Long Box - Upper Body

Hi. This is Ilya from Pilares Anytime. And today, we'll do this reformer with the long box. I picked the long box today because it offers a lot of options. So with the long box, we can warm up we can progress in extension, really extensions really well, and we can also work on some progressions for more advanced exercises. So During this workout, we'll change the straps. We'll change the springs. We'll change the bar, but we will never move and change the box. It will stay like this.

Hold the time. So to get started, I will be sitting facing the back of the reformer. And I have, I'm on the grass reformer. I have only one full spring. You could do this first part also with 2 springs, but I like to keep it really light to get the possibility to do a nice ostearticular warm up for the shoulders and for the upper body.

Of course, thinking about the streps and the work with the streps, it will be a lot of work today with this reformer on the upper body. And just some on the lower bond, but you will see. So you can put the headpiece down. We sit over here on the box, and then we are going to drop the handle so that we can hold the straps directly. And I also like to go inside with my hand and grab it so that the strap stays around my wrist the whole time. So from here, I I start lifting toe and very easy from my shoulders. I start moving the carriage.

So I lift my shoulders up to the years and roll down. My elbows, my hands are doing nothing. I'm just moving the carriage because of the shoulders' roles that I'm doing. We do 2 more in this direction, just explore to see how your shoulders and neck feel today before we start. And then you go back up and forward, and pull and around.

And again, pull and around. And now easy drop the head around to one side, like, just the same circle, and then you reverse, and you come up the other way one more time, chain to chest, and roll. And, again, chin to chest, roll, and come up. Now from here, we start with a kneezy arm work. So you just band your elbows back. You hold and lengthen forward.

Pull, pull, pull, hold, and lengthen. I try to keep my ear over my shoulder, shoulder, over hip, right, So I don't want to sink back. I don't want around. I try to lift and grothole, like, if I were doing the shore box. And I do a few more elbows back. And forward. And even though it's light, I really want when I get back here to feel all the work from the posterior chain, right, my triceps and my back muscles.

Everything is working. One more like this. You go pull hold, hold, hold, and then you lengthen. Now we do the same thing with straight arms. So, again, you go pull back hold for a second and then release. You go pull back, hold, and then resist.

This is a great option to start, working the upper body and working the posterior part of the body before pulling stress. Right, for example, in straps is way too hard in the very beginning, but we need to simulate the work on the posterior parks. So this is, I find it's a great compromise, even when somebody's pregnant or cannot lie down on the stomach for any reason. This is a perfect cocktail, perfect variation. Now we do a combination. You go pull the elbows bent, stretch your arms hold, and resist. Like a triangle, you go pull, stretch back, and down resist. And you go pull.

Stretch back and resist one more. Pull stretch back and home. Now reverse, pull back straight arms, bend, and release. Pull back straight. Now try not to move the character out of the way as you band and then release.

Pull back, band, release it on. One more. Pull, band, and release. Now a very important one for the rhomboids. We're gonna cross the straps, and we kind of wear the straps. So get the whole arm in above the elbow, and then you pull, and you'll get over here.

Now from this position, try to keep the elbows a little higher than your shoulders. And you pull back, hold, hold, hold, and release. And, again, you'll go pull back, hold, hold, hold, and resist stay tall. Grow tall up to the ceiling as you pull back. Hold and release, really try to keep those elbows higher than the shoulders if possible.

So you target the rhomboids instead of the trap. And go, let's add one more. This is too good. You go pull back. Hold. Hold.

Hold. And then slowly release. We're gonna lengthen them out. We uncross the straps, And now I hold the stretch, but I turn to the front of the reformer because now I'm gonna add one more spring. So I have a total of 2, I need a little more resistance because now I'm including the spine in this, workout.

So from here, like the rollback bar, I'm going to pull back articulate the pelvis. I touch down with the sacrum, and then roll back up. From here, the pelvis like the like a wheel starts moving the carriage this the tailbone goes forward, the ASIS go back, the sacrum touches, and then I roll back up. Now we get all the way down to the navel. So you go pull pull pull.

The navel touches the box and come up And, again, you go pull back, back, back, back, tailbone forward, navel down, and come up. Now let's get to the bottom rib. You go down, down, down to the 12th rip, and lift one more time. Reach a super nice articulation, very nice to warm up and get started with the workout. And now we get to the tip of the shoulder blades. So all the way down here and come up.

