and down action, but more of an inward fold in healing down.

Exhale, tucking the abdominals down beneath the ribs. Two more times, XO curling up. So I'm trying not to move my reformer a great deal, but instead just move this spine. It's pretty decent work. Pretty hard work actually and one and back to straight. You get, you got there. And then now we add flection of the hips. So let's take the left leg up as we do the exact same movement with the upper spine. Inhale that leg down, changing sides. Exhale, curling in. This knee comes towards the chest and down. Not moving my leg a lot.

It's just kind of floating up and inhale down. So as you lift the leg, think about it in terms of not coming from the leg, but instead responding to the flection of the spine. And again, switching sides. Every time as a leg goes down, press it down with the back of the leg. Two more times to each side. Exhale and exhale. And last one to each side, reaching the spine into the thigh.

Good and down and up and now both legs down and with our Best Control Sarah, we're rolling all the way back up to the top. Let's lift this spine one last time, bringing the elbows out wide, getting that Nice beautiful extension. So take the straps in one hand and scoot back just a little bit. So now I'm pulling more towards the back end of my reformer and when my knees are dropped, open into a diamond shape. Holding in a bowl straps. Again, we're going to add a rotation here. So lifting first, let's turn towards the left first. Start engaging the left side of the waist and then bring elbow high and back bending that back arm, but reaching the other arm forward.

Inhale to come to center. Start with the waist, then allow the back of the arm to feed in. Inhaling back to center so you not only work as you go through the rotation, turning, turning, reaching that free arm forward, but you work as you come home and excelling as we rotate growing long on up out of the pelvis, any inhale to center and exhale as we rotate reaching and center. We're just using this as a little bit of a break from that intense ab work, but we're going to go right back to it and one more after. One more repetition. So here's our last one. Make it your best and center and last time to the other side, reaching over and center again, taking the straps in one hand, scoot yourself back forward.

So you've got that six to eight inches of carriage behind you. Once again, the legs are together. We sit the spine tall, exhale to curl the spine backwards. Going back to the position where the low back is flat on the carriage. From there rotating to our left side, we do five just mini curls up that left side. Exhale and keeping the shoulders held back. Exhale and down and exhale and down.

And two more looking for depth. And one where we're going to add it. The hip flection here, four, five. So we take the low back down and then the leg comes between the two ropes. As you curl up and in here and curling up and inhale, keep the rotation consistent and focused. And last two times curling the spine in woods and I'm focusing on that deep lower spinal flection. Inhale the leg down and center. Exhale, we come all the way up just one time.

And as we come curved over the pelvis, we begin to elevate and lift the spine, elbows out to the side, reaching the arms forward, heading down through the center. Good. Finding depth, finding control, turning the body, the upper body without rotating the lower body. Five mini curls on that right hand side. Exhale and and exhale, bending inwards and down and three to go. And in here, keeping that left shoulder plugged down. Here's what a number one lifting nicely done. And here comes the hip flection of the right hip one and push the leg down and curl. Using that hip flection to go deeper into the abdominal contraction.

Last two times. Curling up and reaching down. One more time. Curling up and reaching down. As the leg comes down, we find center, we roll all the way back up all the way. Keep the shoulders down, find the rounded shape over the pelvis, lift the spine, bring the elbows out. And from here, just once, adding a little bit of back extension. Try to stretch the arms out to the side, straighten them into a t position and inhale bending the arms to reach them forward. Setting the straps all the way back. Well, I just discovered my straps are not even so I'm going to fix them right now. Okay. And I'm not quiet and quiet again and now I'm happy. Okay, so setting up for footwork.

I generally like to use a three reds or three in a three reds in a blue spring. So choose the springs that are appropriate for you today and coming all the way down onto our backs. I'm going to keep my head rest down today. [inaudible] take the feet just on top of the foot bar. We're going to do five pelvic curls here. Continuing to mobilize the spine.

So with the arms pressing down into the carriage, we bend in the lower spine and we curl slowly through the spine, rising up off the carriage, reaching the knees forward over the toes, hoping not to cramp. Whoa, I'm cramping. Inhale at the top. Exhale, chest comes through the arms first. The arms actively pressed down into the carriage and we then manipulating the spine from the front of the body until the pelvis comes all the way back into a neutral spinal position and inhale and exhale. Feel the depth that pure abdominal movement as his pelvis flexes upwards and then curling the spine. Feel here and equality through the work in both legs. Perhaps lifting the pelvis a little bit higher, but not at the expense of arching the middle back and exhale down. Slowly feel the arms reach in the direction that the spine is being pulled and inhale. Let's go a little quicker. Moving. Using the breath as a rhythm, rising up and out.

