3-CoreConnections® Reformer

Hi and welcome. I'm Wendy Leblanc Arbuckle. And today we're going to do a wonderful reformer workout on joined with Aria and Candace, thank y'all for being here. And um, the plates we're going to be coming from is what we're calling the three core body mapping perspective, which is an embodied way of being with ourselves. How, what in [inaudible] we talk about mind, body connection, but often we treat ourselves like pieces and parts. We tighten the ABS, we pull our shoulders down, we do lots of things that are separating and not really allowing us to fully work from a whole body perspective. So what I'm suggesting is, and what I've been teaching for about 20 years in the, in the community is how do we get more connected with how our body works from foot to head. How are we connected from hand to foot?

So this is a, a way of being that the body understands very deeply. It's uh, it's something called tensegrity. It's a term that was coined by Buckminster Fuller and this is a 10 Segretti little little, um, cellular object that sort of shows us how the body thinks and how we function. This is how we function. We don't function linearly. We don't function by letting this, I gotta let this go, but rather, how do my hip flexors let go when I actually find my relationship to gravity? My down shoulder blade sit bone tailbone into the tripod of the foot.

How does that down? And we lift our toes. How does that give us lift? Let's just feel that right now as we're standing, put your hand at the back of your shirt and pulled down just slightly so you can feel how when you exhale, your shoulder blades glide on your ribs and it's something that you're getting in touch with. This is what happens. Is the shoulder blades articulate on the ribs. As we exhale, the ribs gather down as we exhale. So this is a deeper understanding of the powerhouse. It's a more embodied understanding of the powerhouse.

This is our breathing ball. And how does the inhale allow the ribs to open? You turn it sideways, Candace. Thanks. So here's the opening, the back opening, the front opening. The breadth is multi-directional. We get lift, we get space, and then as we exhale or their hand put your other hand on your low belly. And notice how as the waterfall releases down, the shoulder blades go down on the exhale, the internal lift happens naturally up the front and we're calling that shoulder blade to deep belly.

The inhale allows the ribs, the lungs, jaw, pelvic floor, everything opens. And then the exhale, there's a gathering that happens, ribs, shoulder blades, deep belly supports and goes under the ribs helping the diaphragm to push the air out of the lungs. We don't have to pull the belly in. That's actually something that inhibits our movement and keeps us training ourselves like machines rather than honoring ourselves as deeply intelligent organisms. Amazing. We're so, so incredible and we have our deep intelligence that we know, but often we, we aren't empowering that. So here we go. Okay. So now we're going to begin with the footwork, but once again, where are we coming from? We want to come from a place of grounding, which creates lift. So we're not automatically just going to go right into what we know.

So what we're, what we're exploring right here is what is the first position? Footwork. So toes apart, heels together, and allowing [inaudible]. I'm like, I'm really kind of playing with what, what are you noticing? What are you noticing around how your knee relates to your feet as you go out? And when I'm going to do is support gently through canvas feet. So as you go out, keep finding the down, find the shoulder blade, sit bone tailbone into the tripod of the foot.

You'll know that you're there when your knees don't lock out. And then as your knees go up, don't take them too wide. Let your groin relax. Excellent. And then have your sit bones relate to your heels. Yes. So sit bone to heal. Once again, we know is part of the down the back as you go out.

Release into your feet. Tiny. Yeah. And that creates internal lift. That's it. And then the knees, you see how you need to want to go really wide. Let them, there we go. So these go up and that allows your sit bones to release down and you're growing to relax down. There you go. So now you're in it. Really important. Really important to feel, where are the knees in relationship to the center of your foot? How is the center of your foot allowing your thigh bone to drop into the socket, allowing your groin to naturally locks.

Allowing internal lifted the front of the pelvic floor. Yes. So give me a tiny little bit more weight, a little more weight down there. Just enough to straighten your legs there. And there's your down the back and there's your up the front. You feel how you just got lift. That's it. Yeah.

Now from there and all I'm doing is resting here. And then as your knees go up, narrow them a little bit just and now they're in the, now they're in relationship to your whole foot and keep relaxing your sit bones. Relax your sit bones towards your heels. Yes, yes, yes, yes. Good. That's it. And then go out from there. What I recommend is, you know, sometimes traditionally we'll put on four springs to start out. There's no way you can discover something new if you've loaded the body with a lot of weight. So in order to discover this, you want to take it down to a weight and it's different for everybody.

