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Hi. I’m Jamie. Welcome to this strong and athletic workout. I’m just telling you that now, Angel. Angel’s gonna join us as the student, kindly offering to work out with us here as we do a strong athletic workout, that would also take an advantage of opportunities to stretch and maybe some moments where we get to turn up the heat as well. So ready to begin? Okay. Let’s go.
So we’ll start standing. I want you to fold your arms like a genie, lower yourself gently down onto the reformer and then onto your back ready for footwork. So heels together toes apart. Arms pressing down. We’ll just take a moment just to connect with our powerhouse here.
And then once we feel settled, ready in our body, we begin just by pressing out and back. And the abs are drawn in and up, and we’re using the whole body to stretch all the way out. Let’s go one more. Bring it all the way in. I want you to lift both your legs up together.
Place your feet onto their arches and wrap your toes like a bird on a perch, and we’re gonna press out again the same. So we’re pressing out with the abdominals and draw him back in the seat involved as well to bring the carriage all the way home. That’s it. That’s great. Keep working. Couple more.
And then bring the carriage all the way home. Same thing. Floke the legs up onto the heels. Pull your toes back and pressing out and back. Very nice. I’m gonna stand here. I’m gonna stop your toes from touching my thighs.
You gotta pull them back as you bring the carriage in. That’s it. That’s it. That’s great work. Abs in and up pressing out, reaching out, and then seat draws the carriage back in. Let’s do a couple more here. And then bring it all the way home back onto your toes for tendon stretch.
So press the carriage all the way out. Whole body engages. We lower the heels through the gap and give you a little stretch here. And then press, lift in nice and tall. And, again, lower, lower, lower, and lift, lift, lift. So it’s not a moment to switch off and let the buddy just relax into this.
The whole body engaged all the time. So it lengthening in a way impressing our heels through in opposition. Let’s see if we got 2 more of these. We’re finished with a nice stretch here. Separate your heels a little. I’m just giving you a little stretch here.
This can feel really nice. Just to stretch out the back of the legs, and then bend your knees and carefully bring the carriage home. Use your feet to lower the footbar down. And we’re ready for the 100. Everybody’s favorite moment.
So reach up. Take your handles. We’re gonna start nice and connected, strong in the powerhouse. So elbows in, bring the chin to chest nose to navel, and then whatever your point of challenge feels like for your 100 to press your arms long, and we start pumping nice and strong. Very nice. Reaching long into the handles and breathing wide through the ribs.
So really open up the lungs. Good vigorous pumps. It’s looking great. Let’s hit eyes on the naval. Now I’m gonna encourage you just to lengthen your legs away for the last few.
Press your heels together. Length them. Reach into the handles. Let’s do 2 more breaths. Big inhale.
And then fossil the air out. We’ve got one more of those to do. That’s looking great. And then breathe all the way out. Bring the knees in.
Bring the arms up to the ceiling. Very nice. Okay. Handles into one hand. You’re gonna sit up to that side. Okay. Reach down take off one spring and lower onto your back again.
And let’s lower the headrest down for short spine. So Before going into short spine, let’s just put the handles onto the pegs. I’ll give you a hand here because it’s small pegs. There we go. Take hold of the back of the shoulder blocks. Your legs are gonna stay bent, but bring the heels up.
And we’ll just do a little work here to prepare for a short spine. I want you just to scoop your abs and just curl your knees in towards you and just feel a stretch and then lower back down with control. We’ll do a couple more of those. So abs deep using your arms as well. That’s absolutely fine. The whole body all the time. Remember, so one more time.
And then come down. Very nice. Now stay at tabletop. Put your hands onto the tops of your knees. So your arms are gonna stay straight. We’ll do a little isometric connection as well for that.
So back of your shoulder is gonna press down into the mat, and I want you to press your knees into your hands, your hands into your knees, and just take a moment just to breathe and hold. And it doesn’t look like much, but this is going directly into your core. Your abs are gonna be working strong here, and it’s a great way to connect deeply with our abdominals and prepare us for our hips going overhead. You can feel that. Right? Yeah. That’s it. You’re not just making a face as though it’s, like, really tough.
