Short Box on Barrels

Hi, my name is Dana Santi and today we are going to play with the ladder barrel and the spine correcter. I am lucky enough to be joined by the ever-so-lovely Kathi Ross-Nash, and this came about... because sometimes in some studios the tendency is to go to the ladder barrel and do the swan and then walk away, or maybe you did the swan and the horseback with the clients and you walked away. And sometimes, it's worth going there for the swan and hanging out there for a little bit, have a little fun and then go back to your long box or wherever it is that you are in the room. So, with that being said, I'm going to do the exercises on the ladder barrel and Kathi's going to do them on the spine corrector.

So, let's start with the swan. And, I'm going to bend my knees. Now, with the swan here I'm going to ask that you put your feet really wide, OK? And you take your big toe, and you try to wrap it under the bar, and your little toe and you try to wrap it over the bar, OK? You have to go back to the monkey.

And from here... arms reach long, and we inhale, and reach it out, still trying to wrap the toes around the bar, straight legs. Reach it out, and come home. And one more time, and up and stretch, and reach it out and up, and reach, and home. And from here, let's go into your horseback.

So, we are going to mount our horses. I'm going to take my elbows in, she's going to keep her hands down, and we're both going to use the inner thighs and up, hold it, hold it, hold it, and come back home. And again, and up, hold it, hold it, hold it, and come home, and one more time. And lift it up, hold it, hold it, hold it, and come back home. And I'm going to swing around.

We're going to go into your short box. OK, so feet are hooked in. We're going to come down a little bit, I'm going to come down a little bit lower. Hands, and we're both going to roll back. And chin in, and roll back up.

And again, roll back, and stretch. And chin in, and up, and one more. Roll back, and come back up. From here, place the hands behind your head, and now from here, we're going to go straight back, and come back up. And again, straight back, and come back up.

And again, straight back, and come back up. Reach the arms up, and stretch over. Reach long, and come back home. And again; and as you reach, think more of a line, you will eventually round, but reach everything away from you, and come home. And one more, reach, and come back home.

Hands go back behind again, and now from here we're going to twist and reach out. Come back up, and center, and twist, and reach, up, and center, and twist, and reach, and up, and center, one more, twist, and reach, up, and center. Now, into our tree. So, grabbing underneath, extend the leg, and release, two, and three. Walking up, and now drop the head down, take it back, and walk down and away.

Go down to wherever you want to. And then come back up; walk right up the leg, and again, walking down, reach, stretch, and... walking up, top of the head towards the knee. And one more time, walking down, stretch, and walk back up, top of the head to the knee. And switch, grabbing underneath, and extend the leg, and bend, and two, and bend, and three.

Walking up, and drop the head down. Take it back, and walk down and away, and chin in, walk back up, top of the head to the knee. And back down. And come back up, and stretch. One more time.

And stretch. And top of the head to the knee, hold it, hold it, hold it, and release. All right, now we're going to go into a side stretch. So I'm going to take my legs and separate them, OK? Hands behind the head.

Pressing the head into the hands, the hands into the head, nice and strong, and now reach, and roll down that side body, and then come back up. Think of using your back muscles to take you down and your obliques to bring you back up. And again, and reach, lengthen long, come back up, and we will switch sides. (humming) OK, nice strong arms, and reach, lengthen way out, and come back up, peel it away, and again. The back takes you down, and get those obliques to widen and help you up.

And again, down. And come back up, and home. Now, let's make them more exciting. And I'm going to rise up, keeping the legs parallel, OK, trying hard to keep them from wanting to rotate, OK? It's tricky, but we will give it a whirl.

And strong arms, going down, and come back up. And again, and down, and up. One more, Kathi, this is a long way down. (Kathi laughs) And up. It always is.

Switch. Or actually, sometimes it's not. Sometimes, it is not a long way down. And... Up, and again.

And up, and one more. And up, and release. Now, we're going to have a little fun, and we are going to do the stomach series. This is very good for balance, and when you're a teacher working by yourself, there is a lot of tactile information going on on this thing. Take the right knee into the chest, now from here, we're going to make those obliques, again, reach them wide, OK, by hitting into those, that automatically gets your ribs in, OK?

So, right knee in, and pull-pull-switch. Pull-pull. Two-two. Pull-pull. Three-three.

Stretch-stretch. Four-four. Stretch-stretch. Five-five. Pull it in.

Six-six. And bend both knees in, reach arm and legs up and away, hold it, and exhale, pull it in. And inhale, reach, hold it, and exhale, in. Again, reach, and pull it in, and inhale, reach, and pull it in, and inhale, reach, and pull it in, one more, reach, and pull it in. Right leg comes up, reach it before you pull, and stretch-stretch, switch, stretch-stretch.

Two-two. Stretch-stretch. Obliques are reaching wide, stretch-stretch, stretch-stretch, stretch-stretch, stretch-stretch, stretch-stretch. Hands behind your head, and lower the legs, and lift. And two.

And lift. And three. And lift. Four. And lift.

One more. And lift. Criss-cross, hold it. And switch. And switch.

Switch. And release. Sit yourself up. Spine stretch forward. OK, let's reach your arms long in front.

And inhale with the breath, and exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale, and roll it up, find the tailbone, and again, inhale. And exhale, exhale, exhale, and roll it up. And inhale, and exhale, exhale, exhale, and roll it up, and home. OK, coming off, and we're going to go into our backwards stretch. And so from here, we reach back (ladder barrel creaks) Ooh, creaky barrel! Stretch, stretch, stretch, loosen it up; Romana used to say, "Teachers should do this every day after they're done teaching." And she is right.

And now, from here I'm going to take the legs and circle them, and one, two, the same direction, three, reverse, one, two, three, reverse, one, two, three, and reverse. Two, three, and then come back. I'm going to walk up. Stretch through, round, round, round. And from here, let's have a little fun and go into a jackknife.

So, rolling back, strong arms. (ladder barrel creaks) And from here, legs go over and up, lift, lift, lift, lengthen, and roll it down, and home. And let's flip over and do the grasshopper. OK, nice and strong wherever you are, pull the stomach in, and now from here lifting up, and bend, and stretch, beat-beat-beat-beat-beat-beat-beat. Trying really hard to keep the knees together, beat-beat-beat-beat-beat-beat-beat.

One more, bend, stretch, beat-beat-beat-beat-beat-beat-beat. Now, from here let's go into our handstand because that is fun and clients love to do it, and I think, with the appropriate teaching, more of them should, OK? That being said, you and I are going to enjoy our ride. (Kathi laughs) Going over, OK, hike yourself up, one leg, the other leg, hold it. And one leg comes down, the other leg.

I am going to walk myself back up again. Rolling up, Nadia Comaneci, and we are done. (clapping)