Take it down to a weight that allows you to feel the release, to feel the yield into gravity, to feel the shoulder blade, sit bone tailbone into the tripod of the foot, and then how that will give you natural lift without pushing, without having to effort. Remember you've got to release before you can get, have gravity help you with the, with the movement. Beautiful. Beautiful. Yeah. Good. Yeah. Now feel the movement. Now go into more rhythm with it. Exhale. Inhale to go out.

Exhale. Sit down. Nice. Inhale, press and lift. Exhale. Sit down, right. Inhale out. Exhale, sit and go to the next position. Burton on the perch. So now you're rounding over the foot bar. How does the heel release down? How does the front of the foot, how does the Dome of the foot come alive? So from here we're releasing through the heels. As you gently rye go out and as the knees go up, the sit bones released through the heels and the heels release to me and out render reached through the whole foot. That's right.

Finding that release of over the bar. Very good. Yes. Keep coming. Keep coming. Keep coming. Keep releasing down. That's it. Reached through and as you reach through, keep going. You're going nice. Yes. See how that gives you more release and less effort.

That's it. How does it release? Through the feet? Create internal lift. Keep going. Keep going. Keep going all the way. All the way. All the way. Right. And that talks to your jaw. That's it. Yes. Right. And come back in. Good. Try it with your feet together. Do you have to do it with feet together like that?

See what that feels like and go out and take your feet down just a tiny bit so you can get a go a little lower down on this part of your foot. Yeah. Cause you want to feel that ceiling. You want to open up the metatarsal heads. And as you come back in and let your heels drop, drop, drop, drop, drop. Beautiful. That's it. And our reach through your whole foot. There you go. Inhale. Exhale. Sit down. Knees go up. Sit Bone to heal.

Yes. Good. I reached through your feet. Yeah. Feel how that's more energetic. That's it. And sit down. Better. Right. Reach through. That's it. Yes. And sit down. Great. And I go to your heels, open up your feet and spread your toes. Really energize your whole foot.

Right. Feet are together, right? And you're opening up. And I'm saying that because you can do this, it may be appropriate for someone else to have a ball or something to have something that creates the lift, but you're really feeling the lift. Right? So reach through as you extend out and come in, knees go up. Right. And reached to me. Reach to me ball. The big toe reaches to me. Yes. Reach through the ball. The big toe. That's your midline. Just like the ball.

The big toe is the midline for the foot. The first metacarpal here in the hand is the midline for the arm. Yes. Yeah, that's right. Reaching through. Inhale to extend. Exhale. As you come in, relax your ankles and send your feet to me.

Reach and reach them. They're there. They're there. Yes. Good. Now go on the ball of your foot. Lower lifts, toes apart. Heels together, right? Yes. Extend all the way out. Place your hands on your low belly suspenders. Find that internal. Lift your creating list, right. You're opening up the hips. That's it.

Put your hands on those suspenders. Just like this. Lift right there, right. Lift up. Inhale. Exhale. Relax your heels down. Down, down, down. Good. Inhale, lift, lift, lift. Exhale. Lower, lower, lower. Feel how energetic that is. That's it, right? Find that relationship between down the backup, the front. Find that support. This is great. Candace. Inhale X.

Hey. Yeah. Wow. Fabulous. In Hell. X. Ah yes. Inhale. There's your widening of your chest. Ah, gorgeous. Yes. And then come all the way up. Float up, lift up and run in place. Lower one, heel. Bend the other knee. Yeah.

I find it so important to do running here. Keeping your sports. No straight up running in place, right. Allow your heel to release down, giving you internal lift up. Yeah. You want this to Minick running the function of running. You see how do we get the down the back up the front as we run outside? Good. Yes, and then bend your knees. Come back in.

Take your handles right. They want to see you. If this wait for your, then you've done a footwork is going to work for the reach of your arms. So reach your arms long. Keep your head down and have the weight of the strap. Talk to your shoulder blades. Take your arms really down all the way to the Mat, right? Connect the back of your arm through from your hand in the back of your arm to your shoulder blade. There you go. That feeling.

Now keep the down and begin to feel how the down the back gives you head lift. How does the reach down through the arms? Keep your arms really low. Really low. Straight wrist. That's it. Remember the ball of your first finger relates to your shoulder blade and inner ear. This down gives you lift. Yes. And from there you pump your arms.

And how does the x Hell bring you forward? How does the shoulder blade to belly? No tightening of the ABS. Let the abdominals respond to breath. Allow the inhale to soften and widen and open up the bat to allow the belly to drop down into a wide back. How does that allow the so as to release back so it doesn't get hypertonic?

