Okay. Today we're going to do a Cadillac session with Elisa and Elisa is pregnant. She's 22 weeks and five days today. So, uh, we're gonna start with um, and so gentle, warm up from standing and work, uh, to kind of gently today but thoroughly, uh, you know, just giving the body and lots of articulation, uh, as a certain amount of arm strength work. We'll do a separate piece near the end for that on the arm chair. But for now we're going to start her warming up with a just awareness through the feet and uh, how important that is as the balance is changing with growth of the baby and postural changes. The, the feeling of where the balance is in standing is I think changing.
So I want you to raise the base of the toes or lift the toes up so that you're spreading the toes. Wides. You're really right up on those Metta tarsals and feel like you're reaching your, yeah, the Pinky and the toe. Big Toe away from each other and then just set those toes down on the floor and there'll be a subtle weight shift front or back. And let's do that again. So we're lifting the toes
Nice tall posture. Kind of waking up into that one more time, just easiest stand next is just lifting and lowering the shoulders. Just feeling the glide of the shoulders up and the glide of the shoulders down. Inhaling as you rise the shoulders and exhale as they glide down.
So bringing awareness into the certain areas where the posture's changing is very important. One more time. Okay. Now just in the center of the shoulders and just take an easy rotation of your head either direction, right or left. Just feel the glide of the head to one side across, through center and the other side.
And then the opposite. Yeah, just a little. But as you're starting to deepen your awareness of where you are right now, that'll be something we watch for one more.
And last time head tilt to the left. Heavy, right shoulder and arm.
So the foot centers, the base of the big toe base of the Pinky Cho, unless she starts cramping and the heel, there's an active connection there and that will actually start to turn on those abductors and work itself up into the pelvic floor. So there's an active sense of the shape and slight press down through the lats and triceps. We're going to do some mini rollbacks. So inhale as you sit tall and I want you to exhale and just lift that pelvic floor up. Roll your sacrum back just as far as you feel comfortable in Elisa. Inhale here and deepen the exhale as you can to roll forward.
Just slight press down on the bar. So this workout is also designed really for fit in shape. Non-Injured no specific issues going on. Um, pregnant person, pregnant woman.
We're going to do about five repetitions, each one growing a little taller and I'm going to just put my hand right back here for her to reach her back back into she nodded of approval. I think that felt good. Yeah. Yeah. So is this a certain to change? It's harder to feel that low back. Wider. The back of the low ribs getting wide. So assistance with hands I find has been very helpful with gals. I've worked with some right back there. She didn't reach the hint though.
Ribs back into my hands. Yeah, there we go. It's a sense of width, baby coming back. Breathe in and she's rounding over the baby. One more good. Sensing the back of the body, trying to re keep some of those natural curves. Length the note. Good. That was better. And exhale coming forward and up to sitting tall. So I'm going to give her a choice.
You can keep diamond or long legs for some lap press and arm work. She's going okay. We'll see you here for a minute. So as the lab press and tricep press, really small inhale, pressing down on the bar, but then it's that, can we stay tall through the top of the head and then the exhale you can release the bar a little bit. I didn't engage the pelvic floor. The transverse abdominis starting to kick in a little. I think I want her to continue exploring this vertical somewhat decompressing the low back and then my other hand will be here.
There we go.
So we're taking those elbows and reaching them wide toward the side walls but yet the scapula down. Once again you can see a really nice sense of alignment through the lower back and the CT sitting arm works. There is just a low enough, I think of the external oblique. She's nodding again. External Oblique muscles working to hold steady here and transverse working just a little worse. And let's take one more
I'm going to have her start to the left and it's up to Elisa. How far back she wants to come. But I wanted to kind of start a feel a little bit like she's loosening her hips up in the same direction. And so the exhale is bringing your back and widening. Loosening through through sacred ILIAC joint a bit.
Then we'll do one more with the rollback bar. So what I'm going to have her do is press down on the bar just a little bit and I'm gonna use my hands again. So try to get some activation of upper back extension. The racich extension here, this is a probably one that's very easy to default into really. Oh, dump into that lumbar and kind of crane this. But Elisa is skilled enough not to go there, but be mindful not to really just collapse. Good.
