Basic Reformer Breakdown 2

All right, so you just did your warmup and now we're ready to go into the frog and leg circles and let's learn how we properly set it up on a grads machine. It's a little different. On other machines you can just grab the longer strap, but on here we're going to change up the machine a little bit. So I want you to go ahead and use your powerhouse to sit up. Then you're going to drop two springs as well as carefully lower the bar down were both of the bars go that way. Your head piece stays up, but then you look at the s handles and so we're going to pick them up. And generally with your machine you want to either change things starting from the end or the the the front of the machine and work towards the back or start at the back and work your way there.

But you don't want to change like the springs and then do the straps and then do the bar and then go to the headpiece. Like you want to methodically work your way back so you can get as much of a cardio workout as you can. Keep your rhythm going. So on here, we're going to keep one in one hand and drop the hardware, holding onto the handle, and then put your hand through the handle and the leather. And then the other one you're going to do the same thing to drop the hardware down and then grab on and you can loop it through. And then when I grab these straps, I throw him over my shoulder.

Yeah, kind of snazzy. And then you're gonna grab, grab it and pull it through one and then click it together. And then I hold onto it while I pull the other one through and then hook it on. And then you're ready to go. So I'm going to unhook those and then I'm going to let you go ahead and have it, try yourself and see if we can, how'd that happen? So we'll they hang right here over your reformer. Go ahead.

So you're gonna pick up your handles and I'm going to forget everything I just said. You can walk back a little bit further. There you go. And you loop it through. Perfect. And kind of wear it like a bracelet. Nice. Good. And you grab those and throw them over your shoulder. That's right. That's great cause I'm right handed and your left. So you get to show the other way and then you're gonna Hook it on and Kinda hold it and then do the other one.

And you can either hang them back up onto the eye hooks or you can hold onto 'em as you lie down. But the trick, cause if you can hold on, you're gonna hold on to them or hang them up. All right. And then you're gonna walk on over. Lie Down, center yourself always with control and then put them on your feet. Sometimes they get twist it up. And this is your time to adjust and make sure they're on the outside of the foot. Good. We're going to untwist that one. Great. And make sure the hardware is right there. Wonderful.

Go ahead. And you want to make sure that, again, it's right on the outside because if it's right here, it can unsnap. If they're next to each other, when your legs come together, they can hit each other and unsnap. And if they're on your arch, they're just not comfortable. So the safest and most comfortable position is right here on the outside. Go ahead and bring your heels down into the frog position. So we're going to start with the knee shoulder with the part you might want to slide back just a hair. So your shoulders are actually on the shoulder. That's good. And your knees want to be shoulder width apart.

Good. And your feet are imagining that they're on that bar of the reformer. Okay. The stomach is in. And as we go out, we're going to really pull it the opposite way. The belly goes in and up and bend in Nice and in an up and those legs are turning out in squeezing and in, and we're gonna do three more. Again, you can always do this all day long with your quads, but you're trying to send a message to the back of your legs to your outer thighs, to your inner thighs, into your seat. You're really trying to feel all of those.

Let's do one more and of course your powerhouse is pulling in and up. Stay here. Legs. Just go to 45 degree angles. That was really nice and we'll come up and we'll open and circle down. So ideally it's going to be a circle, but let's start off with the square. So you're going to open the legs, the width of the machine, and they're turned out so they're not parallel and looking up the knees and the toes are a little bit out, and then you're going to pull down a little bit, making sure the back is flat, and then squeeze your legs together and then bring them up the middle.

We'll do that square again. So it's like your outer thighs. Push the legs open, the back of your legs pulled down in the seat, your inner thigh squeeze like crazy and you keep them squeezing as you come up. Let's keep all of that emphasis, but smooth out the edges. So it's like a nice smooth and fluid circle. I'm going to let go and you're going to do two more on your own. Nice powerhouse. Always pulling up in the opposite direction.

Let's reverse smooth down around up. Good. So you can keep it squares as long as you want, but we're going to eventually work towards these nice smooth and fluid circle. Squeeze in the back of the inner thighs, pushing out or thighs and everything together. One more. Great. Good. And when you're done, you can give yourself a little bonus stretch by keeping your legs nice and long and grabbing onto the handles. Nice straight legs. It's beautiful that you can keep your shoulders down and everything's Nice and relaxed into the mat and that you're just stretching the hamstring.

You never want to take the stretch further than, um, your body likes it. Okay. Bend your knees, take off the straps while holding onto the wooden handles. Beautiful. And you can just lower them into the weld. Nice. And you're all done with your frog and leg circles.