You’re really doing the work. Great work. So just relax, breathe, take your handles, and we’ll prepare for short span. Alright. See if you can get your feet into the loops without the carriage moving. And this is a great challenge for any of your students here. So, you know, lift your seat up. Feet go in. That’s beautifully done.
That’s really nice. Arms by your side, Benjanes, bring your feet down to the start position. So by doing that, we’re showing control and showing that we’re ready to take our hips up overhead. Alright. So short spine off you go. We’re gonna reach and frog the legs out, lifting up, Scooping your abs, bend your knees to the shoulder blocks, and then lower your seat slightly down until you find this diamond shape, and then hold that strong core, bring the heels down with you. Great.
And again, repeat out. Up and over. Lots of seat. Now as your knees come down this time, see if we can pull the navel in and keep the seat up. Even as the knees come down, that’s it. And then curling down through the spine. Very nice. Drag your heels towards your seat.
So we want that back body engagement as well. We want the glutes working as well as all of the core. The powerhouse is all active. Here we go. Heels to seat. Press out.
Up and over big reach. Now reach. Reach. Reach. Bend your knees down to the shoulder box. Gonna leave the heels here for this last one. Lower your spine down.
Get a hamstring stretch. Wow. That’s fantastic. And then bring your heels with your powerhouse into your seat. Okay. So this last one that we’re gonna do, we’re gonna come into coordination. So we’re gonna transition through this.
This is a nice challenge for you as well. Press your legs out. We go up and over. Bend your knees down, and then you’re gonna take hold of your handles right here and see if you can. Let me help you get to them because they’ve hidden themselves up a little higher.
See if you can slip your feet out, bring your elbows in by your ribs as you slip your feet out. Beautiful done. Thank you. Alright. So from here, coordination. So we’re gonna build this up in stages. So start chin to chest nose to navel for me.
I want you to reach your arms and legs long. We’ll just start here. And then bend just your knees in. Bend your elbows. Lower your head down if that feels okay for you next.
Let’s do that one more time. So chin’s chest, reach arms, and legs long. Press it out. Bend the knees in. Now reach with the arms, bring the nose the knees, see if you can get a little closer and then lower in your head down just for a beat. Okay. We’re gonna do 3 more.
And this time, you’re gonna keep your head up throughout. So let’s reach arms and legs long. Press it away. Press the arms down for me into the mat. All the way down. Now bend just the knees.
Keep the arms long. Keep the arms long as you put your nose on your knees. That’s it. Then bend the elbows. Let’s do two more. Pressing out and bend.
Very nice. One more time. Press reach long, reach long, reach long, scoop your abs, you bend your knees in, see if you can get your nose all the way up on your knees, and then bend your elbows, lower your head. You feel that. It gets pretty intense. Right? Yeah. Okay. So handles into one hand. We’re moving on to an exercise called biceps, which is gonna take place of our usual rowing.
So I want you to tease her up, spin all the way around, legs through the gap. And then reach down behind you and take off 1 of the springs. Alright. So what we find when you think of something like Rowan, there’s a lot going on in that exercise. So this this gets to a lot of those points that were fined in the Rowan exercise.
But simplified it as just simply biceps. It’s just like one of my favorite exercises. So I want you to reach your arms out a lot. Scoop your abs deep and just initially keep your arms straight as you curl back a little ways, feel that core connection, and then bring yourself back up to sit nice and tall. Oh, beautifully done. Really nice articulation back.
So once again, abs lead as we go back, toes reaching long away from you. So you get the yaw position all the way back up nice and tall. Let’s do that one more time and stay back this time. So scoop your abs hold here with straight arms, see if you can just lift them a little higher. Yeah. There you go. And then bend bicep curl.