Inhale for intensity at the top and exhale to bend the spine back down. Feel the shoulders reaching away from the shoulder blocks. Find neutral pelvis last too firm. I'm flexing my feet here to to really focus on the backsides of the legs. Pausing at the top to breathe in. And we breathe out.

We're reaching the spine bone by bone all the way down. Pressing the arms down. Don't allow the shoulders to start to curl inwards. And how about one more? Rolling up and pause and getting those hamstrings and nice and warm in here and actually come all the way down. And with that neutral pelvis, slide the feet back onto the front of the bar, starting our footwork series. Inhale, prepare, keeping the pelvis neutral. Start with the backsides of the leg. Stretch the carriage away and inhale, we bet. And we Exxon press and feel each time that you come, all the way into the stopper and press and all the way into the stopper.

And again, we've all got one strong side and one not so strong side. So let's put our focus on working evenly. Allow your mental focus to go into the side of the body that perhaps doesn't work quite as hard naturally as the opposite side. Good. And five more reaching me. Arms down as the legs press up and resisting and, and reaching the arms down and resisting in feel as you come in that it's an active pull from the hamstrings, right, which are really responsible for bending the knee and ended up is that five and how about one more? I Dunno, we go out and we come in and accounting has never been my forte.

I'm sorry about that. We go onto the toes pressing the carriage back, keeping the heels up. So from there to just drop the heels down under the bar, just one time and then we lift up into our maximum plantar flection with the leg straight. Okay. And then we keep the feet just there as the knees bend in so they don't Bob up and down and we go out and we come in. So there was no locking at the ankle joint out and in. Nice and out. Working through the waistline each time and out.

Give your arms a little backward press. So we not only working the legs, not only working in the abs of, we are turning this into a full body experience, feeling that upper back, working for support on last four, coming back, keeping those feet nice and still and three and coming back and two and coming back. Um, and finding our way all the way back in externally. Rotate from the hip, join bringing the heels together, give the heels quite a big squeeze, feeling the engagement of the adductors and we've pressed from there. Exhale. And then then, so as we're working, we're maintaining that neutral spinal position. No tucking here. Feel the backs of the legs working without effecting the pelvis at all. Squeezing the legs together at the top, finding that nice firm inner thigh control and, and um, and again working at rhythmically five more here, one and, and, and two pulling the carriage back and three, checking in with the arms and shoulders, checking in that there's no tension in the neck and back. Last one. Ah, and, and taking the heels to the outer edges of the bar, finding that same externally rotated position. And here without the heels to squeeze, we just feel an inward pull.

Almost the heels are trying to drag together. There's the inner thighs and from there out and in take care of that. When you flex your feet, you're flexing from the ankle joint. The toes are relaxed and held straight, hopefully. Right? In a perfect world, I had to lift my head and check out my own toes there they seem to be doing all right. Okay. Create just as much energy on the way in is on the way out.

Feel the ribs drop downwards, feel the control through the middle of the body. And we're going to do that four more times here. Exhale. And a long inhale on the way on an exhale and inhaling it. Yeah. And too. And our final one and then all the way back in, we just slipped down to the toes keeping the knees. Why in healing? Prepare, excelling out, finding the, the lifted position through the foot and then that foot stays nice and still is. We come in and out and, and, and, and back.

Just using our footwork's here is to warm up our whole body. Yeah. Feeling the inner thighs actively working, starting the movement from there, from the hips last four to go. Reaching and bringing the Keratome and reaching n n last two times and back. Here it is. [inaudible] great and back. Taking the feedback into the center of the bar.

We're going to do progressive cavities is today. Check for the neutral spinal position. Check that the ribs are imprinted down, pressing out all the way. Pull the heels under the bar beyond where the springs. Pull the FI. Lift up one time and bend the knees in and we press out right away. Going two times now down and up. Focus more on the down than the add and up and in and pressing out and just lift up with the glutes as the heels. Reach under the bar and two and left.

