Oppositional Energy Tower

Hi, I'm Sharon Gallagher and we're going to do a tower workout today. Um, I'm gonna just walk you through the setup. Before we get started. You want to have two red springs hooked up from the top, uh, hooks of your push through setting. Go ahead and set that up. You also want to have your long, uh, springs set up to this fourth from the bottom hook without any loop on it yet. And then just below that you'll have the short springs set up to the top of the lower three hooks. If you're doing this on a, on a Cadillac, you'll just have to adjust where you're, um, if you have a crossbar, you have to adjust where your cross bar is.

Put leg loops on the yellow springs and then we want to have also a sticky patent. So, um, sticky pad or um, sticky mat that you could lie down on your, on your mat before we go. So are we ready? Ready. Alright, so we're going to start standing facing your push through bar and you want to stand very close to the bar. Go ahead and grab thumbs and fingers around the bar. Excellent. You're going to stand in a small v position. I want you to feel your pinkie toe edge of your foot really ground into the floor and see if you can feel how there's an oppositional lift up through your lateral hamstrings, pulling your legs up into your pelvis.

Just let your elbows relaxed by your sides. Yes. And then also, same thing with the base of your big test. See if you can ground that into the mat and feel an oppositional lift through the inner thigh line and that, uh, quads lifting up through the pelvis feeling. We're just gonna start by inhaling the arms to straight. Do you have opposing thumbs here as you press down to straight? Feel the spine lifting up out of the pelvis. An exhale bend right.

Keep the legs lifting up as you inhale the spine taller. [inaudible] exhale, bend. Good. Go ahead and wrap your thumbs around right. Inhale, straighten. That's great. Exhale two more. Make sure you keep the grounding energy of your feet to lift up through the pelvis. Exhale and last one, fill those backwards in flight. As you inhale, start to drip your head forward and exhale around. Now good.

Try to maintain that forward position of your pelvis so it doesn't drift back. Good. And then you're going to inhale as you begin to curl your tail under to roll up. Bring your pelvis toward the bar as you continue. Excellent. Nice. And let your elbows bend again. Inhale to straighten.

Begin to drip your head forward and exhale as you continue. Beautiful crown down, tail down. Good. And Inhale, curl your tail under. Keep your crown down and feel the springs stack you back up. One more. Inhale, straighten. [inaudible].

Exhale, drip. Excellent. Keep your crown and your tail curling toward each other. Inhale, as you begin to roll up an exhale, continue nice. From here, go ahead and turn toward your right shoulder so your left hand will be on the push through. It's getting very close, parallel, hip width apart. And this'll feel a little bit like a muscle job here. You just gotta press down. So we have two springs is quite heavy. You could always opt to, just have one spring if it feels like it's just too much. Um, see if you can stack your pelvis back of your ankle joints and then bring your ribs back of your pelvis. Take your right arm right up by your ear.

Okay. External rotation. And on your inhale you're going to stretch over towards your left side. Feel the springs really lift the left side of your body and your left arm pit. Good. And exhale ground down through the right hip and pelvis to come back up.

Inhale over. See if you can maintain the external spiral of that right arm. Beautiful. And then ground pelvis through foot to stand back up. Nice. Last one. Inhale. Pick yourself up taller. Stay there. Exhale, draw your right leg to your left leg. Squeeze. Then keep squeezing and stretch your right ribs open.

Inhale and exhale to come back up. Beautiful. And we'll do the other side. Pardon? Yeah. Hip with the part. Make sure that arm is in line with where the sideline of your body is too.

Right? Good. Take your left arm up by your ear. Externally spiral that arm. So the back of the elbow is pointing forward in that external spiral. Here we go. You're going to inhale over. Let your knuckles point down. Yes, you're right on top of that spring. Feel the springs. Pick up your underneath side and exhale yourself back up.

Right this side of your body is plugging into the floor and your arm is picking you up out of your pelvis. Inhale. Beautiful. Feel the foot ground. Fill the pelvis, follow and feel the side come up one more time. Inhale, lift up. Try to keep space in your armpit. Stay there. Exhale. Squeeze that outside leg into your right leg. Keep squeezing and take another inhale into your side ribs and exhale back up. Beautiful. And then face forward. And this way, sorry my Ford.

So you're gonna grab onto the bar behind you, right fingertips or away from you. And I want you to stand again in that V position. So whenever we're in that V, it's a movement of the legs into the pelvis. See if he can feel that left, right? Sten pretty close to your bar, right? And I want you to imagine that you're pulling your hands apart. When you do that. See if you can, that wraps your shoulders into your back and you're going to inhale, straighten your arms, feel the backwards, lift up. Good. And exhale, bend. Nice. So the challenge here is to not let your ribs be forward of your pubic bone.