And now we go all the way down there again, And from this position, we pick up one leg, and then we pick up the other one. So this is our stomach work, like the 100, right, So here, we're gonna go drop and tap tap with one leg, tap with the other one. Now small reach with both. And up and alternate tap down and up, down, up together, smaller pull enable back, and lift. And again, single tap, and lift. Single tap and lift, navel pulls in, reach, reach, reach, and up one more single tap.

And up single tap and up pulling to your stomach, small, small, small, small, bring the knees into your chest, and then slowly come back up and lift. Now same thing with the single leg bent. So same articulation. The pelvis leads the movement. You roll back.

The knees easily come into your chest, and then you go. You reach and reach, reach, lengthen, stretch, stretch, scoop, scoop, 2 more sets, Last one. Both knees in and slowly roll up open the chest a little bit, release the shoulders and back, and we go down again for the double. Now the double is gonna be a little different. So from here, we roll down. The knees come into the chest. First, just go reach out the legs and scoop back in.

Reach out the legs navel back lengthen lengthen lengthen. Scoop back in. And again, reach out, out, out, out, and in. As you reach out, you slowly come up a little bit. And then scoop and roll down. As you reach out, slowly come up and then pull back and down your bend.

And again, reach slowly, slowly, slowly, slowly, pulled back into your stomach, deepening, and knees in, and slowly up for a little release. And now the last one, we do scissors and bicycles. So here, let's go back control. Knees into the chest, long legs, and you go 111. One last set.

Now as you split, you go bicycle, reach, reach, reach, reach, reverse, lengthen away, reach down into the well, lengthen, lengthen, and lengthen all the way up. Settle, and now it's time for a little release. We deserve it. You're gonna roll back instead of stopping at the tip of the blade, you're going to release and open the chest. Head comes up, round, and scoop all the way up.

Feels really nice. We're gonna repeat this. You're gonna scoop back pelvis. Lumber spine, reach open, and release back. And now head up round the shoulders, scoop, and all the way up, you go. Wonderful.

Now we release the straps so we can pull the handles away. And we don't need them right away, so we place them back on the hook. Headpiece up, and we're gonna also bring the bar up with only one spring. So this is a great exercise. This is, call it the babies one. It's a nice and wonderful introduction to this one because this one is a very difficult exercise.

Not everyone can do it if they don't pour the arch and the extension with, the stomach and the front muscles. It's not just crushing back and, compressing the joints is lengthening as we do so. So sometimes it's too easy to slide on the box, so I put this to prevent my knees and my legs to slide away. You might need it. You might not. And I dropped 1 spring.

So now we are on 1 full spring. I'm gonna put the hands on the box, and, the size just above the knees on the box. Basically, when you are in this position, you want to have pretty much the forehead in line with the foot bar. The legs are parallel. If you feel already too much compression, you can open your legs out a little bit. That's absolutely not a problem.

So from this position, think about shaving. Okay. The shoulders are away from the ears. We already warmed up the back. Use those muscles From here, you're gonna go stretch out and you shave back in. You shave out and you shave in.

One more like this, shave out and shave in. Now shave out and you stay there. Now reach away, look forward, and you scoop and you lift, lift, lift, use your apps. Now drop your head you go push back and you band in. We repeat it two more times. You shave out, open the chest, and come up. Head down your push and your band in.

And again, shave out. Open and lift. Head down reach and bend in. Now you can repeat this same variation, or you can go with one arm at a time. It's a lot harder. You need to work on it to make it happen.

So only one hand on the bar, the other one on the box to keep your body even. And you go push back 1 and in, and 2 and in, and 3, stay along with the arm, open the chest come up, head down, push back, and bend in. Push back. Keep your arms straight. You lift.

Out and in. Last one, push Open, open, open, down, and bend the same thing with the other leg. So one hand on the box, one hand on the bar, you go shave 1, shave 2, shave 3 straight arm, open the chest and lift. Head down, long, and bend. And again, out, long spine, reach, look forward. Farther way up to the ceiling and out and bend.

And again, reach. Open, open, open, and release. Perfect. Now from here, open the legs out and point down to the floor as you scoop your stomach and you come all the way in and you rock back for the horseback. Now I'm still a little lifted, I reach for the bar, and here I go. Push the carriage out and in. Push out and in, push out, come in, hover the box, hold, scoop the stomach back, and sit down. And, again, scoop, lift, reach down to the bar back with the shoulders and now bend the arms.