Checking in with the shoulders and the arms. And here's number four. We're going to go to six. Let me just prepare yourself for that to polling down through the front of the Shin and four and up and in. And here's the last two sets. Reaching and lifting, actively pulling to float. And three I tried to feel a lot of concentrated work through the entire backsides of my legs, but it's not just calf work working all the way to the glutes and all the way back. Here's number six. We're going to go straight from there into our prancing.

So one lifting from the hips, two feeling the alignment of the pelvis. Three Oh my goodness, last year and one more from the tub. Then the right knee and pull the left heel down. Reach to the center and change so that there is that active lift through the metal, metal middle, matching the legs together in center and then pulling actively. Both feet are active here. The knee that's bending of the foot of the knee, that's bending pushes into the bar and the opposite. Heel reaches and pull.

Lift, pull, lift. Paul, let's see. Three more to eat. Sign and take the time in the stretch. And too and see that the nigos straight up, a little late call on that, but hopefully we're all thinking of that. Anyway, I'm going to hold my frame and pull my hail down just a little bit more. They're giving myself just a little bit more of a stretch. Okay. Let me change feet reaching, giving yourself [inaudible] just a little bit more of an intensity in that stretch. Okay. And then we come all the way back in turning to the side, putting ourselves at, uh, heading into abdominal work. So I'm going to go one spraying for these one green spray.

Great. Thanks. Zera. Okay. And head back down. So our strap should be nice and even we've already checked that. Taking the straps in both hands, making sure you're right in the center, bringing the arms out to the side, keeping the feet on the bar. Take just a moment to feel a nice solid connection in the shoulders.

As we do that, we check that the ribs are actually down on a mat and pick up the legs one at a time. Send the legs forward on the diagonal that you can maintain a neutral, uh, a nice flat spine. Breathing in there. As we exhale, we're going to bring the arms to the side, curling the head and chest up and lifting the body into flection and inhale down, lowering the legs over the bar and exhale, lifting the legs all the way to a vertical position. I think this is a pretty decent spring here. I would not know if I would be happy on anything heavier and in the hands down, working with the legs in parallel. Got Nice active backside legs and inhale. The lightness of the spring personally is allowing me to really challenge the flection of my trunk. And we're going four more times here. It has one and, and two.

And uh, try not to lead the mole movement with the face. We lead the movement with the sternum. Here's number one. We're going to hold at the top. We're reaching up. Stay right there and take the right foot down, touching the barbering, the left foot back towards the chest, and we change reaching and actively pressing that bottom leg down. Actively reaching the harms forward.

Press and pull that top leg in and reach and reach left to pull and reach. Pull and reach. I like to find the bar and push on it a little and in and then both like up. Take the arms, flip them down so that they are facing downwards and take the body down. The legs are gonna stay just here. We're going to inhale to prepare.

As we exhale, bring the hands a little closer together. Actually. Excellent. Curl up into flection, reaching between the legs, the legs separate from there. It's a deeper flection to lift one and two and three. Bringing the legs together in the arms at spine, arms up, spine, down. Inhale. Exhale. Bring the arms through the legs, separating the legs.

Keep them strong and straight, and then curl high without lifting the shoulders. Two and three we list the arms, bringing the legs back together when to do that. Three more times. Here it is. Exhale, one, pulling up deeper. One and two and three and inhale down. Oh, I'm so happy we chose the springs here and two more and pull and shoulders down and one and all the way back. Here's our last one and up.

And it's one looking for that deep flection, two and three, and then bringing it all the way down, bending the knees, placing the feet back down. That's tough. Okay. Curling over to our side again, helping ourselves. I'm going to change, um, go back to a red spring I think, and take the foot bar down. We're going to do a little sideline hip work here. So we'll start lying. I'm going to start facing this way. I'm lying on my left side. So come towards the back of the reformer as you lie down.

And then take the upper arm, the upper arm and the, so we're both on our left. Yeah. Okay. So the left arm reaches onto the head rest and then reaches back and holds onto that back, um, post. And then the head goes just on the arm. Send this body back. So you're in line, if not slightly beyond the edge of the carriage. So I might have you move back a little bit more. Sarah, let your butt hang off the end a little and then take the strap that's closest to you and your hand. Push out with the bottom leg.

Put the top foot into the strap, and then putting a little tension on the strap to keep the carriage. So slide the other knee underneath. So here we've set ourselves up in about a 90 degree angle from the hip to the knee to the foot leg down on the other leg to start. So both legs together. Okay. And now we relax our head down. We're going to lift the top leg in here as we exhale, heading towards that front frame corner, stretching the leg forward.