So you're keeping that straight line, but at the same time, squeezing your shoulder blades together and exhale, right? Feel the spinal lift up out of the pelvis. Keep those shoulders down as the elbows come up. Beautiful. We'll do two more. Nice. So even this, even when the arms go down, it's really a movement up. Exhale, relax the glutes so you can feel your rotators a little more.

Yeah. Beautiful. Excellent. Good. So now we're going to get into some of the fun stuff. So we're going to turn around and we're going to do our Russian squats. I find that this is a very supportive way of building and practicing your Russian squats. So thumb's, wraparound, they're opposing. Stand back a little bit so that your arms can stay straight throughout.

And what I like to do is just let the knees crease. So you're just going to go for it. On the down, you're going to inhale down and on your exhale, pick yourself up with the pelvic floor, right in the hamstrings. Inhale. Exhale right back up. Good. See if you can still feel, keep going as I'm talking, the grounded energy of the outer edge and inside your feet, that creates lift up through your pelvis. One more with both legs. Great. Now we're gonna try our single leg. So the trick here is the leg that's lifting.

Push down with that arm and pull up with the other arms. A little leveraging trick. So here we go. You're gonna eat. Inhale. Right leg goes forward. Yeah. And if, if it's a one to grow on, it's one to grow on. Here we go. Inhale down, right and work to get up. Beautiful, right. Two more. And press down with that right arm. That's it. One more. So totally fine if this doesn't actually happen, this is a great way to build up to those single leg squats. Switch legs, left leg forward. Yeah. So now left arm pushes down, right arm pulls up, inhale. And we're going to uh, come back to the Russian squats later in the workout.

And so you'll get to integrate what this helps you feel. Inhale now really use the hamstrings. Use that lift of your legs into the pelvis. Last one. Awesome. Great. So we're going to take this down into a sideline position now.

So again, if you feel like two springs is too much, you can drop down. I like to use two springs, so we'll try it with too. So you're to lie facing this way, right? Grab your left hand underneath and right hand on top of, and you're going to pull that down and through it might feel a little bit like a muscle job to get down. Right? And for most of you, this is one where it's going to be different for everyone. Most of you, you're gonna feel like your feet are a little bit off the mat. Yeah. And we'll see. I want you to bend your elbows, like you're pulling the bar in half. Like you're pulling it apart.

Keep your hands right at your crown. And just make sure that you have space and that's when you'll kind of be able to tell if you need to scoot out further. Right. So here we go. Bend your elbows and now you're going to lengthen your left sideways. Keep your elbows wide good. And push that left side waist up. Go all the way to straight.

You can partner this by lifting up a little bit and inhale, elbows wide. Pull that bar apart and lengthen your left sideways to push down in through. Beautiful inhale. Bend your elbows wide. Now slide your left side ribs out on the mat to push up. We could maybe scoot you like an inch out further. Inhale, elbows wide.

Now make your left side waist take you back down. Yeah. So Nia dress. See if you can actually go in a side bend to come down. Lean into your left side. Yeah. And lengthen your left side to go up. Beautiful. Right. Push up with your left side. Yeah, right now I'm lengthen here. Start to side. Bend this down. Open that up. Yeah. Right.

Lovely. We'll do one more cause it's so yummy. Elbows wide. Push up. Now feel an oppositional length through both legs as you lift your sideways out of your pelvis. Lovely. Good. Bend your elbows wide and push down in through. Good. Now you have to be very careful here as we transitioned sides.

So you want to make sure you stand on top of that spring or the bar with your hands. Your right hand is going to go behind left-hand in front, right? And just take yourself out. I think of like a torpedo or like a high diver entering the water. You just want to be very aerodynamic, aerodynamic, bend your elbows as you inhale, lengthen your right sideways to come up.

When you say it doesn't do that, the sides are always different, aren't they? Inhale elbows wide. Now keep your knuckles long. Yes. So you're on top of the spring. Yes. Beautiful, right? Try not to let your risk break so the more you stay, yeah, rolled on top, then your elbow can drive into that hand. Inhale, elbows wide. You just Kinda have to keep transitioning the role of your hands.

Push up with your side waist so you're not hanging from the springs. You're lifting. Yes. Inhale, pull apart and then lay your sideways back down. Beautiful. Okay. It might work better for your right hand to be forward hand. Try that.

Inhale. Elbows wide. Yeah. So standing on top on top of that as you come up will help. We'll do two more. Yeah. Push through that top arm. Yeah, I feel like you're a little too far out. Maybe cool and nice. Lift out of your pelvis. Beautiful. And elbows wide. Get on top of that spring. There you go.

Yes. Okay. So, um, one more. Right. Okay. I lose my count. Lovely. Get on top of that with your knuckles. Yeah. And push with your elbow, right. Okay. So here is where you might drop down. We're all gonna use two springs, roll onto your belly. Your hands are going to go wide.