And then press down on the bar a little bit more to come back up to vertical. So there was a relationship, shoulder blades slide down, upper back comes into extension. This nice kind of fountain of kind of a visual for me as a fountain going up. And then as she slides the shoulders. Yeah, one more time. We'll just, cause we'll be repeating this thoracic extension a few different times. You see that slight press down, nice upper back extension. Good.
And then return to your vertical. Fantastic. And you can release the bar forward. Okay. So let's head to the push through bar end and I'm going to use a red top bloated. You certainly can use the blue. We're just going red and I'm going to have you put your left foot here and then cross your right leg over that leg. Hold the bar with your left hand. Yep. And then the right arm. Just reaching straight forward actually for, yeah, Duh.
Okay. So I've just see a little something I want to, I'm going to see if I can get her more square here, but the top leg is, it's crossed over, kind of invites that hip forward. So we're going to start out more square there. She's gone. Now this is some more uh, extension rotation. So we're going to take a breath in and I want you to hinge back and sweep this right arm toward me. It's not about me, it's about you. And open your chest. Really feel that diagonal line, that quality of reaching through the top leg. And then as you exhale, you can sweep the arm around, lift the push through bar and easily reach your arm towards your feet.
And then you can go through that. We'll do three more inhale as you reached back. Yeah, and exhale as you reach forward. So you can start to invite a little external oblique right there and inhale that relationship of the diagonal. Good. And exhale, not pushing much when I'm just going to assist. A little more extension. There we are. And then once again, so rotation with the push through bar. Good. Yeah. Excellent. All right, so we'll do the other side, so I'm just going to make sure she starts square. Good. Okay.
Yeah. All right. So inhale as you sweep the left arm, left the right arm and the ladder active. You've got a great peck stretch and then the exhale sweeping around. Feeling that back. We'll come around there. It's a good stretch. And then coming around. So the lat assists in some rotation. Good.
And then exhale. I like to think of this as coming around the baby. We'll do two more
And when I want you to do today with this is bend the elbows to bring the bar down. That's an inhale. Here's the growth tall. And then exhale is a soft flection, just enough contraction of the transverse and the rectus and the muscles in the tummy. And then as you restack, you know what I'm going to do? You're good. I'm going to put myself right near you so you can kind of feel that. Yeah, we'll do three more. So I'm just here to help her remember to be tall and then issue round.
She can use my leg as some feedback. Keep your lumbar back a little if you can. [inaudible] and you may stay there for breath or to let, don't let me rush you. But you know, hamstrings start to get tight or shorten. They feel shortened and less, uh, maybe what they used to be. And then as she starts to roll up, I want you to press up against me just a little with your spine. Good.
Slide your shoulders down, bend your elbows and bar up. Is this helpful? Yes. Okay. And then
Go tall as you bring the bar down. Yeah. And then head and upper spine and middle spine and lower spine.
Good job. Now let's go bring you into a hinge with it so you can hold on. Hold that bar and then I'm just going to lean on your back. Do a little partner and partner. Stretch with her so she feels my back. I'm not going to push my weight on her, although I could. Sacred to sacrum. We're about the same height, so this helps too.
And then if I sit up a little bit, use my arms to push. She can lean back against me and up. There you go. We're just trying to find some extension and then take three breaths there and exhale. Yeah, you can do this with anybody. They don't have to be pregnant. Good. Widen into my back. There we go. Yeah. Good. Feels good for me too. So next we'll be going into mermaid.
So I think maybe you can face the brick wall first. Yep. Great. Does that feel good? Almost dangle the legs. Yeah. So Aliza, we're just going to mermaid that we've done before with the mermaid legs from the reformer, which you could do here. I'm just going to take that factor out of it and I'm good. So bring the bar down.
I'm going to spot here some good lat work all raw and push it through this side. Now take that right arm up on an inhale. We're going into side flection says as she exhales, it's through an opportunity to really open that right side, reach the baby. To the right in a way. Yeah. Now take another breath in. I want you to softly rotate toward the bar.
And exhale. Restack we're just going to keep the bar over here. Yes, two more times. So we're on a red spring steel. We okay.
They're first good. And then rotation. Little External Oblique. Yeah. Okay. Beautiful. And then rotate to face the ric wall into your side bend. And then as you exhale, come all the way up. You can bend your left elbow now and we'll face the other way.