Inhale to bend. So here we think about our, uh, ex, uh, outer hips. Work towards just a slight internal rotation here and feel that as you reach out, if you just like really jam with your foot, you're not going to feel much work. So you just want to tighten the side of the head and almost relax the leg forward from there and reaching out. Feel the length, reaching out through the waist and bend and out. And Ben, we're going to do sets of eight of these. So this is our last two. And in holding the leg straight here, start to take the leg back. The strap will come quite close to the face.

We take the leg slightly into extension and inhale to bring it forward over the opposite knee. Yep. And XL sets very similar to the sidekick here, pulling back from just below the glute as a leg comes back and inhale to come forward. And I have my opposite hand just resting on the carriage in front of me. Reaching back, sometimes like to put it just in front of my abdominal. So I remind my abdominal stuff. Actively pull away from the arm. And here's number four.

Reaching working from the back of the leg and back. Yep. Neutral spine was the question. And yes, we are a neutral corrective, neutral alignment of the hip. Yep. Maybe even slightly towards internal rotation. So looking for a little glutamine work is what we're after last too. Okay.

[inaudible] and one more and reaching back. And then we're going to bend the knee so it matches the opposite leg. So now we've got our legs back together. Bent, take that top leg and just lift the entire leg up. Yes. And down, I've put my hand on my pelvis to just some a monitor that it staying totally still. It's up to you if you want to do that or not. I like to for myself and down feeling the bottom league, working a little for stability as well. And again, five and down, feeling the abdominal holding the spine steady and last too and down. And one more time. And now we take it all the way down. So from there, turn over onto your back, keeping that foot in the strap.

Oh, just make your way onto your back. Take the leg that has no strap on it and bring it to the floor. And then depending on your flexibility in the front of that hip, we're gonna just slide the foot underneath the carriage as much as you can. So we get a stretch through that front hip and then we're gonna pull that other leg up, getting a stretch to the back of the leg. Okay.

And then take a hold. I've got my right foot in the strep, so I'm going to hold the strap with my left hand. Keep the right hip down on the carriage and bring the left leg just across to the side slightly. And then bend that knee out to the side, coming into a figure four stretch. Bring the opposite knee up to meet that ankle and just allow the spring to help you, guide you into the stretch. Monitor the hip, make sure that it's not hiking. Okay.

And then set that free leg down on the frame so you've got a little control of the carriage. Take the foot out of the strap and come all the way in. Good. We set the strap back and we slide over to the other side. Okay, so here we are on our other side again. You want to make sure the back is flat. And I like my back just slightly off the back end of the carriage. Use the bottom foot to push the carriage out. Oh, and we have the opposite arm up, reaching back for that back pag. Take the top foot up into the strap.

And then once you've got a little tension on that strap, bring the bottom knee up to meet the top knee. So head down on the arm in herring to prepare. Re-Establish that nice straight back. And then we lift the top leg and we send it slightly forward, right towards that forward edge of the reformer. And Inhale Tibet and exhale. Feel the engagement through the hip first and then allow the leg to just slide forward.

Feel the strong connection through the center of the body and reaching out the neck is just resting there on the hands. And here's number five. And Inhale, make sure that the knee just goes up right above the opposite knee, not inward. More and last two, don't bend the knees so much either the spine needs to round. Here's number one and the one in which we kept the leg straight from there, we take it back into his slight hip extension and send it forward over the up opposite knee. Inhale, feeling the work coming right from the back of the leg. You should feel the leg all the way to the top of the hip and forward and reaching back and forward. Yeah, and again, I'd have my hand on my pelvis here just holding it, so just monitoring it. You can also put your hand on the carriage in front of you and we've got four to go. Here's one.

Yeah, remembering to breathe, inhaling forward and exhaling back. Let's do it feels so much more tired than the other one. I suppose it had to stabilize a bit on the other side. Here's our last one. Yeah. And then we just bend the knee over the opposite knee. Inhale, exhale, going into Ab duction of the hip and inhale down and exhale, lifting the leg without changing the pelvis and down. Keeping the carriage still as well as that like just moves up and down through space. And here's number four. Good.