Straight in your arms, sit yourself out. How’s that feel? It’s tough. Right? It’s tough. Alright. Let’s go again. So scoop your abs around back. The arms lift and then curl.
Lovely. Sit up nice and tall lift up. Tall. This time, let’s go back and do 3 bicep curls all in 1. So we go back. Arms left, and then 3 bicep curls. You gotta smile at the same time for the advanced version. That’s it. One more.
And then sit yourself up. Nice and tall. Okay. From here, just bring your arms down by your side for triceps. This one, we’re lengthening, lifting the spine nice and tall, and just very simply pressing back into the springs and then bring the carriage back home. And again, pressing back, and it gives us an opportunity to work with us students to have them broaden in the collar bones and really lengthening up through their spine.
This is this is like a really good example of it. Beautiful posture. Good work. And on this last one, just for fun, let’s press them back and give 5 pulses back there. There we go. And then bring your arms forward.
Very nicely done. Put the handles onto the pegs. I want you to spin around, and we’ll do hug a tree. So sit in cross leg. Take hold of your handles again.
And this is a moment where you might wanna work differently depending on your student. So I’m gonna have Angel here grab and grip around the the handles, but you might want long fingers for some of your students. It all depends how they wanna graph those handles and how it applies to the the size or movement that they do outside of the studio. So elbow is nice and wide, and let’s bring your elbows a little higher than the fist. That’s it. And just hug that in.
Hug it in and then bring that back. Very nice. And again, abs deep. We’ll do a couple more of these. And then one more, and I want you to hold with those knuckles together. So really draw them together.
That’s what we’re looking for. I want you to push into my hand here and push into my hand with your back here and feel the intensity keep that intensity as we do one more repetition pressing out and then press it in. Take a big breath in into the back ribs and then relax the arms down. Beautiful done. Well done. Alright. Handles onto the pegs.
And it’s time for the long box. Awesome. So if you step off and get the box and we go to one spring. And I tell you what, if we put the pad on, bring the foot bar up, and we’ll do a little swam prep. So with control onto your tummy with your head at the spring and Alright. So it’s not heavy springs for this. This is more about how long can you make your body and sustain in that body position, and you’ll see how we’re gonna challenge that a little more in a moment.
So elbows nice and wide for me. Just press out and back a couple of times and just feel that. Draw that back in. Press your heels together. That’s it. So you’ve got the back chain connection as well. We’ll do one more.
And now reach your right arm out to the side. Hold it there as you come in and out. We’ll do a couple of these. You can, of course, use as many reps as you feel fit and try and keep your hips nice and even into the box. Keep it stable. Let’s change hands.
Reaching out with the other. Reach out. Reach long through your fingers. That’s it. Nice and strong abs in and up. See on one more to do. Bring it in. And then both hands to the barless, press all the way out.
Lift our head, chest, and shoulders, swung in, lifting up. Keep those arms as straight as you can. That’s it. And then press all the way back out again. Let’s repeat that. Length in and up.
Lift the eyes up the wall, and then lengthen it as we press away. Do two more for me. Lift and lengthen. Encourage you to bring these heels together if you can. Press it up. Last one.
Lifting up. Broad in your collarbone. Smile with your collar bones and then lengthen all the way in Benger elbows come all the way in, lower the foot bar. Excellent. Alright. Stepping off to the side and we’re step back on.
Still on one spring. Ready for our pulling straps. So grab the handles. I want you to choke up on the straps, keep the handles in your hand as well. So it we can put the hand through the handle. You can let them hang if you don’t mind a bit of noise.
But for this one, we’re working grip strength as well, which is a nice little bonus addition to the exercise. That’s already tough as it is. Okay. So thinking long here. So long through the back of your neck, long through the legs, strong straight arms, and impressing back with your arms reach and lift head, chest, shoulders, lengthen stay lifted as your arms return, and then lengthen your body back down. And, again, pressing back, lengthen and lift, big inhale at the top, and then lengthen as we return.