That's it. Keep creating the down. Feel the down. Give you lift. That's it. And then you straighten one leg up. Right? Staying forward. Beautiful. Yes. And Nick, the other one up. That's it. Stay forward. Wonderful. That's right. Open up those feet. Spread those toes. Beautiful. Yes. And release down into your knees.

Come back in short spawn. So two springs, three. So try that. See how that feels. We'll give you a red and a blue [inaudible]. So contact with the strap.

It matters where you have the strap on your foot. Where is the strap that you feel? The back of your leg. How can the strap the pretty close down towards your heels. You'll notice if the strap is toward the front of your foot, you'll feel more your quads. And it'll be a a battle to try and get your hamstrings.

But the more your, yeah, see how that's more up there? So it's more tear the more it's energizing the back of your leg, right? Yeah. So from here, relationship to gravity, connection with the strap through the foot to the spine. Extend your legs out. Reach out. Right now we're just gonna do a push pull for a moment. So precursor to short spine. Inhale to go out. Exhale, bend one knee and take the other leg straight in a hamstring stretch.

Go out on the inhale, come in on the exhale. How can you keep the straps equal weight and how can you feel the down, the backup, the front move your legs. You're not moving your legs. The down the back up the front is moving your legs. That's what you want to take into short spine. That feeling of energetic lift from inner ankle, inner thigh, internal belly to inner ear and grounding into the feet.

How are the feet talking to the down? Yeah, it's a wow. Wow. It is. It's amazing. Yes. And you'll feel how this will let go. Tremendous tension in your body. It will start to recalibrate how your body holds tension. That's it. Yes. And come back in. Bend your knees, lower your head rest.

So take your arms out to the side for a moment. So we get the double spiral placement, arms around to the side, palms up, upper core, shoulder widening. How does the arm, the upper arms spiral out. And we keep that as we bring the arms down by her sides, keeping them oh shoulder, open the chest open, and then turn the forearm, right? So you still have the feeling of wide chest back of the arm on the Mat. And that's your platform for inversions. All inversions.

So from here, inhale to extend out. Exhale. As you peel off the mat, reaching into the strap. How does a tail follow the feet? How do you reach down and you can bring the carriage all the way in as you reach up. Good. Keep reaching into the strap. As you bend your knees. Sit Bone to heal. Inhale, exhale.

As you release your chest roll, roll, roll down, right and from the sit bones. Send the feet away through the spine. Inhale out. Exhale. As you peel off, reach right from here through your fingertips. Reach and reach up, up, up, up, up. There you go. There you go. Yes. Now keep the up as you bend your knees. Sit Bone to heal connection. Inhale, much deeper. Exhale, and you roll. Release, right. Softening the chest. Softening the eyes. Allow your eyes to soften, to allow your chest to soften. If you've got a hard gaze, everything gets tight. Let this soften.

Let this widen, right. Bending down. Bring your heels in and inhale out. X. Hell, soften over, over, over. Go Up, up, up Rod. You're following the strap. Knights. That's it. Yeah. Now stay in contact with the strap as you inhale and bend your knees connection.

Sit Bone to heal, right? And now release your spine and let your heels relate to your sit bones. Good. Yes. Great. Yes. That's it. Good. And reach down. Reach down. You feel how that gives you more lift. I go, go, go. Reach, reach, reach. Feel the down. Give you lift. That's it.

Yeah. Now keep the lift as you bend your knees. Connection. How's the connection from your foot to your hips? Gorgeous. There it is. That's it. And now released and connected. They connected field. Aha. The release. The opening. Yes. Yes, yes, yes. And then bring your heels down towards your sit bones.

Bring them in and then take your feet out of the straps. Fabulous. That's it. Yeah. Take your feet out of the straps. Right. And step off. Good stomach massage. Okay, so you're sitting down three springs to two springs.

Let's do two right now just to really get deeply more energetic in your body. Good. So you're set up, you're set up for stomach massage. You want to feel like you're in relationship in our relationship. That allows, come up for a second. Inhale, lift. Now feel the up and feel the down. Don't go anywhere. And now soften and widen and hover.

Soften right there and round over without going anywhere. As you soften, feel the widening of your elbows. Widen out you upholding and widen. Also, the breath goes wide. See that goes wide. You want to feel the inhale into your elbows, all the way out into your hands. You feel the difference. Feel the widening of the breath, the hovering, right? Feel the widening. This goes out right. Breathe wide open. That's it. Lift up, down, down. You feel the difference.

That's it. Now from there, inhale to go out. Keep the up as you lower the heels. Keep the up as you lift the heels and hall. Exhale as you come back in Rye. Inhale out. Keep the up as you ex as you down, and then inhale up.