Maybe press the bottom leg into the carriage. As the top leg lifts up, you'll get more work on the bottom side if you want it. Uh, I forgot how many more Sarah till maybe I can count. Sorry. That's okay. Number two. Okay. And then we're done. So we're going to slide again over, back onto our back, placing the leg that's free of the strap down onto the ground. Walking in that foot slightly under the carriage is as best that you can. And then reaching that, that top leg for a stretch, I'm taking a little hip flexor stretch, a little hamstring stretch, maybe flexing the top foot and then taking a hold of the strap with the opposite hand and just gently guiding that leg across the body to the opposite side as you got the leg across. Pull the free leg towards the leg that's coming over. So we keep the legs pretty much in a neutral position.

I don't know if that makes sense, but anyway. Okay. So we've been, that taught me and bring that bottom knee up to meet it out. Oh, okay. So that just shows I'm human. Right. Alright. Let's flex that foot, the one that's in the strap, increasing the stretch, check the pelvis, make sure it's not hiking, breathe. And then place a free leg down onto the frame to, uh, take the foot out of the strap and come all the way in. Okay. And then rolling to the side to come on. All right, so we're going to do the kneeling, uh, the knee stretch, kneeling, hip, stretch, kneeling. I don't think I've got the name right yet, but that's okay. I'll tell you how to get there. All right, so bringing the bar back up. Kneeling, lunch.

Did you tell me that? Thank you Sarah. It's the kneeling lunch. Okay. So we put one foot, I'm going to put my left foot down against the, um, shoulder black and my right foot up onto the bar. So bringing the carriage all the way in, adjusting the back knee for comfort. Push the heel of the left foot into the shoulder block. And from there we're gonna balance. So we find our balance, we find our center and we reach the arms out to the side, lifting the spine up and India. Exhale, stretching that front leg forward, holding the spine stable, and you need healing to come in.

Press the leg that's on the carriage back as the front knee bends. Keep lifting up through the spine. We're going to do three, sir. Reaching out, reaching, reaching, extending that front leg and in healing in. And last one. Well, I was thinking about doing a little bit of arm choreography, but I'm just happy to do just what we're doing and take the hand onto the bar. Press the front leg forward, reaching out, keeping the spine long for that am string stretch [inaudible]. Okay. And then bending in again.

Keep the Bakley reaching back as the front knee events forward, lifting up through the spine. And then we just adjust feet. So we take the right foot back onto the shoulder, block the left foot up onto the bar, and to the best of your ability without yours or teachers, look for alignment. Okay, so organizing, stabilizing. And here we go. Arms out to the side and we keep the spine long. Okay, sorry. See, I'm catching you. And in all the way back in, keeping the back leg, reaching backwards as we slide the carriage back and lift up from the abdominals out of the pelvis and reaching that front leg, keeping the palace to your best of your ability lined up and inhaling to come in. Yeah. And last time you, yeah, reaching out. I'm coming all the way back in.

And then once you get into the stop or reach for the carrot, lengthen the back out, dropping that top hip towards the back inner ankle bone. We look for that long hamstring stretch, keeping the spine as long as possible. Breathing in and out. If you need a bigger stretch here, drop your heel under the bar. Personally, I'm doing just fine. Okay. All right. Let me bring the front knee in. Going all the way in.

I think we're in a good spring, Sarah. So let's just stand straight up onto the reformer in it. Play around with the elephant today. Um, so let's start by just doing the elephant as is. So coming back against this shoulder blocks with the heels, I've got a red spring on, I'm that's not going to be comfortable for everyone. So if you need a little bit more spring, feel free to add some spring tension now, maybe a blue spring. Okay.

So we find our nice long back, pressing the weight into the feet, feeling the shoulders drop away from the ears. And from there, inhale, taking the legs back. Feel the length of the spine, the consistent long position just still as the carriage comes in and inhale, press through the heels and flexing the toes as the carriage comes in, just increasing the, the intensity of the stretch, if you will. And in here feeling the pelvis spread. Why the shoulders spread wide and two more and keeping the spine nice and long. It's the abdominals or more precisely the, so as the, the deep hip flexes that bring the carriage in and in. Okay. So from there, um, come forward with your feet. About halfway to the middle. Oh, once again, find a flat back.

But we're not going to be down on the diagonal here. We're going to be more upright. Okay? Take the right leg back, just back behind you. Find them. Take a moment to stabilize the pelvis. You look good, Sarah, and then lift the leg up. The the right leg. Keep weight over the left leg. So we're going to inhale, press back on the left leg, round the spine and bring the right knee into hip flection. Spinal flection, hip flection. A little bit of a calf stretch on that left hand side. Inhale, hip extension, spinal extension, a extension carriage comes in and exhale, we curve the spine, pushing away from the bars and inhale to come out and XL to curl the spine and inhale to reach out. Long spine long. Have last too, reaching in. Okay, nice strong hip in that back leg.