You go push push Push all the way in, stay lifted, reach up, and down release. This is a very easy way to get into the horseback. If you don't wanna do that transition, you can absolutely step down and just get on the box. Afterwards. It's absolutely okay. We'll do many different progressions for the horseback later.

But I think this is a very valuable one to play in between the, large barrel and getting, to the full horseback over here on the reformer. Now we are going to more upper body work before we get into the pulling straps. So gonna get the bar down. We keep only one full spring, and now I'm gonna move this pad over here and the other pad you can choose. You can put the feet on the frame or on the bar.

I'm petite, so I go on the frame, but again, it's your call. Now this next work is all to work on the plank, on the push up, and on the snake. And thanks to this progression, we're gonna get into the swung facing back. We're not gonna do the full swan, but we wanna understand how we need to lift the body when we do that exercise. So from here, you step where you have the first pad, you put the hands on the box pretty close to the corners facing back. And from here, from the pike, you just go forward, hold your plank, and pike back.

Simple. Test the resistance. See if all works fine. See how your shoulders feel. And come in. We're gonna do it one more time.

You go push out, hold the plank. Hold, hold, and back in. Now if you can, we're gonna add a push up. So you go out, plank, bend your arms, extend the arms, and back in. Again, out plank. Bend, extend, and back in one more time, out plank, bend the arms, extend and in.

Now instead of piking out, we're gonna articulate. So think about this, the snake You're gonna push the hips forward. You move the shoulders. You move the box. Out, out, out, out, out, open the chest. No. Head comes down round articulate back and all the way to the start.

Again, push around articulation. Open. Really think about the movement of the snake. Head down, scoop, and come in. Let's do one more. You go push with the pelvis, open, unroll, as you write at the end of the extension, head in scope and come back.

Now I don't know if you noticed where your thighs were, so let's go back again. Use snake forward. And this time, you lower down and you really feel your thighs on the back. Bend your knees, feel your back body working, lift up your hands if you can. This is your big swing facing back, right? Hands back on the box, reach forward, head down, and snake it back.

And we go again. Snake forward, open reach. Now if you feel comfortable, after you tap your hands up, you might want to reach out to the side And why not after the ceiling, reach, reach, reach, hands back down to the box reach, scoop, and snake it back. Let's do one more. Go forward, open, open, open, reach, bend your knees, back body active, reach out, reach up, down with the hands. Of course, you can go step by step if you're not ready for that phase, scoop, and back.

Really good. We can put now this pad down. We don't need it anymore. And from here, you're just gonna reach out to lower yourself down and grab the straps. We finally get to our pulling straps. So you reach, you have your angles, and you release home.

So here you go, you pull down and back reach, and resist. And down and back reach, we did this setting up. Right? So we prepare for this work. Now back you stay triceps. You go for 3.

You reach back 2. And you reach back 1, length and length, and chest forward, lift. Find this one over here. And now slowly home. Out to the side, and you go. Open and out from the letter t.

Reach, reach, reach, you can release the straps a little bit if you want, and one more. Reach back. And out. Very good. Now handles in one hand.

We step off, and we go to horseback. So I'm adding one spring. Total of two springs. We do have our usual back stroke, and we're gonna play with this combination of back stroke and teaser. To really find our backstroke every time we come up for teaser.

So we separate the handles back. Hand foot, hand foot, and you go lying down. Now from here, up, open, and scope, hold, hold, hold, band in. And now up Open. Come up a little more. Now here, keep your legs there. Roll down. Find the navel on the box.

Retreat. Reach. And in, again, up, open, scoop, retreat, reach, enable on the box, and bend in. Let's do one more up and scoop, roll back to the navel. The legs stay and come in. Now pull back a little. Your teaser up.

Drop one spring, and you're ready for the full teaser. So now instead of jumping up, I want us to go very slow. So from here, tensioning the straps, head comes up and feet float up Now reach that backstroke position. And we might not be able to come up all the way, but from here, we try. You scoop. You scoop.

You scoop. You scoop. You scoop. And then down slowly. Find your backstroke again. And release.