Yeah. And she's doing a good job of staying centered and in a pelvis. Inhale, rotate back to facing the front. Nice side bend and get this open. And then exhale, modal recruitment of these obliques to bring you up. Come one a more center there and left arm up, up to go over into the side bend. Nice contraction. Just enough, just enough stretch. Breathe. And then exhale. So again, depending on what you're feeling, you can bring the baby back. Yeah. And inhale side Ben, open the chest. Good Elisa.
And exhale coming up. That was really pretty little more. And last one. Yeah. And over.
So we're doing lots of motion to keep the articulation going through the spine. Keep those joints mobile, keep synovial fluid, moving hydration. Good. And then bend your elbow. I've got the bar with you there. Perfect. Good. Okay. Moving onto some lat. Paul. I'm going to have you back up and sit underneath here and it's your choice.
You can either sit diamond cross-legged straddle on the table either way. Okay. And then yeah, put the hands on the side bars and someone told me once and I kind of can't remember who I wish I could so I could credit it. Uh, instead of gripping so hard with the fist, she encouraged just a light finger touch and almost that there was more recruitment from the very, the Pinky, the ring finger and maybe the middle finger on the bar. So a lot more work on the lateral edge of the arm and there will be a biceps of course. But if we can connect here now I'm going to do my hands on again just a little bit here so she can sense her back. Yeah. Remember our lots are on her back, so we want to bring the bar down and I want you to, as you bring the bar down, think of rising up through the pelvic floor and up through the tube
Good. Inhale. That's it. And exhale.
I think it's going to be a comfort. Yeah, like that. It's kind of odd, but it can be an exchange that happens with your client. And I think different do different stages of the pregnancy and tightness developing through the chest and shoulders. That might be a factor that you know, you start this way, maybe a month later you're another way. So is that one better? Okay. She's trying this way so it's an inhale. Bend your knees for me. Okay. And you can separate your feet a little bit.
So we'll take an exhale and slightly curl your tail under. We're reaching the bar back. Just a comfort level. We want to have, this is about the opening of the chest.
Exhale, bring your bar down. He might have to soften the elbows and restack the sitting tall. There she goes. Well let's do maybe one more. Only one or two.
Allow the swing, a soft swing of the bar. Yes. And that can help you lift the chest. Open up the shoulders and pressing down and restack sliding back. We'll do it one more time. Nice and tall here. And exhale. Good. Inhale and forward.
Exhale over the thigh. Swing gently with the bar.
And I just want you to put your right foot forward. Yeah. Yup. Right. And so you can take that your w, your body weight and lean forward into the front knee a little bit. We don't want to go too far. Knee over, you know, just over toes but not too much further than that. Yes. So she adjusted her foot. Hip flexors get tight. Change of pelvic angle really starts to shorten down there.
So we want to keep working to length and keep this open, right? It could also take the whatever leg is down that same arm up for a little added stretch. Oh that looks good. You could even add a slight side bend toward the front leg, gets that nice mild fashion line through the, so as right, she just did a little sound that you probably didn't hear. Hmm. That sounds good. And bring your body up. I inhale and then arm down.
So now I want you to stretch gently through your hamstrings. So you'll shift that pelvis back.
I just didn't, we discussed it beforehand, but all right, so leaning forward. Just a lunge. Nice. Broad hip flexor stretch on the front. Yes. Okay. And side bending. You can slightly engage your glutes here. They naturally are contracting for you, so that's good.
Just feeling that nice reach side of the right energy from the hip down through the knee to the table and then coming up. Okay. Let's be careful, right? More Square on this side. Yeah, and more flat back. So my hand on her back. Does that get in that feedback? I'm going to tap her upper back so she can find your sternum. There we go. Nice.
And Liza. Okay. And then one more of each. Good. Yeah. Nice. Long line through. Fingertips down the arm, through that hip and then adding into a nice side bend since import from that pelvic floor. Good. And bringing your body up and then hips back. Once again, I'm going to play my forearm on her back. My elbow is at her sacred about just to kind of give her some feedback of flat back.
So bending the knee, we're going to start with some clam shell, so we're going to get that all the way over your knee. Good. And Bend your knees together.