And we're going to do a little swan series here. Make sure your knuckles stay forward so your wrist is long and you're on top of the resistance there. Good. Um, Christy, scoot just an inch forward toward this. Yeah. Good. So the first thing we're going to do, wrap your thumbs around is want you to feel like you're pulling the bar up to the ceiling, up toward the ceiling. Like you're holding it up. Yes, keep that happening. Bend your elbows as high toward the ceiling as you can. Pull that bar behind your neck and just feel that stretch. Keep your forehead down and then keep your elbows high and wide. As you exhale, press to straight. Great. Two more of those.

Keep pulling the bar up toward the ceiling even as you push your arms back straight. Yes, that's great. Let your shoulder blades widen. Good. Okay, and lovely. So now go ahead and pull that bar behind the back of your neck. We're going to let it float the head up just a tiny bit. Turn your head all the way around to the right. Yeah, keep facing the right and push down and through right. Keep those elbows lifting high and wide. Pull up.

Keep your face to the right as you pull that bar behind your neck. Let it float you up. Turn to the left. Big stretch and push down. And through. Great. We're going to do this one. [inaudible]. Okay, great. Okay, go thumb, thumb around, right knuckles forward. One more time. Each side. Pull that back behind you. And we're just going to minimize your range. Good.

Let it lift you up a little bit. Turn to the right, that's it. And then down and through. Last one. So your face is still to the right. You're going to lift up, bend your elbows wide, turn to the left and down and through. Excellent. Now turn your forehead to the center and we're going to do a half swan. So we're going to go bend your elbows high behind the back of your neck, right?

And from here you're going to lift your upper torso up to meet the bar. So the bar will stay in front of you, right? Lift up, straighten your arms all the way. Pick your belly up, right. Try not to feel like you're pushing the bar away from you though. It's kind of coming more in toward you. And then lengthen your abdominals forward to come back down. Nice.

And again, bend those elbows wide behind the back of your neck. Right? So you can think of pressing forward, but really lift your torso up to meet the bar. Beautiful. Yes. And then lengthen to come back down. Now you can stay with that version. Let's do one more actually and try parallel legs. Zippered together, right. Bend your elbows high and wide, right? And you can just do a mini version of this and straighten thumbs around good and length and to come back down. So we're going to go into full swan.

If you're feeling any um, sensitivity in your shoulders, you can avoid doing this one. Um, so we're going to do baby swan for you and bend your elbows high and wide. Pull that bar behind the back of your neck. Now flow yourself up into an upper ab curl. Control the bar through your heads. Last thing to come up. Lift up. Good. Then drop your head down, bend your elbows high and wide. Get those knuckles forward and push down and through, through your upper ab curl. That's great. We're going to do one more of those.

Bend your elbows high and whine. Good. Try to keep your upper ab curl here. Find a little bit of an upper curve. Press up all the way. Now keep your upper body up, bend your elbows, push the bar down. So keep your head up, push the bar down, and you're going to go into a rocking swan. So lift your legs, lift your chest, right. Try not to drop it. Either. End, you lift both ends. So as you lift your legs, you tip, and then you lift your chest. Right?

Good. I stay up the whole time. Chest tries to stay lifted the whole time. Beautiful. One more. Good. Excellent. Good. And then come on down. Now coming out of this double spring, you just have to be careful. Swing your legs around to the right, scoop your belly, and then you can usually kind of sit up as you're controlling it. Yeah. Right. And then we're just going to deconstruct the bar. So just take the springs down. Yeah.

And then we will set up the sticky pad. This is for your, uh, back of your rib cage. Or You could use a yoga mat on your, um, the whole length of your mat. But mostly you want to make sure that you have something that prevents your rib cage from sliding backwards. We could even go links wise. Good. You're going to lie on your back.

Let's scoop both scooters down just a little bit. Line your back with your feet in the short loops, the short spring loops, right? And you'll be an a plus v position. And at first just grab onto your shins, grab as close to your ankles as you can, and hug your knees into your chest. I'm going to take a couple of breaths here and I want you to feel your low spine lengthening on the mat. So you pull your knees into your chest.

You also want to feel like your sacrum is maybe sliding a little further towards the far end of your mat. And that's helping to hollow out your belly, right? See if you can also let your sternum just relax, right? And then on your next exhale, take your hands behind the back of your neck. Pick your elbows up and curl up, right? So imagine your elbows are suspended by spring, uh, by strings pulling up to the ceiling. Right?

So try and get your shoulder blades off the mat. Yes. Right. You're going to be in your [inaudible] ve. So heels lifted up a little bit. We're going to do foot work as if we're doing mat work and have you pick your elbows up a little bit more like that and let your head lay back. Drop Your Chin so your back of your neck as long. Beautiful. Yes. Inhale your legs out straight.