Again, tension, head and feet, scoop, Find your backstroke. Scoop up, up, up. Now a little harder. Roll down to backstroke. Scope up to teaser, reach down to back stroke, and up to teaser, reach, reach, reach, reach, one more, down back stroke, scoop reach, up, up, up, up, up, keep reaching forward. Down slowly. Slowly slowly.

And release. Very good. We do one more. From here, tensioning the straps, forward, scoop, and reach. And again, backstroke, and scoop teaser, and down back stroke, scoop teaser reach free neck down. And lift lift lift and everything down.

Now handles on one hand step off. And we also are going to do a little bit of a preparation for breaststrokes breaststroke. We're not gonna arch up, but we work the arms the proper way. So we're gonna start understanding how we need to stretch forward and work the muscles. So from here, I separate the handles, and I pull pull Get the front of the box, and then you light them. Now I want you to start with the handles low.

From this position, you can keep your legs bent or straight, and you go stretch. And when stretch, bend, stretch, bend. Now higher up at the shoulders. You go. Reach.

Bend it's harder. So if this is too much, go back to the lower level. Good. Now one more. You reach. Open the chest and go back.

Bend your legs. And you straddle the box for horseback. Now the first horseback over here is with leg span. So you can put the top of the foot or the toes, and you're gonna hug the box exactly like how you hug the large barrel when you do the barrel. So from here, skip, and you go reach up, down, lift, down, re, re, tree, and down release.

Now we can repeat this progression, or we can extend the legs. Hug flex your feet. And now from here, point and lift and reach and reach and release. And why not? We didn't do drawings. So we are also going to face back, and this is actually a no respect that I really love.

It's really nice. It's almost easier to lift, But then if you don't keep the control, you're gonna fall in the well. Right? So go slowly with this one. You go open the legs, You're holding both handles, and you go scoot back, open the arms, Press use your inner thighs, pull the navel back, slowly reach, reach, reach, scope the carriage goes back, and your release. Let's do one more time. Go, scoop back, open, and lift, reach back, reach out, scope, enable back, back, back, back, back, and release. Beautiful. Now let's go and rest the handles.

And now we come to a part of this reformer, which is actually a very, very, useful modification for clients starting with the Pilates. I don't know you, but I have a lot of clients that in the beginning have a are very fearful of arching all the way down. Right? Sometimes they're not even ready, but even when they are ready, that idea of releasing shoulders and head below level is really scary at times. And when you do the short box with the long box instead, it's really nice and easy to get into that phase. So for this short box, you can put 2. Sometimes I even put more Springs, right, when I don't want them to move the carriage away and I want to help the carriage to be stable, why not? You can put even 4 springs and it's fine.

And from here, I'm gonna go and grab the strap, and I sit exactly like what I usually do, But the nice thing, that's why it was a little more, user friendly this short box because their legs are bent. Right? This is a really an in between a short box in between the large barrel and the classical reformer, in the short box position. So from here, you hug the waist, you're going to roll back like we did in the beginning, articulate the spine, you touch, and maybe the first time you come up. Right? And, again, you roll back. And if they want, they can also go and open the arms back. They're very supported.

The only thing releasing back, at least for me, is the head. Of course, if they're taller, they might have also part of the shoulders releasing. And that's your judgment that will allow that or not. And you open back and then come up and roll up. Now let's go into the neck pull position. You lift toe and keeping the spine in the straighter position possible.

You go lean back and come up. And you go and you tilt back and up. And again, lift, retreat, reach, and left. Now let's grab one wrist, you lift, and your side bend the opposite way, and center. And you go reach, sideband, and center. Lift tall, reach, reach, reach, and back home left, retreat, retreat, and release.

Back to the neck pull, you press the head back, you grow tall, you go exhale twist, and how diagonal and come up other side left to his exhale. You go reach and up. Let's do one more. Up, twist, lengthen, lengthen, and lift. And again, up, twist, reach, reach, reach, and up, and release. And now comes the tree.

For the tree, we stay where we are. We pick up one leg. You might need to push the footing the strap forward a little bit and focus on the spine. Stay as tall as you as you came as you stretch your leg up. Good. Now you woke up. You can give a little flex in point.

And now from here, you lift so much that you go forward. Now shift back. The leg is vertical. Open the lumbar spine. Stretch your arms and open the lower back.