And last one and finding that back extension, that hip extension holding here, roll the top hip forward, lifting the leg even higher and then bend that knee and allow it to travel back around towards the opposite arm. That's just a gift, Sarah. I give to myself and you. Okay, let me set the foot down. Okay. Reestablish a flat spine. Bring the opposite leg back. And here we go. Lifting the hip into extension. Inhale. As the right leg goes back, the spine flexes the knee, left knee comes right up into the chest. Keep just an awareness in the shoulder area, Hani.

Inhale all the way into the stopper and exhale, curl the spine, pressing the shoulders down. Feel that deep abdominal work and inhale out and Xcel n and inhale and exhale [inaudible] and last one. So the head slightly responds to the changing action in the spine, reaching, deepening, deepening, make it your very best one. And then reaching all the way in, making sure the character comes all the way to the stopper. Roll the hip upwards. Then that taught me, reaching out away from it. How do we, from what out? Away from the hip with the foot, and then reaching back, bringing the leg down and stuffing back down onto the [inaudible].

Yeah. Oh, we're going to have a change to blue springs. Okay. And come onto our knees facing the back end of the reform. Right. Okay, so taking a hold of the straps just above the buckles. Again, I realize that it's perhaps not the heaviest weight that you've done the chest expansion on, but we're going to play around with the um, position a little bit today. So finding nice strong alignment through the spine.

The arms are just slightly in front of the trunk, the neck is long, the eyes are straight ahead. And from there just reaching down and back with the arms and inhale forward. I like to play around with using lighter spring tensions that sometimes I find effective in feeling a deeper contraction in the musculature in which you wish to focus. And that was hard to say and didn't really come out right. But anyway, reaching. Okay, go ahead and back and then reaching back. One more to go. Taking the arms back and then the arms come forward.

We're going to rotate to the left, so I want you to start to reach it down towards the ground with the left lat and start to rotate the body towards that direction. As you pull down on the strap, inhale to come to center, start reaching the right arm down. Although the left arm will lose tension in terms of like strap, we keep the arm reaching downwards and inhale we find center and exhale as we rural around towards one side working from the obliques. And Inhale as we come to center. And again, one more time to decide. Nope, I lied. One more time to each side. Now reaching over and center and reaching over. Okay, so here's the, here's the playful exercise from here. Start to curl the spine back. So it's a, it's a variation on the five stretch.

We pressed the size forward, but start to round the spine backwards into flection. You the little round of sal, that's it. From there, take the arms back to the body. We're still around, but the upper backs working. We lengthen the body out into the thigh, stretch coming up on the diagonal and everything comes forward. Inhale to prepare. Exhale to fold the spine backwards, pressing the pelvis forward, but sinking back over the heels. Take the arms back. Let's inhale there.

Keep inhaling as we lift the spine into a long position and exhale, everything comes up. We're going to do that one more time, undulating into that rounded shape. Taking the straps back, lengthening out, feeling the upper back work, finding the long line and lifting up. Let's reverse that. So we take the arms back, hinge back into the size, stretch position, curl the spine round it, start to reach the arms forward, and then just press through the hips rolling through the spine to come up. Taking the arms back, lengthening back. Let's inhale their curl the spine, reaching the chest in the pelvis, close together, bending inwards on yourself. Start to take the arms forward, holding your balance and lifting up from there. And one more time, bring the arms back, hinge back into the size stretch. Think a lot about a posterior tilt, and then we curl.

Keeping that posterior tilt active, rounding the spine back, send the arms forward, and then roll the spine back up. And that's the end that's, they add that, that, okay. Same to have a fair amount of trouble speaking today. Here, they're just gonna turn around putting the feet up against the shoulder blocks or do that and that. You're just going to do a little arm circling. Okay, so we're on our knees. We've got the feet up against the shoulder blocks. I still have my blue spring on reaching back for the straps. I'm coming up onto the knees again, looking for a nice strong aligned spine, which is going to be do about six circles. Here we go. We take it, the arms up, feel the spine grow as the arms reached to the ears and then out and XL.