Now feel that lengthening of your low back to curl your knees back in. So it's really a bend of your spine instead of your hips. Inhale out x Helen as your legs come in every time. Remind your elbows to pick themselves up. Yes. So the shoulder blades, try to stay off the mat. Beautiful. Good. Two more.

We're going to do short a shorter rep version of these and stay all the way in now knees all the way together. Flex your ankles and wrap your toes like you're doing your bird on a perch from the reformer. So to avoid the springs being in your way, you have to keep your feet a little higher. Inhale out. Exhale, pick your elbows up to keep those shoulder blades off the mat. Beautiful. Your hands should be pulling the back of your skull longer. So you have a kind of like the ends of a canoe pulling out. Yes.

Beautiful. Every time you curl back in, it comes from that lengthening of the low back to bend the spine and back in. Go right into a deep flexed ankle. Inhale out. Exhale. Curlin yes, keep your heels a little higher than your knees, right. And go into your deepest fold every time. So let the springs help you fold. Yes. Excellent. Two more. See if you can increase the angle of that flex as you like. Straighten.

Good. And now one more time just to straighten your legs out. Circle your arms around. As you exhale, grab behind your thighs. You're gonna inhale point. Exhale, flex. Inhale. As you point in flax, zipper that inner thigh line together and dry your legs deeper up into your pelvis, into your center. See if maybe your legs could go a little lower, right. Feel how the springs support the weight of your legs. One more and good.

Just one more to point. Inhale, float your arms and start your hundred. Exhale in X. No, I like in hundred to really let the arms free. Right, because the work is to stabilize the rib cage. Yeah. No pecs. No lats. Let your arms float. Right. But feel all the spine stretching in opposite directions. Yes. Remind those armpits to float and have space. Yes. That's beautiful.

Excellent. A couple more. Feel the low spine still holding the weight of the legs up even though the springs are helping. Yes. We'll do two more. Float the arms again. Yes. Oh, the last one. And excellent. The engineer's into your chest. Hug your knees in. Layer headdress down, Henry.

So we're going to go through our ab five series from the Mat. Work with our legs in the loops. So it's a little bit of a different challenge. Uh, go ahead and curl yourself up. All right. Grab both knees into your chest. So with this, um, series, I like to really work on that deep fold. The springs are helping you get your deepest volt grab onto your left leg, stretch your right leg forward so your outside hand is on your ankle.

Use your hands to pull your knee into the deepest folds you can get. Elbows wide. Inhale, switch. Inhale, switch. Exhale, exhale. Good. Curl up a little higher. That's good. And right now the challenge is to not get into a side bend with the upper torso. So you have to really keep that upper curve the whole time.

Drive your lowest back ribs back into that sticky pad and x, x both knees into your chest. Inhale and take a deep exhale. Squeeze all the air out, fold into your tiniest little ball. Now inhale, reach your arms on the outside of the springs. Circle your arms around and exhale the spine. Curls the legs in. Inhale, reach. Exhale, curl. Beautiful, right? Try to keep your eyes low as you reached so that you stay in that upper curve.

Exhale, right Christy, you can look up a little higher though. Yeah, your angle is good and stay all the way in, right? Take your right leg to the ceiling, stretch your left leg low ground behind your thigh, and instead of pulling your legs towards you, use your hands to lift your legs up out of the pelvis. Inhale, switch. Exhale, switch. Inhale. So both legs are going to feel like they're reaching out of the pelvis. Your hands are helping good and in and acts.

And in an accident on this last one, we'll take a bigger stretch in, in pull it towards you as you x and switch and in and pull it towards you as you x. Good. And take both legs to the ceiling and give your neck a break. Come on down, right. If you have scooted back, you can press yourself back down, right. And then take your legs to the ceiling. Turned out in a v so you want to feel that wrap of the backs of your legs, right? Both legs are going to feel like they're lifting themselves out of the pelvis. Stretch the back of your neck with your hands. Pick your elbows up, exhale to curl up. Yeah. Great.

Try and get your shoulder blades all the way up off the mat. Okay. Inhale your legs all the way down. Now let your spine and the sheath the up, right, so you're just lengthening the spine. Inhale. Exhale. Great. Inhale, keep the elbows picking the spine up. So see if you can avoid letting your upper body lower down as your, you're [inaudible]. Let's move away from you. Last one. Great. And Bend your knees into your chest. Tiny little ball.

Curl your upper spine up. Inhale here. And on your exhale you're going to twist your left armpit to your right knee. Stretch your left leg long. So think instead of elbow to knee, think armpit. Inhale into the center of tiny little ball. Squeeze into your tiniest little ball and exhale, twist. Okay.