Scoop come up with a head to the knee and then roll up all the way. Again, left, go over, shift back. So find the stretch by lengthening the arms first. Now this time, you can also walk down if you want. Open back. And then head comes up, walk up, find the top of the head to the knee, and then you come up and lift, lift, lift, If you can, you do a full flex.

And now very nice in this position, we can get to the glute stretch. Right? So from here, Don't round and sink over. I want you to lift and lean forward with a straight spine. And reach, reach, reach, and then release it back. Now we switch. We repeat everything on the other side. So two trees From here, you lift tall.

You limber 2 and 3. You can go some flex and point. You go up and you go over. Now bring the tree back, bring the leg perpendicular, lengthen the arms, find the opening, find the stretch, and now curl back, top of the head to the knee, and you come up all the way to lift. This is the best stretch you can get in the tree. And again, you go over shift back. The leg is vertical. Now you lengthen the arms first, and then you walk down if you want.

You open and stretch, head up, curl, come up, and lift, toe. You flex, you grab, you pull, you grow tall, and then you bend into the glute max stretch, the figure 4, you lengthen up the spine, and you reach forward. Beautiful. Now we can release back We can step down. You can release the strap.

And, now we do hamstrings curls. So we keep the two springs. If you were on two springs, And we go for a part, not everything, but a part of that second long box. So here, we can lace it, dropping the handle outside the strap, but like the shore spine position. And then from here, we put one foot, the one closer to you, I mean, of the on the frame closer to you, the other one.

And then here, you open the knees, you flip the feet, and you're ready to go. If you have another way to get on, that's absolutely fine. Any way that it's good for you to get into this hamstring stretch position. Hug the front edge of the box. Now before you pull, lift up your knees, activate your hamstrings, and then you go. Bend.

We do 5. 2, 3, 4, and 5. Now drop 1 spring. We do 3 with a single leg. So with the right, you go pull and lengthen.

2 lengthen. 1, and now we switch The left, you lift your knee and you go pull, you go 2, and 3. Now we did many swans before, right? You lift, lift, lift, you release, you drop down, And now from this position, you go grab the ankles, open the chest reach. If you want, you can rock a little bit. And then from here, you reach long for swimming, and you go up, up, up, up, up, up, fast, arms, and legs at the same time.

And release. Now if you want, you can also come forward a little bit, and we do a little bit of grasshopper, basically, or swan dive. So from here, it's an easy way to get in there. I want you to move the box usually we try not to move. This time, we do move it.

So from here, you lift up, you dive forward, and you push back. And then you go reach, reach, reach, and you go push. And again, reach, reach, reach, Last one push and release. And you can come up and you go kneeling on the box to compensate and make sure you protect your lumbar spine and you counter stretch right away. Perfect.

Now from here, we're gonna finish with some side stretch and shoulder stretch. So you bring the bar up, and I'm gonna sit facing you first, and we do some mermaids over here. Okay? So it's very nice and easy. There is not too much stretch, but you can find little opening and side bodywork. So one hand need to get it all closer. One end on the bar and you go.

You push. You come up. And now you switch, you go on the box and you sideband the other way. And again, up, you go and reach and come up and side stretch. And again, lift This time, you go maximum, and you go lift, push, lift, push. You work with the muscles underneath. Right?

You pull in. You push out, out, out. You can face the bar stretch. Bend and extend, go back to the slide, and all the way up. And now facing the other way, So you turn around, we start towards the bar, side band, reach up and you go counter stretch to the other side. And again, lift, long stretch, long arm, push away, come up and sideband opposite. Now this one is the last one.

You go reach, you go pull in and out, work from here, pull in and out, pull in, outreach, turn towards the bar, and you go band to and 3 sideband one last time and slowly come up. And now we did work a lot on the shoulders. So I like this, little stretch because it's a little bit like a reverse push through. Without that big extension of the reverse push through. So put the hands on the bar and using your pelvis and your abs, you scoop the carriage away.

You soften your knees, and you get to a little stretch of the long head of the bicep, and you come up. And, again, you sculp, retreat, reach, reach, and you come up. And, of course, you're gonna push out as far as your shoulders. Need range of motion for the stretching. And, again, you scoop. You reach.

Reach. Reach. And this time you come up, and you lift and release. Wonderful. So you see how versatile is the long bar. Right? We did work for about 40 minutes with, just the long box.

And, I hope it was helpful to get some, again, progressions and some, ways to challenge your practice according to where you are today.