As we take the arms up, feel the length in the spine and open and exhale to the left and, and the exhale to left. Yeah, no opened last two times. Feeling the nice smooth rotation in the shoulder joint and here's the one and all round I. Now we reverse that. We take the arms out, rotating the palms down to bring the, I'm straight to the hips and keep the carriage moving as the arms reach up and then reaching down, pressing the heels into the shoulder blocks is our exhale and inhale down and last two strong supportive abdominals and down. And one way keep the MCI bend the arms placed. The first fingers and thumbs together. Take the hands just behind the head.

Keep the elbows slightly, slightly forward so there's no neck tension and we go straight up into the air. From there. Exhale and inhale. Feel the broadening of the elbows and back. Exhale to the left and inhale down as your arms straight and feel the shoulders drop down so there's more focus in the upper back than in the arms. Truly more of a stabilization challenge than an arm challenge in my opinion. Anyway. Uh, this one's number five. We're going to do eight of these and here's three. Keep the length, keep the strength in the hips to strengthen the ABS.

Two and one. Yeah, and then just slide the arms out to the side to come down. Take both straps into one hand. I'm going to add a red spring, so I've got a red and blue spring for our bicep. I mean back up onto the knees, arms high in space, but not so high that it causes the elevation. Any elevation in the shoulder joint. And here we go. We've just been the arms.

Exhale and bring the arms back. Keep the spine from swaying back and forth. Keep the arms high, but in a neutral position. So something I see a lot is people going into external rotation, pointing the elbows towards one another. You don't actually want that. You want the elbows pointed straight behind the shoulders. Go ahead and pull. Feel that strong engagement. So lats on elbows, bend, lats on arms straighten and three and too, and last time and then we come all the way back and sit down.

So the next thing that we're going to play with just a little bit is how we can play around and, and, and really understand the snake. Okay. So I've been thinking a lot about how to kind of break down the snake and, and make it available for, for everyone. Um, maybe not the snake itself, but, but at least the movements that are within the snake. So what I'm Sarah and I have done actually we worked on this together is um, come up with three movements or two movements really that will help, um, get you to the snake. If you don't feel like you're ready for this snake today, just do one of the lower variations. Okay? So what we've done is we've got a sticky mat just kind of right up in line with the edge of the frame of the reformer. And we're gonna stand on that Sticky Magis, a little bit of external rotation in that foot.

Place the hand one on the shoulder block furthest away from your standing foot and the other just on the same side of the carriage on that side. Take the leg that's now inside and set it down onto the carriage. So just readjust your foot now for comfort and make sure that the body squared forward. Okay, so we've got nice, strong, stable shoulders and we're ready to go. We're going to press out slightly with the leg that's on the ground and with the arms. And as we do that, we sit down into the hip, a little bits of gorgeous stretch from there. Lift and rotate the spine into extension with rotation.

Feels fantastic. Return to neutral, and then lift slightly off the hip as we bring the carriage back to the start position. Sarah, my leg is trembling and now my bottom leg and now we push. So we remember what the reason why we're using the leg here and sit down into the hip so much is cause you're not going to need to think about your legs. W in the, in the advanced exercise. And then we rotate and we're drawing the shoulders down and back. Really active through the arms here and rotate back to center and then come all the way back. And just one more.

We take the arms out and the leg reaches and we sit down into that hip and then feel that beautiful supported rotation, extension of the spine, lifting the heart and then return and come all the way in. Second step, turn the knee that was on the carrot. So now it's more in a straight forward position rather than in such a externally rotated position and put the opposite foot on the bar. So I personally like this in a bit of a turnout, uh, in the exercise. And the next exercise we're going to be with a straight foot, but choose whichever you'd like.

So we've got the bottom needs straight out in front of the bottom hip. Okay. Both hands in the same position they were just in. Now as we push out with the leg that's on the bar, we're going to abd duct that bottom hip and lift the hip from there. It's the same rotational component that we just did. Lifting and extending return to neutral.

Bend the knee that's on the bar and sit back down onto the foot on the carriage and inhale work both legs now and Xcel lift and extending to the spine and inhale, find neutral and exhale come in and we'll do that one more time. And in stretch that bottom abductor is working, challenging lifting, supporting that side of the pelvis. And now we come to neutral and we bend all the way in. Okay, so now we go for the real deal. Yeah, step all the way down onto the floor. I'm going to take my sticky mat that was on the ground and I tend to get a little slippery with my feet. So I like to be feel really safe. The sticky mat is going to be towards me on that bar. Okay, so we take the, um, let's see. Can I cue left and right? I sure can.