Inhale into the center, his spine, bending your knees in and exhale, twist. Inhale into the center, knees into the face, and exhale, twist armpit to knee. Good. And come on down and relax. It's, yeah, whole new challenge. Okay. So take the feet out of those springs and we'll just leave that sticky mat where it is. You're going to take your spring that's on the left side and put it on your right foot, the a of the longer springs. Oh, and you'll need loops.

Yes, that's great. Stay on your back. Take your hands to the vertical pulls and press away, and then your right leg is going to go to the ceiling. Good left. I can just go down straight. And as you're so turnout, this right leg as you pull down, try to maintain that it's right in the center so that it doesn't get pulled over to the left. So inhale down on your exhale. Stretch the back line of your leg longer to come up right now. See if you can do this without the ribs lifting off the mat.

So plug those back ribs into the mat. Inhale down. Good. And exhale, reach to come back up. So, uh, if you are having a hard time staying connected, take your hands a little higher up on those vertical poles so that the push of your arms helps to plug the ribs down and exhale up. Beautiful. Yes. Two more. Do you want to feel like the inhale helps to close this space? Let this settle right. One more. Inhale, squish my fingers. Now stay down there on this next one. And on your exhale, you're going to send both legs over to the left.

Squeeze the right heel into the left heel, right? Good. From here, your right leg is gonna reach out on the diag and all you're going to inhale open, right? Less of a sweep and more of like a kick out and exhale right back to that left leg. Good. Inhale, open. Nice. So you really have to use the spiral of the back of that leg so that your hip doesn't get pushed into you. Two more.

Inhale. That's great. Yes. So the right hip is going to try to stay down heavy. We're going to take this into a developer, so keep a slight flex of your right ankle. You're going to bend that knee, drag it up the other leg, take the knee out to that diagonal and straighten the back line of the leg out. Beautiful and pull back down. Good. And again, see if it can maintain the connection of your back ribs. One more excellent and pull down. We're going to reverse. You're going to kick out to that diagonal. Bend your knee.

Now place that heel is high on the inner thigh as you can. Keep a slight flex of the ankle and drag it down without losing contact. Good. And then kick out. Lovely. Bend the knee. See if you can keep those backwards down. Keep a flex of your ankle right and drag out one more and all the way out straight. Now once you're out there, just take a couple of breaths where you're reaching that back line of your right leg longer without letting the ribs get picked up.

You'll have the outside of your right hip has to reach through that foot. Good. And then turn your legs parallel, Zipper your legs together, hover them up above the mat, keep your planted and swing your legs back to the center. Keep your ribs planted. Swing your legs back to the left and then back to the center. Nice. One more time to the left.

Keep those ribs anchored on the back to the center. Lower your left leg. Take your right leg to the ceiling. External rotation of the leg. Now you're going to let the lift of the leg take you over for single leg circle. Inhale over and down. Keep your stack of your hips. Then exhale out and around, right. Inhale across and down. Take your hips with you and exhale back up. Beautiful.

So I want you to feel like your leg goes and over. Yeah, keep your stack of your hips until you cross the other leg. We're just going to do three in reverse. Inhale out, down across an exhale. Pull your spine back to bring you center. Lovely. Keep your turnout the whole time. As you cross that other leg, your pelvis goes with you. Long twist of the spine. Yes, and one more. Nice. Excellent. Keep that leg to the ceiling, right? Bend your left knee.

Bring it as close to your pelvis as you can. Feel this right leg lifting up so much that you press yourself up into a bridge. Keep lifting up right, and then pull that leg down as you exhale. See if you can feel the spring. Lift your pelvis higher. Nice. Inhale up. Exhale, pull down.

Get your sit bones to lift right through the front of your hips. Nice and up. Maybe your heel gets all the way down to the mat. Lovely. And back up and peel your spine back down. Straighten your left leg, grab onto your spring, and just take a flex of the ankle here. Little Pole of that leg toward you. Externally. Spiral the leg as you pull it towards you.

Keep that external rotation. Let it cross over your midline, right? So with that external rotation, it gives your hip a little space away from the ribs. Great. And then open that leg out to the right side. Keep that external rotation so that your right leg can really work its way up toward the shoulder. Feel that reach through the inner thigh of your left leg. Excellent. And take your foot out of that strap.

And we will do the same thing with the other leg. Great. I just love single-leg springs. So opposite sides spring, right. And at first we're just connecting to the back of the leg. So arms are on the vertical poles. Leg is to the ceiling.

Turned out right like a straight great. And you're going to inhale, pull down, maintain the connection of the back ribs, reach the leg a little bit longer. Yeah. Beautiful. Without yanking on the spine. Inhale, Paul. Rich, are we reaching to the corner or do the center to the center? You're just feeling the, the leg length and out of the pelvis a little bit more. Right. And for a lot of us, when we, when we do that, we give at the spine instead of in the pelvis.