Let’s go a couple more. That’s it. Very nice. So keep the abs lifting. Keep the glutes engaged as well, and that’s gonna help take any of the energy out of the lower back. Let’s go one more time.
Reach in length, lifting back. Give you a little pull here. And then we’re lengthened and return. Ready for pulling straps too. So take your arms wide, slide down the straps a little.
That’s it. Same thing here. A long, strong body. Press the arms to the small of your back, and then up and over with the arms reaching wide. Very nice. And again, lengthen as you press back. And again, don’t even have to lift off so high off the box. You even think more length here, more open in the shoulders. That’s it. Out to the sides.
Do two more for me. One more time. It’s a tough one, this, and then we’re gonna keep the handles in one hand as we step off to the side. Okay. So from here, I want you to to step onto the box. We’re gonna add a spring.
So if you can put an extra spring on for me for backstroke. So we got a couple of ways of going on for this one. So this is one we’re gonna try. It’s holding. You’re gonna step as far forward as you can. Place your seat on the front of the box and then swing onto your back. And we’re gonna boil up nice and tight, knuckles together.
So we’ve got this really nice, like, smaller space, smaller shape that we’re gonna spanned out or so. It allows us to connect with our powerhouse nice and deeply. So for this one, instead of doing the full choreography, I want you just to press straight down the middle straight out leg straight reach, bring the hands together here, and just press here. That’s it. And then bend it back in again. Let’s go again. So press in now. Press press press, deepen here, and then bring that back in one more time.
Press it out. And then bring that all the way back in. Alright. Great. Now you can let those handles just drop into the well behind you. Yeah. That one done. We’re gonna sit up a stride of the box.
So bring your seat back a little bit. They’re a little horseback prep or spine stretch forward even. A little bit of both. So come back a little further. So we got a little more room there.
If you wanna move the the pad, you can do if it’s too much. So just place one hand in front of the other and just press them down for the moment. So initially, we’re gonna keep your seat down. I want you to press your toes away, navel draws back, and then just round your back. So we got this great back in energy here, drawing backwards, and then energy out both the feet and the top of the head and relax.
Nice. Now let’s try that the same, but this time with the arms reaching forward. So round in the back, keep the seat down, and it’s like just a spine stretch forward, very similar to how we would do it on the mat. Very nice and relaxed. And then if you feel so inclined or you’re feeling brave, let’s see if we can do the same and lift the seat up. So reach the arms.
That’s it. Press your feet forward. Press your feet forward. Lovely. Really nice. A great hug of the box with her thighs and then lowering down. Fantastic. Step off. Take that moment for respite as we turn the box around for short box.
Okay. Right. I think what we’ll do is we’re gonna pop the box, actually, over the blocks for you. And then have you sit on. We’re not using the bar for this variation. So sitting on there. So I’m gonna give some assistance to put the feet into the strap.
And the reason we’ve put the box back a little further is just to give a little additional support of your lower back. So I want you to move back another, like, quarter of an inch if you can. That’s spot on. And then lots of pressure out into the strap, and then of course toes pulling back. So take your hands behind the back of your head for me, bring your elbows forward. So this version is we’re gonna find that c curve that we just worked on in that spine stretch forward horseback.
And, we’re gonna carry that through this exercise. So you’re gonna come back, scoop in your abs, and then curl in as you come forward as well. And again, let’s repeat that. Go back to whatever range of movement you feel available, I want you to press your heels into my fingertips here. Press and keep pressing as you come up.
Very nice. Let’s do 2 more of those. So press, press, press, press, press, press, press me away. Press me away. And then curling up one more time. Let’s round back now.
Going back. I want you to come up just 1 inch. Go back. Come up 2 inches. Go back one more time and then all the way up. I’m not gonna put you through absolute hell.
That’s great. Excellent work, sitting up tall, elbows wide now. So we’re not using the bar that allows us to still get the lift. And in a moment, you’ll see how that helps us stretch. So same connection through the heels, lift up tall, through your seat, and flat back when you hinge back. And then lift up nice and tall, lift, lift, lift, head on the ceiling.