I'm taking my right foot on the bar and my left hand onto the carriage. Then as my right hand comes onto the carriage, I prepare myself. I want to think I'm already in the middle of the exercise in terms of shoulders support and then stepping up with the left foot and coming into an upstretched with rotation. From there, the legs, press and the arms press. Just like before we drop the pelvis, lifting and extending through the spine. Inhale, return more to a position and Xcel lifting the spine in and inhale arms and legs and exhale rising up into that rotational back extension and inhale and exhale. I, I don't know, by doing the smaller movements, I feel like I'm more in touch with this one and lifting up and back and come all the way back in. And with the carriage still we stepped down onto the floor and Voila.

There it is. Okay. So I suppose we should do the other side. Yeah. All right, so grab this sticky and let's change sides. Okay, so we put it on the floor to start and again, I've got it just lined up and you'll, you'll have to adjust it for your own comfort, but I just kinda had it lined up with that edge of that frame. I'm gonna take my foot there with my bottom foot and it's slightly externally rotated position while I'm right hand on the reform of our inside hand and outside hand down, bringing the bottom leg up. So here we're sitting in a little bit of external rotation in almost a figure four position, locking the shoulders into place. We press out with the leg on the ground and out with the arms and allow the hip to just sink down into the carriage. With that, start the rotation through the spine, elevating and extending into the rotation and then returning the spine to neutral. Allow the carriage to come back and just floating up off the hip a little bit or off the carriage and press the hip down. As the leg presses out, the arms reach out as well, locking the shoulders into place.

Using the arms to help support the spine as we reach around and coming back to the center and coming in again. Here's our inhale. Sit Nice and heavy on that hip. Enjoy the stretch. Exhale for the rotation. Use The abdominals for support coming back and coming all the way in. Okay, so stepping off the reformer, we're now going to send that knee straight ahead. So more level and then the opposite foot. Yeah, maybe I'll use my sticking out to the opposite foot.

You could play around with being straight or being rotated. The rotated position makes more sense to me. Okay, so we've got a pretty square pelvis here. Hands in the same place as we straighten the leg that's on the bar. We abduct the bottom hip, lifting up off of that foot. So there we are there.

Now turn the body rolling that front shoulder back. As we lift and turn in healing. As we turned back and as the leg on the far Benz, we just sit back down onto the foot on the carriage and inhale arms and legs. So just remembering that we're using those two components because those are the two components that we're going to be used when we're lifted up into the full snake and bend and sit down and arms and hips, strong legs. Find a solid rotational position. Bring it back home and sit all the way down. Okay, stepping down off the reformer. Oh, for all of this, I've used one spring, all three positions. Okay, so you set the inside foot on the outside hand and then the inside hand, and as that sets up, stabilizing the shoulders prepares a pike like action as we lift to put the opposite foot up.

And then we're in an upstretched position with a bit of rotation in her legs. Press arms, reach x Hellos. We take the pelvis down, lifting up through the spine and chest. Inhale, return and exhale as we lift the hips all the way up, shoulders down. Inhale, take the arms out the legs out, dropping the hips down, rising up, stabilizing the shoulders, taking it back and exhale up into the pike. Go ahead and inhale and exhale through an inhale and exhale. Tacoma, keeping the carriage still carefully stepped down onto the floor and stepped down with the other foot. And let's just finish here, Sarah. I'm with a couple of roll down. So maybe just stand here and facing, ah, that felt good.

Take the arms all the way up towards the ceiling and then out to the side and let's take the arms all the way up again. And this time we're going to take it out to the side. We're going to lift with the chest, reaching forward in a flat spine, finding that Nice long aligned spine. Take the arms overhead in here. Feel the back extension. That's powerful. Back extension work there and Xcel round all the way down into the ground.

Inhale to lengthen the spine there. An XL chair roll up, deepening the contraction through the abdominals to come up. Taking the arms up overhead again, lifting, lengthening, feeling that beautiful long spine. Take the arms out, hold the support from the front as we take our spine out on a long flat line. Reach the arms overhead. Feel the upper back working powerfully. Take it all the way down into the ground. In how to just enjoy that stretch and exhale to come all the way back up and [inaudible] and that's all for today. Thanks. Thanks for playing.