So we're trying to just establish the reach that his leg out of the pelvis. Last one, squeeze your heels together and then bring your legs over to the right side. Good. Take a second just to feel how to really get that length through the left side of your body that that doesn't Yank on your ribs. Yes. And then inhale out to that diagonal. Yeah.

Turned out and exhale. And it really is like a direct diagonal. It doesn't really sweep. Yes. Good. Yeah. So it allows your pelvis to stay pulled down and out. Excellent. Two more. Nice. That's it.

And then we will take this into develop peck. So bend the knee, right? Take the knee out and then lay the back line of your leg out to straight. Yes. Everyone's doing such a great job there. And Paul. So it's as if the spring is what then is your knee, all you have to do is plug your foot into the strap and Paul [inaudible]. Right. And I think we did three. We'll see. Did we do two?

Yeah, on the other side is what I meant. So we'll do three and reverse it. Good. And so kick out then the knee and see how high you can get that heel on your right inner thigh. Keep a flexed ankle and you want to maintain contact with that leg so that you're using the hamstrings and not the knee to straighten the leg. Keep contact, let your knees soften.

Let the work be higher in the back of the leg. Yeah. Yes. One more. And reach all the way out to straight. Good. From here, turn your legs parallel. Hover your legs above the mat. Good. Keep those back ribs down and come back to the center of the Mat. Good. And then swing back to the right side and then back to the center. Back to the right side. Lovely. And back to the center.

Lower your right leg left. Look to the ceiling externally. Rotate, and then pick that line up to come across. So you go across and down and exhale out and around. Nice. See if you can keep that stack of your hips until your leg crosses the other leg. So there's this, reach into the center, picking you up. One more. Inhale across and down, right. Feel the spring. Lift your center. Yeah, that's great. And out and around.

And then we'll reverse. Inhale out, down across. Take your hip with you when you go across. Keep going all the way up. Yes. And then the spine peels you back down. So thanks to sternum to pubic bone. [inaudible] an external rotation of your leg as you come back to the site. Settle your hip. Yes, right.

Um, settle center. Nice. Bend your right knee. Bring it as close to your pelvis as you can. Now it's like helium on your left leg that picks you up so that right foot is going to really plant. But lift your left leg to bring you into your bridge. Good. And exhale. Pull that left leg down. Feel that lift your pelvis higher. Beautiful. Inhale up.

So you're getting that spring underneath your back to lift you up. Good. Even higher. Press down through your right leg. Get your pell was up. Yes. Inhale. And one more. Feel the work at the sit bone. Pull all the way down to the mat if you can. Beautiful. Inhale. And then exhale, peel your spine back down. Grab on to your springs, stretch your right leg forward. And we're just gonna do a quick little three way leg stretch.

So straighten your right leg out, flex that left ankle, pull the leg towards you externally, rotate the leg, cross the leg over your mid line, right? And as you do that, you want to feel like the external rotation. Keeps that left hip away from the rib cage. Yeah, that's fine, right? And then open your leg out toward the left side. Keep working that spiral of the back of the leg. And then you can really feel the length through the backline.

Feel the reach through the inner thigh line of your right leg. Great. And take your foot out of the strap. Okay, but that's not, that's not it. There's more. So now we're going to face this direction, this direction here. You're going to lie, I'm on your left side closest to the back spring.

Take your forearm up the vertical pole. Are we gonna use the spring that comes from the back, the purple spring that comes from the back. Your feet can go all the way forward. In fact, your feet could even go if you need help balancing your feet could go onto the moon box or just onto the mat. So you're going to put the foot loop on your right foot. Legs can be pretty far forward, right? And Way to kickstand your bottom foot.

So your bottom foot is going to go. Fourth and fifth toe are standing in a turnout to where your left leg is straight. Good. And then your right hand can be in front of you to help you balance, right? You're standing in a v position from here, you're going to flex that right leg forward. Go as far as you can forward. Now lay your spine bend and see how far you can take that. Beautiful, good.

And then pull back. Feel the spring supporting the leg into the pelvis and keep going back into an arch. Let your spine arch. So try not to hold your pelvis in a, in a tuck under. Allow that natural lift of your low back and keep your pelvis stacked. Good. And here we go. Front and scoop. Nice pullback. Now as your leg pulls back, there's a tendency for us to kind of hang the pelvis.

You want to feel like the spring holds the leg into the pelvis for you. So you get to use the muscles in the back of your body. Yes, one more and front scoop and back arch. There you go, right? And then stack your feet right from that stack. You're going to point up, flex down, point up, flex down, two more points up. Flex down. You're doing great at keeping your pelvis stacked. Flex down. We're going to reverse reach out through the heel to come up. Point down.