Exhale to come back in. Inhale out and lower and lift. Exhale in. Inhale out and lower and lift. Exhale in. Beautiful. Stay in. Now reach your arms back, reach back for the shoulder rests or in front of the shoulder. Rest, because what's the point of this exercise? Once again, we're energizing rather than exercising, opening the chest.

So if you're up here and here, that's not very opening. So you want to feel like you've got lift. Are you able to lift up and open your chest? Can you feel your Lordosis? Can you get up out of your hips? The hips go down, the chest opens up. Feel that there Vietnam, make a fist, make a fist, and press back into the shoulder. Rest have you fist facing one another there and there's your tricep.

That's it. Great. Now go out. Inhale out, lift up, lower the heels, lift the heels, exhale and come back in. Get little taller, taller, taller and good. Inhale out and lower lift. Exhale. That's good. That's good. Yeah. Now feel your nasal breath. Breathe through your nose, exhale through your nose, and feel an on deeper level. Deeper, right? It goes deeper.

It's much more refined and has the body work harder and it actually cleanses, purifies, hydrates, and has the air that comes in be cleaned before it goes into your lungs. Much stronger for your body. That's it. Good. Yes. And come back in, reach forward. Reach to me. Right? And as you go out, you're lengthening. And then you're getting longer and wider as you come in. Good. And keep reaching out as you go out.

Reach than the sit bones back, back, back, back, back, and come in as you reach forward. Right. So we're not gonna do a lower lift. Just stay up. Inhale, exhale. Whoa. Ah, fabulous. Yeah. Keep reaching out. That's it. Yes and excellent. Yeah. And now twist, reach. Let's go to the right. Inhale. Exhale.

Right. And right foot left fingertips. Inhale. Exhale. That's it. Yeah. Left foot. Right. Fingertips. Inhale, spine. Look. Inner ear up, up, up, up, up. Sit Up. Sit Up. Sit Up. Sit Up. More and more and more. Yes. And right. Stay up. Inhale, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift and feel the difference. That's right. Open up that chest. Wide. Wide. Reach this, away from that. That's it. Yeah, that's it. And Open. Inhale, open, open, open, and come back in. Fabulous. And step off.

Hmm. Beautiful. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Good though. Let's go to the long stretches. Okay, so you're stepping on long stretch. Do you do it with two springs or one spring?

[inaudible] and set that up and then you step on hand, foot, hand, foot, head rest is up. Right? You stepping right, place your foot right here. There. Yup. It's just a little different setup than you're used to and come forward. Right? Come forward. It's like a pushup.

Come forward over right now, just like we did originally. I remember the hand placement I had when you were in the front of the foot bar. Keep that inner ear lengthening forward as you and your heels back. Head forward. Heels back. As you inhale back, exhale, come forward. Right? How does your hand relate to your foot from your hands?

You're going back to your feet, right in your head is going forward. Fabulous. Yes. Exhale. That's it. Yes. Inhale. As you release exhales, you come forward and he's down, down, stretch. Right, and from here, release the hips forward. Go forward and feel the inner ear lift. Right? Even a little bit more hips forward. Take them forward more, more, more.

There you go. Feel hamstrings. That's it. Now from there, bring your hips forward a little bit more. [inaudible]. Yeah, no chest up right now. From that lift. You inhale and send heels back. Reach through your feet. Inhale. Exhale, chest up. Yeah. So right now keep looking up as you go back. Inhale to go. So far. Exhale. You don't want to lose this. Don't lose the shoulder blade to deep belly. Don't lose the back of the arm.

There you go. There you go. Yeah, the back of the arm, shoulder blade to belly. That's it. Beautiful. That's right. Inhale, exhale. Now stay in and pike up. Up. Stretch, right theatre. Slightly forward. So you really feel the hover. You want to feel the dome of the foot. You don't want to be hyper tensing the cabs.

You want to feel that lift and go out. Inhale, depress out. Exhale and come through and up. Inhale, press out. Feel your hand to foot. Head to tail. Inhale out, press. Exhale. Come through. Beautiful. That's right. And float up. Head down. Float. There you go. Leave with your tail. Inhale. Exhale. Come through.

Beautiful. Yes. And then pike up. Elephant feeder down. Hold the foot. Lift the toes. Right. So the most important thing here is the widening of the shoulders. The connection from hand to tail head releases toward hand. This is a setup for Arabesque, right? Feel this, and inhale, exhale, soft knees.