And again, and lift, beautiful. Good. Keep that energy through your heels up and back, and then lift to return. So two more. And lift. Last one. And lift. Okay.
We’re gonna go side to side here. So slight hinge forward. And with the elbows up like that, it really allows if we go to me first, as we stretch over, it just gives an additional stretch into the ribs, I find, especially if they anchor down really well, and then up through the center into the other side, anchoring strong down through the opposite hip. Let’s go one more in each direction and lift and stretch and lift. Very nice. And now rotate.
We’re gonna put twist Left in tall. Twist to the other side. You got it. Now sit tall through the center. Take a big inhale. I want you to exhale as you twist and hold. Now take an inhale here in the twist, And as you exhale, see if you can push that twist just a little further, lovely inhale all the way back through center.
And again, so exhale twist, inhale long, exhale push that twist just a little more, inhale all the way to center. Fantastic. Twist and reach. So keep your elbows where they are. Let’s scoop the abs, twisting back. Look to your back elbow, and then all the way up, center, and change. And up. Let’s go one more each side.
Press 3 heels. Very nice. Last one. Keep those hips anchored down into the box. Fantastic. Well done. Alright. Climate tree time.
So some for some people that’s yay. And for others, not so much, but I think this is gonna be great. So for me, I want you to drive your arm under your thigh all the way. That’s it. Make a fist and grab your wrist. That’s it. Now we’re gonna lift the spine up straighten and bend your leg three times.
Don’t let this collapses want height more than I want a straight leg. I want a strong, straight spine, and then walk your hands to your ankle. Elbows nice and wide. Good, strong flex of your foot. And then scoop your abs round over. No. No. Not create space between your abs and your thigh.
So pull your navel back to here. There we go. And then we’re gonna rock that shape back. Are we good? Yeah. We got that tension in the strap now. I want you to climb down your leg, climbing down.
And then let’s come all the way back up. Fantastic. Lovely. Take a stretch at the top. Not all of your students are gonna be as beautifully flexible as Haynesville here. That’s fantastic.
Let’s go down again. Let’s see if we can add some challenge for her. So as you come up now, I want you to keep this leg perfectly at 12 o’clock. So this is gonna really encourage the abs to fire. Yeah. That’s it.
That’s it. Fantastic. Make a stretch. We do one more of these. It’s rounding back. And that’s it. Take a moment. Just a stretch, and then chin to chest come up in the reverse order that we went down.
Take a stretch at the top. Now what I’m gonna have you do is bend your knee lean forward just a little and put your hands over your toes. So grip both your toes. And I want that slight hinge forward and then straighten your leg out from here. So rather than knee to nose, it’s gonna be knee towards shin.
That’s wonderful. Good. Okay. Let’s, change legs. That was beautifully done. Alright. So drive your arm under.
Take your wrist. So this is actually I mean, for for Angel, this is easier, right, because she she is flexible, but for a lot of our students, what this actually does, it really primes up the hamstring so that when they walk their hands towards the ankle, it it will give a lot more. It’s like a little tricking the body into giving a little bit more length. So that’s why we’re gonna press that in, lift the spine tall as we straighten the leg. There we go. So it’s less about the leg being straight and more about the spine being long. And then let’s walk your hands to your ankle, elbows wide, good deep abs scoop.
So we’re gonna rock back just once, and then climbing down all the way down. It’s got to do all the same on the other side. Make sure we’re nice and balanced and even through our body as it deep dives lifting back up and then assist with the stretch at the top. I’m envious of your flexibility, and it’s fantastic. And then we’re going back.
That’s it deep of dominoes to climb back up the tree. So you’re climbing with the abs, not with the arms. We’ve got one more to do. That’s it. Use those abs. That’s it. Deep deep, deep, lovely.