Flex up, point down, two more. Good. Now we're going to take this into a full circle. So you're going to go forward. You're going to go up through the ceiling. Now after you cross your sideline of your body, you can internally rotate this leg as it goes all the way behind you and try to finish the arc all the way down before you come forward. Once you come forward, external rotation in front of you, lift up and around internal rotation behind you. Yes, and again, try not to let the pelvis or the leg hang, so let the spring hold the leg into the pelvis and the stack your feet reverse. Pull back and internal come up and around. External rotation, right? Go full range. So let your spine get involved in that, right.

As long as your pelvis stays stacked, you're good. And up and around, right. This spring is helping you get range. Nice. And then stack your feet. Last thing we're going to do as a bicycle, you're going to kick front. Now Bend your knee under the spring, so your heels close to your pelvis. Press your side back. Keep your heel close to your pelvis. Now straight is flex slightly through your heel straightened by reaching back further. Beautiful. Yeah.

Feel how the spring is pushing your leg into the pelvis. Back here. There you go. And again, kick front, good, bad money. Press the thigh back and then keep reaching back through the heel. Soften the knee as you use your hamstrings. Yes, right. Let it hold you. Right now we're just going to do two here in reverse.

So without moving the thigh forward in space, you're gonna use your hamstrings instead of the spring to bend the knee. Then scoop from your belly to pull forward. Yes, that's right. All the way forward into your scoop. Pull back. Great. Yes. Use your hamstrings instead of the spring here to pull to bend your knee.

That's lovely. Yes. And scoop all the way forward. Pull your leg on top of the other leg. You're going to roll onto your belly and bring your legs into the center. You have to keep a slight flexed ankle. Make a pillow for your forehead.

Inhale and exhale. Lengthen that leg to float up. Inhale that leg down. Feel how the pelvis can hold itself together and exhale yourself up. Yes, good and down. You still want to feel the support of your center and feel how the spring is, is holding your leg into your pelvis. That makes the leverage later.

Good. And we'll do one more good. And from that place, Bend your knee. Keep a flex to your ankle. If you can reach back and grab your spring, go ahead and reach back. Bend your knee and open the front of your hip into your mat. So see if you can lengthen the front of your thigh, draw your inner thighs closer together, right, and feel that quad lengthening. Good.

And then just use your hand to slip the strap off of your foot. And we will do the other side, new legs and face this direction. Mexican. Okay. You're going to lie on your right side at the back edge of your mat like that.

Use your forearm up the vertical pole. Okay. And then your legs get to come really far forward. Hmm. Great. And we can move this.

So from your kickstand, your bottom foot, and you want to use that to keep that bottom leg active and straight. And then here we go, you're going to flex front, then add your spines, scoop that whole back lot line of your body longer and then point to pull back. And as you pull back, arch your spine, feel everything in the back of your body. Activating beautiful and front. Keep your kickstand. If you can box got away from you. Uh, so this leg stays straight. Yeah, right. And back.

And as you pull back, you want to feel like you're not hanging. Straighten your leg all the way. Yeah. Right? So it's holding you together and front and feel the front of your body going with it. Go into it. Beautiful. Nice. And did we just do three? All right, so from here you're going to stack your feet again. You're going to point up, flex down, point up, flex down. Lovely. Two more. You guys are doing great at keeping your pelvis level.

So what helps that happen is just really using your turnout. Now reverse flex up, point down, reached through the heel to feel that connection all the way from the sit bone. Yes, point down. Nice. One more and then we're going to go full circle. So you're going to take that forward up through the ceiling. Once you cross your sideline of your body internally, rotate, finish that arc behind you and brush it through and we'll do one more good. Try not to let your pelvis hang and then stack your feet. Reverse it, pull back every time it goes behind you.

Let it feel like it's taking the weight out of your leg. It holds your leg into you. Right? That's the hardest thing in the mat work without the springs is that in our legs feel kind of heavy when they're all the way out. Straight forward away from us. So the spring is helping and then stack your feet and we're going to do bicycle. So kick front, bend your knee, keep your knee bent. As you press back, you're going to have to keep a slight flex of the heel to hold onto that spring and then keep moving your side back and space to straighten.

Good and didn't kick front then the knee [inaudible] a, press the thigh back first. Good. Keeping the knee bent as you press the thigh back and then use your hamstrings instead. Your knee joint here. Right. A lot of us drive our kneecap to straighten the leg instead of using the back. Like reverse it. You're going to pull back. Keep moving back into that hip opening.

Use your hamstrings instead of letting the spring just pull you. So use your hamstrings to kick your butt. Okay? Yes. And pull back. Good. Keep using your hamstrings to bend your knee. Excellent. Scoop your belly.