So Lemon, have you inhale and open up the knee, open the thigh, let the Femur roll. Now you could simply just flop your leg down and close it or use your ad doctors, which is our choice and our, our goal. Of course. Good. Inhale, you good with this spring? So I've chosen the long purple springs, the heavier leg springs. We're still interested in strengthening our pregnant clients. If the, if we use the light, the yellow spring, I don't know if she would feel the work as much and also because it's heavy it she's having to control the motion open cause this would very easily just sure,
Roll the Femur back. Good and forward. Let's talking about your femur rolling forward and rolling the femur back.
Okay, hold that for another breath in out. Get that length through the quad again. Ah, so I just use my hands and kind of finessed a little more stretch there. Okay. Now I'd like you to take your leg more just in line with your hip and do five up and down. Up We go and use the ad again to bring the leg down so the femur head is dropping into the joint as she lifts her leg. I'm trying to get some glute medius here. So concentrating on the length through the entire leg from the hip.
It's actually from her waist down. One more. You're doing great. Yeah. Little added resistance there. And I want you to do five small circles, one direction one and two. I'm to step away and see how she does it in three, four and five other direction for five and she goes one, two, three, four and five and then float the leg down. Okay. I'm going to help you out of there cause it's pretty darn heavy. We good?
Phyllo right? Yeah. Great. Other side?
Just enough abdominal work. Inhale, focus in glutes and XLV. Add doctors and inhale. Excellent clothes. Last too.
You're coming front and back for five. So getting that Femur to glide and that quality of elongation from hip through the heel.
It really quite thoroughly on the arm chairs. So we are now on the arm chair. Very classical piece of equipment. I love using this for pregnant gals. It gives their back some tremendous support, uh, and allows them to engage those abdominals in and back just enough without too much compression but mainly gets the arms to be focused on because they're about to, uh, you know, be holding, lifting, bending, carrying and using those arms and upper body a lot more than maybe expected. So great place to isolate and um, really work on arm work and chest, chest strength and chest opening. So she starting with the hug a tree.
Now you might think, why am I going to engage my pecs? Why do we want to do that? I'm actually gonna have her think it though is a widening of her upper back and of course maintaining a good open chest. But then my hands go ahead. You can exhale. I'm going to come in and [inaudible]
Now turn your palm space up. Lower your arms by your hips. You're going to do your up circles. So this is another one here. I'm going to pull her back up. She goes sweeping the arms up, opening the chest. Arms downs. Do five each direction. So is there a to go up the shoulder blades? Sink down, open through the chest. We're going to broaden. I'm using my hands to help open those shoulders.
Your last to good posture. Yeah, I'm using the chair, using it for the feedback all the way up and down. Okay. I've got your springs. We're going to do a little external rotation for both arms. So I'm going to have you come up and sign position. Now I'm going to put the some a kneeling pads down. I've got three, I'm guessing that's right. Two or three into the right hand.
Okay, so external rotators, really important. And going to get those shoulders supported from the back and open up that pack. So let me do this again. I'm just going to use my hand to support you back. So you know, kneeling position is a little bit difficult for the hip flexors to get opened up and stretched just due to changes again posturally but this can be an opportunity for her to fire her hamstrings a little to open up the front of the joint. Is that really, we're here for the arm. So here we go. And you can exhale. So I'm behind.
You're holding your shoulders. Nice Elisa and even use my hand to help guide the humerus around. Yes. If I could be right on the ball moving in the socket. That's right. Finessing the direction. And last one, hold right there for just a second. Now can you do just one?
Reach your arm out to the side and bring your elbow back in and clothes. Okay. Other direction. Other side
Good. And Bend your elbow back in toward you and fold. Okay. Let's, do you think you could try chest expansion? Yeah. The reason why I'm wondering is the size of our baby here. So she's going to kneel facing the chair, you know, obvious. Well, the further along and gal gets, the harder it would be to be facing the chair. But yeah. So let's see. Yeah, yeah. Okay.
Now I could turn the chair sideways and to a show this a profile view, but you'll get the picture. A nice view. Yeah. Well, and also because your belly is very close to the chair. It's, you know, it's hard to pull that back, but just enough recruitment not to form term to from, okay, here we go. So chest expansion. Good. You don't need me to hold your shoulders. Think of broadening your chest, not pulling your arms. It's a chest. Broadener guess the arms are pulling, but it's more about the chest opening, right? Inhale into the chest. Exhale, long arms depress back
And your last one, long arms depress back and return. And just go ahead and put those down. Very nice. Elisa, thank you very much. Give us Amy. You're welcome.
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