Send your sit bones back as you move your legs. Keep lifting the sit bones up and back. Yes, free up those legs. Inhale, exhale, bring them in. That's right. Halfway out, all the way in. All the way in. Good inhale, ex hale. There it is. Inhale. Exhale. Inhale x way, move back, back, back, back, back, right. Reach those eyes. Hands.

Inhale out. Exhale and Huh? They're there. There's your set up, right? And then from there, Arabesque one, go on the right foot, extending the left back. So you're all, you're going on the heels up first. Arabesque one, the heels up on the foot bar, the foot rest. Yes, it's up back right now. Equal weight in both hands. Feel that weight, right? So here's the lift. Inhale. Exhale. Bring that leg in. Bring this in as you send that left. Sit Bone back.

The rights it. Don't rather rice it though. Yes, the right sit bone keeps reaching back as you bring the leg in. That's it. Yes. Inhale, exhale. Bring it in. That's where I keep reaching that right. Sit Bone back. That's it. The right sit bone back. Yes. Inner thigh and bring it in. Yes. And bring it in. Yeah, go ahead and step off.

You're not going to go through all of them because I really, really want to go to knee stretches, which are phenomenal. You'll see how knee stretches. So relates to Arabesque, so you see how we're, how we're thinking, right? So now set up, go into toe, sit for knee stretches. So sit down, sit. That's what we call tow set, which is a recalibration. This is your setup for knee stretches and really you'll see how it relates to your, your whole long stretch theories. But um, first of all, just sit back. So you're on the ball and the metatarsal heads. How can you release the heel back and sit down in the metatarsal heads?

So you're really getting lengths, tremendous stretching and lifts through the inner thighs. Now from that reached back feeling, keep reaching through your feet and come forward into round back for knee stretches. Keep reaching through the feet and round your spine. Yes. Great. So from here, find the down shoulder blade. Sit Bone tailbone into the tripod of the foot. The grounding gives you reach. Inhale, take the feet out. Inhale out, exhale in, right. Inhale. Exhale. That's right. Move those legs. Send them out. Inhale. Exhale.

That's right. Inhale. Exhale. Notice how I'm helping her with her. Shoulder blade to deep belly down the back. Up the front. Yes. Inhale. Exhale. Fabulous. That's it. Yeah. Inhale. Drop your head more. Huh? Inhale X car. There it is. Yeah. That's the feeling. Good.

Now stay in and now going to arch back. Send the sit bones up. Articulate through, keeps sitting back, back, back. As you look up. Look up. Look up. That's right. Feel how you've moved your spine in the other direction. Sit Bone. Stay up as you reach back. Keep sitting back. Keep sitting back and lifting those systems up to the ceiling. Yeah. Feel it.

Feel the lift. See your, I'm not telling you where to be. You're feeling where to be. How to feel the right in Hana. Pulled all the way all the way in. Yes. Inhale, find that shoulder blade to belly. Inhale. Exhale. Bring those knees and yes. Inhale, exhale.

Inhale. Exhale, gorgeous. Now stay in and go to round back again. Knees off here, right. Pause. Now allow the inhale, exhale, and hover right now. Right here. Drop your head, drop your tail and round your spine. Float your knees right. Find your down. Inhale out. Exhale, and inhale. Exhale. Bring the knees in and drop your head more. Drop it, drop it. That's it. Drop your tail. Drop your head, drop it. That's it. Oh, that's it. Exhale. Exhale.

And stay on Bravo bout it. Yeah, that's it right now. Drop your head more. Drop it, drop it. Now go. Take your knees down more. Go down, go down, drop your tail, drop your head more. Drop it. Drop your tail more, even more, even more, even more. Yes. And come back down. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So that's to get deeper and deeper. That's going deeper and deeper as this gets more and more connected.

But you both did fabulously would have to work on ease with effort. Exactly. Whoa, good. So long down for running. That was so crazy. Oh, so this is not the same running you did earlier.

We assume it is. Oh, running. Let's just go running again. You may want to add another spring. You may want to add more springs because guess what? Your body is in a whole new place. So you want to be with where your body is.

Quite often it wants to bone load more. It's ready, it's ready to go deeper. It's ready to get more weight and yet not lose the form. So we're listening for that, and that's how I've got, I can't tell you how many clients I have who had osteoporosis and no longer have it because of how they're using their bodies. Beautiful. That is gorgeous. Candace, this is fabulous as I feel amazing. Just amazing. And why? Because you're amazing. [inaudible] yeah.

Okay. Thank you so much. Been so beautiful and onward and upward.