Go all the way forward. Nice. And then bring your legs together, roll onto your belly, make a little pillow for your forehead. And here we go. Inhale for nothing. And exhale, float that leg up. Nice. Inhale, lower it down. So feel your center, gather together. Feel how the leg is held into the pelvis and it just gets to float up and back down. Right. You just don't want to feel gathered together here. And that this is on two. Yeah. Right.

This is all zeroing together as your center. That's it. Nice. One more and we'll take a stretch. Good. And then bend your knee and grab on to your spring and I will help. Beautiful. Yeah, yeah, you got it. Okay. Feel the hip opening into the mat.

Narrow your inner thighs and then slip that strap off your foot. Excellent. So we're going to come up to standing to finish off with some really fun, um, returning to our Russian squats so you can move your sticky pads away. If they're on your mat, you're going to take your yellow, uh, or your short springs up all the way and put handles on them. So this is one of those one to grow ons and uh, it should be fun.

Okay, here we go. So you have the handles and once you're set up there, you just going to take your arms up by your ears pulling up into your resistance. Yes, this is parallel hip width apart, right? Yeah. So feel that. Activate the whole back line of your body. And we're going to go right through our Russian squat. We're going to roll into a rolling like a ball to come back up. So inhale as you go down, once you're down, push down. Good. And exhale, plant your feet and lift back up. And we'll do two more. Here we go.

Yeah. Arms Up. Pull into the resistance the whole time and go all the way down. Just go for it. Pull down, keep your heels tight to your button. Lift up. Beautiful. One more. Good. This is a little homage to Kathy grant who used to do something similar in the mat work. Okay. Now we'll just try one on each side. Single leg work, just so you can see where the beginning practice of our single leg squats can go. So arms up right? And here we go. You're going to take your right leg forward as you go all the way down.

Keep pulling back into that resistance pole down. Beautiful. And then pull back right away to come up. Beautiful. That's it. And other side to the arm. Yes, you've got to pull into this springs and here we go. Inhale plant and lift. Way To work.

Last thing we're going to do is facing for it. So change your springs so that they're just a little bit above shoulder height. So it's going to be different for everyone. You can kind of eyeball where the hooks come from. See what looks good for you, sanding when you're ready in Your v that we practiced at the beginning. So always that V is picking your legs up into your pelvis and we're going to come into a little salute position. So in the salute, try to get your elbows back behind your ears, right?

And you want to make sure that your ribs don't go forward of your body, so the pubic bone and the sternum are in the same line in the back line of your legs. From here, just find the angle that works for you to go straight up. We'll just take one more to the forehead. Elbows, try to stay behind the ears. Good, yes, and up and then drop your head forward and just shave as low down behind the back of your neck as you can. Keeping those elbows back behind your ears. Feel the lifting up of your v. Yes, that's it. Yeah. I use those upper abs to support you one more time.

See if you can get your pelvis forward in line with your body. Yes, that's it. And up. Beautiful. From here, we're just going to take the arms open. We're going to take a little butterfly twist, so I'm going to be your mirror here. You're going to rotate towards your right. Pull your right hand behind you and stretch into that rotation. Yeah.

Let this spring feel like it pushes your arm into the socket and connects you. So your spine is doing more of that rotation. Come back open and come to the other side. Pull back with your left arm. So the arms are held into the shoulder blade with the spring, and it's your spine that gives you the rotation.

So find a little upper curve in that moment and look at your right arm or sorry, your left arm, if you can, the one behind you good and come back. Good. We're just gonna do a couple of arm circles. So you're gonna pull down, keep that a resistance in your hands the whole time. So you're going to go forward. And as you open, try not to let there be any moment where it gets slacks. You have to kind of pull it in front of you a little bit. Okay. Inhale, lift. Try to keep that alignment of pelvis and ribs, right. Let your pubic bone come forward.

Yes. Right. And once we've done three, we're going to reverse. Inhale up. Exhale. Feel the breath lifting those ribs out of the pelvis. Exhale. Right? And we're going to finish off with something that I call the Holy Ghost.

So you're going to go off here, you can take your arms up, lean forward into your resistance, get your pelvis all the way forward, press down through the balls of your feet, and it's like a Standing Swan. You're going to press up into your high V and lower back down state and your resistance. So pelvis is way forward. Yeah, way forward. Yes. Right and up. And usually people start to come here. That's why I call it the Holy Ghost and pelvis. Way Forward. Yes. Right. So that it feels like you're on a sleeping in the front of your body.

Yes. And Alright, let's try that one more time. Try to get your pelvis more forward. Right. It's not really a tuck under, it's just the whole pelvis comes forward in space so the abdominal wall can lift up low pelvis, wave forward. Hello. Yeah, that's it. That's it. It's hard to get the pelvis forward and then step back and lower your arms and you guys are done. Nice work.