4 Point Breaststroke to Arms Flow

Rock yourself up, and we're gonna do our first spring change. Come to a light spring and take your foot bar down. So I'm gonna use a yellow on this machine. We're gonna go into an all fours breast stroke. So the feet are gonna go together on your headrest. Pick up one loop and find yourself onto your hands and knees.

The hand, with the loop is right at your shoulder. Pelvis is neutral. Option to extend the opposite leg straight out in a straight line. Let's build this. So we're pressing the arm up over the head, and we're bringing it in. Let's move on. Press the arm up over the head.

Stay here. Create a circle. Reach that arm far away from you. And all the way back behind you, bend your elbow, come back to your shoulder just like breaststroke. Press the arm up over the head. Circle the arm. The arm reaches all the way back behind you and back to the shoulder.

Option to add extension. We would extend here as the arm goes over the head. Maintain that extension as you circle the arm back. Keep lifting, lifting, lifting, come back to neutral as the hand comes to the shoulder. And, again, extend to lift.

There's energy through that back leg. Circle the arm. Keep taking the heart so far forward. Come back to your shoulder. Lower the back leg. And come all the way up onto your knees.

And you might need to move forward here depending on what tension you want. Hands start at the waist for tray. We're pressing the two arms straight out and slowly in. So we're looking at that alignment, holding the body so still, check-in with where your tail is, and spin your biceps up. Option here to move on to tree hug.

This is considerably harder, and you'll really feel now the work of the core on one side of your body. Those obliques are working so hard to stabilize you. You can also do just a small tree hug to just have a little taste of what that is. Continue like this. Whatever you're doing, and you might still be doing trey.

Last time, that's all joined together here with your arm straight in front of you, the loaded arm bends, and you turn in that direction. Pause here. Check-in with your pelvis. Now we rotate all the way across and all the way back. I've taken my palms up, but do what feels organic for you. Notice the path of this loaded arm has not changed at all. We are rotating around our axis giving equal emphasis to the push and the pulling action.

So think about your body three dimensionally here. Keep getting tall. Integrate your breath, last one here, and have a seat, and let's do all that on the other side. So pick up the other loop, taking the feet back to the headrest, finding yourself on all fours will build it. Thumb to shoulder, pelvis is neutral.

Maybe the opposite leg is reaching out. The arm goes over the head. And it pulls in back over the head, feeling the support of the abdominals into the lower back, moving on, the arm goes up over the head, and now circle the arm, reach it all the way back behind you. And bend the elbow back to the shoulder and, again, push out. It takes a bit to navigate that rope.

I know. Be patient and come back to the shoulder. Maybe this time you add the extension, the heart lifts. We open the arm. The heart keeps going forward and bend the elbow back to the shoulder. You're neutral.

Extend as the arm presses out. Keep pulling the heart forward. Feel like you're moving in space. Back to the shoulder, last one here, lift the chest, open reach wide with that arm, back to the shoulder, back to neutral, back down to two knees, and perhaps you scoot forward here a little bit. Set yourself up for your tray, serve a tray, pressing the arm straight out and in.

One side will typically feel a little bit different than the other. The tail is straight down. The biceps are spinning up. Shoulder blades are always gonna stay on the backside of the body. Option for some of you to go to tree hug.

So the arms will open and the arms will close. And, again, this is considerably harder. So don't you can always start small. That's what I'm trying to say. You can start small with this.

You don't have to go to the full range. In your full range, the hands would never disappear. You would always see your hands and your peripheral vision. Last one, we're gonna come together. Everyone end with your hands in front of you, bend the loaded arm, turn towards it. The other arm reaches forward.

So we go into a push and pull. So we rotate. We push and pull. We rotate, we push, and pull. Palms up feels best to me, but do what works for you. I'm more interested in the rotation of the trunk and you keeping equal emphasis on the push and the pull, the ying and the ying of the action.

Keep getting tall. Always gotta check back in with what happened to that pelvis. Right? And come on in. Put that rope down.