Building Up to Teaser Twist

Hi everyone. It's Benjamin and I'm here with my friend Frank. And we're going to take a look at the teaser twist on the one that chair, which is an exercise that it's fairly complex because it is not as simple back and forth movement that just moves the pedal up and down. But we're moving our body around in a very snake like way. Um, and there are many component pieces to it that I want to show you how to break down by way of doing almost a little bit of a workout, choosing some exercise that actually lead you to better understanding in the teaser twist, which will be the final culmination of this. So we're on a grant's wonder chair here. I currently have it set up with one middle spring and we will start with the twists and reach, which is um, a derivative of what we do on the short box on the reformer.

We'll use the pedal as a way to invite some rotation to our body. And just to make it a little bit simpler to start to ease our way in. I'm going to use a moon box with frank. We can put his feet on top of that. So go ahead and have a seat facing this way away from the pedal and placing your feet on the box. So for right now we'll just focus on the spinal movement, right? The teaser twist begins with a rotation of the spine, so we'll mimic that piece of it. In this exercise, the arms just lift above the head. We left out of the ways the legs are taken care of by the box.

He's going to twist his body to the right and finds the pedal with his right hand. Now what moves the pedal is not so much his body weight leaning back, but his rib cage rotating around, barreling around, and the arm pushing away from his torso. Once he finds a good sustainable place, he can invite some more length into his body and then let the pedal help him come back up to the top until the spring tension subsides. The right arm lifts and we'll do the same on the other side. Left arm finds the pedal as he rotates, left right hip stays nice and heavy. He's going to make his way into that twist, which is very similar to how the pedal will move in out.

Teaser twist later on he finds length down the right side of his body and then it's the left side of the rib cage coming around again. That helps him come back up. You could do the same exercise with both legs extended out in front of you, but it will have some teasers coming up in a second. So we'll leave that one out. You can go ahead and step off to the side and next level will go into the side lift. So for the site lift beginning on the right side, we'll place the hip right in the middle of the chair.

Right hand is going to be on the pedal. So go ahead and take that position. Legs are just extending out, so in one long line. Exactly. Then from here you can eyeball a little bit whether you're actually in the right spot or you want to make sure that your right shoulder can be somewhat close to being above the hand. I almost want you to think of your t pole on the reformer for a second. Like you're pulling the pedal into the chair and getting this side to be a little bit longer. Now the legs reach out in opposition.

The left hip sits on top of the right and the left arm extends up towards the ceiling. You almost want to create the image of having your arms in one long line. So go ahead and lift up through here. Just a little bed since your head out into my hand. Good, beautiful. And that's your start position from here.

He's going to Ben his way up continuously stretching his legs away from the head and opposition, maintaining that one long line along the side and then he takes his way back down by stretching the head away from the feet. We'll do that again lifting up so it's a little side set up if you will, and then he stretches back out one more time like that before we go into the next variation. That's make sure the t pole activation of your right arm stays start to finish. Go ahead and press the pedal back down. We'll add a twist to this. Going back into our theme of rotation, he takes his left hand down to the pedal, twisting towards the ground, separating the hands now because the hips want to tell towards the top of the chair. He uses top leg and reaches a back and by suspending the leg back, energizing it towards the back of the room, his hips stay stack on top of one another. From here, frank, imagine you're pulling your arms back and your chest forward like a t pole and then go ahead and let your eyes lead the way. Find your lift upwards any amount, and then become longer through the back. As the body comes back down.

Do that again. Lifting up to the top leg that continuously reaches back, especially as you make your way back down. You get one more on your own. Lifting the chest forward and up as lead the way. Become longer. As you lower yourself down, bring your legs together, find your right hand in the middle of the pedal to dismount coming all the way up. We'll do the second side. We'll quick as well. So now the left hand is in the middle of the chair, left hand on the pedal and we'll adjust the position from there. So again, thing you draw their shoulder onto the backs of both arms look like they're in one line. You're right, it is on top of the leg, which already probably requires that you have to roll your hip forward a little bit. Your legs are energized away from the head and then we'll go into that lift again out through the head and lengthening to come down because the pedal moves towards the chair. It might feel like it's crunching you into your right side.

So you really want to start this by lengthening out through the crown of the head, lifting up nice and then becoming even longer as the body descends. Final one, lifting up opposite energy through the legs becoming longer. As you come down the right hand moves to the pedal. You separate your hands here, top leg, scissors back. Good. Again, making sure that by reaching the top leg energetically, the hip doesn't fall towards the chair but is stacked on top from here.

Any amount. Chest leads the way he lifts himself up, pushes the pedal away from him to come back down. You want to think of your chest expansion here, the arms pole towards the chair so that the chest has space to lift forward and up, and then with control coming back down. So the ringing action will need four tees of twist in a little bit. It's already happening here. One more time. Lifting up and lengthening down. Find your left hand into the middle of the pedal and dismount.

We'll do one more thing before taking a to the t's. A choice which is our seated side stretch, which is also often called the mermaid. Starting on the right siding, and you're going to face this direction, have a seat with your knee all the way against the edge so you're pretty far back on the chair. That way your legs have a nice amount of support to start and perhaps on this one you could place the box underneath your feet. Again, but on this one, let's try to extend the legs out in front of the body. Take both arms up by your ears. Find that lift out of the ways. The right hand moves to the pedal.

The left hand becomes heavier as the body stretches up and over to the right. So we need a spine bending sideways that moves the spring more than the arm pushing down or your body weight being displaced. Rebuild your spine. Coming back up. Let's do one more on this side. Keep firing your legs forward away from the hips up and over. One more time. You push the pedal away from you on the way down.

You pull it towards you as you restack your body all the way up, both arms lift and then you can make your way around to the other side just for good measure. We'll do both again. The farther you sit forward, the less support you will have for your legs, the heavier they might be. So as we're preparing for teaser twist, it can be nice for yourself here and sit a little farther back. Arms lift straight up to the ceiling. Grow Taller, up and out of the ways. Left-Hand finds the pedal, right? It becomes heavier and then he pushes the pedal away from him as the body Ben Sideways and down. Pull the pedal towards you.

Restack your vertebrae on top of one another. Let's do one more. Go Up to goal over again. This is something that will be part of your tease or twist, which is next. Good. And then rebuild your spine back up. Get really long through your left side here.

Let your arm pick up as a result of that and then relax completely. So next time we're going to combine all of those exercises and all of those little patterns that we worked on and put them together in the teaser twist exercise. So here we are finally ready for our teaser twist. I think one thing that makes this exercise seem complicated is the fact that you are starting in a different place than where you end up. And it seems hard to figure out where to position yourself in order to complete the movement fully without falling of the apparatus. So if we are moving onto the right side and your right hand will be on the pedal, you actually want to distance yourself as far away from that as possible and start as close to the left corner as possible.

So frank is sitting right at the top left corner of the chair facing away from the pedal. His right foot crossed in front of the left cause that's the side he's rolling towards. And then from here, first up is finding our teaser. He brings his knees into his chest. He lifts his arms and his legs away from the body keeping the legs crust the right hand now finds the pedal while the legs and the left arm are still reaching. From here, the actual teaser twist is a rolling action. The left hip lifts up and on top of the right for him to displace way down into the pedal until you arrived in this full rotation and extension.

The left hip now pulled itself back down towards the chair. The bottom leg lifts up against the top leg so that he finds his teaser again and we'll then we'll start the same thing one more time. So the right hand again finds the pedal. Once it does, it's the left hand lifting on top of the right that actually puts all that weight into the pedal. Now in this position to stay here for a second, notice how you're back in this idea of that twist and extension that you found in your side. Lift with a twist, the left hip, the left hip crease, I think of a karate job pulling that hip down so that he can basically unravel himself back into his teaser. We'll do the other side next. We'll take a break when Judy's back in and let's move over to the other side. So reminder, going to the left. That means yours far right as possible.

Front right corner of the chair. This time the left leg is hook over. I'll explain why on this set. It's the leg that's in front that actually helps you in that final moment to push the opposite leg back. To find that extension. You almost want to think of a swan dive turned on to the side. So from here, go ahead and find your teaser again and he's come to the chest, arms and legs stretch out the left hand finds the pedal, the right hip lifts on top of the left to move the body over to the side. So think again the leg that has crossed in front. So here on this side, it's his left leg is now actively pushing against the other leg to help him extend the hips. And then on the way up, it's actually the bottom leg supporting the top leg. Lift both arms up. Sorry, I'm in your way there. And we'll do one more left hand comes to the peddle.

Roll from the hip, unfold the body into that full extension, pressing the legs back behind you. There's a nice backbend happening here. And then the right hip comes down, right leg supports the left all the way up into his teaser or twist and then fully recover from there. Nicely done. That is your teaser twist on the wonder chair.