Really nice work there. Good. And then bend your knee, take your hands over your toes, slight hinge forward, and then lengthen the leg out, and they take their nose towards the ankle rather than the knee. So we end up with a longer spine. Alright. Keep your foot in the strap. We’re gonna do side sit ups. Yeah. So find whatever position on the box works for you. We’re always encouraged.
This top leg wants to be straight and strong and pressing forward. So give me a little more push into that strap if it’s not too tough on the feet. And then as your foot is where it is there, which is great, I think we’ll challenge it more and bring the foot behind the back of the the actual leg. So come a little lower than the knee. Otherwise, you’re just gonna push your knee and bend it. That looks great. So we got a good strong connection there and that should feel really stable. Let’s do 5.
For whatever range you have, best you’ve got, think long and strong here. That’s it. I’m gonna anchor down, press through this leg as well. That’s it. We got 2 more to do, and then you get all the wonderful stretches that follow. That’s it.
Nice. And then rotate. Take the frame. Stretch that off. I’m gonna come around and give her an assist with this stretch. And then the rules with coming up, you have to come up with control.
So I’m gonna encourage you to put your hands behind the back of your head. Come all the way up. Fantastic. Alright. You ready for the other side? That’s good. I like this.
This has just reduced the amount of, support we have. So with the knee out, you got more support. And in this position, it challenges a little further. I did say I’d sneak in a few challenges. So there we go. Alright. So down and up, I think, long through your body.
So it’s kinda not really too dissimilar to mat work where we’re doing maybe leg kick, forward, and back or sideline series where we’re looking for length through the body, and that’s what this top leg represents. Good. And then take your stretches. Well done. I’m just stood here talking. You’re just doing all the work, and then come all the way back up with control beautifully done.
Alright. Ready for long stretch. So what we’re gonna have you do is step off the reformer, and we’ll start like this. I want you to pick up the pad, pick up the footbar, and then pick the the box up, and that’s all in in this order. We put that towards the end, and then the pad will go on the headrest, and the headrest comes halfway up. Great work. So to go on, just to make sure that’s nice and secure. Good.
So just to keep it simple, both hands on the foot bar. And then when you step your feet straight onto the pad, wanna see if you can keep the carriage nice and closed and quiet to see if we can go on with control. Oh my word. That was so good. That was so good. Really beautifully done.
So from here, it’s about how long we make the body. So pressing out press the carriage out, and then lengthen to bring the carriage home. Those deep abs working great. And again, let’s press it out. Pull it home. Let’s see if we can get a little bit of, more back body connection.
So squeeze your seat, squeeze your heels together. Nice. 2 more. And on this last one, if you’re up for it. Let’s throw a push up in. Just one push up. Here we go. Like, a little dummy push up. Beautiful. Really nice. And then from here to down stretch feet to the shoulder blocks.
And he’s down, press your hips forward, lift your heart, and then just pressing back just a little ways and then lifting up tall. So this is a moment to open up the body and just feel that stretch through the front of the body, but maintaining your core connection, your powerhouse. Let’s go one more. And then into up stretch. Okay. So nice lift ribs in and up a little more.
There we go. We’re gonna press back. Lower your hips down. Draw the carriage all the way in again. That’s it. Nice. Rounding up, pressing out. And as the carriage comes in, keep pressing back through your heels.
So that’s the secret. So even though you’re pulling the carriage home, You’re actually resisting it and pushing it away, and it actually makes it feel a little easier. And then draw that back in. Let’s see if we’ve got 2 more of these. Sick keeping in the powerhouse.
Watch for those shoulders taken over. There we go. There we go. Push the carriage back. Lovely elephant time. So bring your heels down.
Round your back and have you come a little further forward over the foot bar here. So I want this disc to lift up there. So let’s press back and then scoop your abs, lift it back in. Let’s come out of the shoulders a little more. There we go. And lift. Beautiful.
Bring it in. Nice. We’ll bring the head down just a little more. And lift, we got 2 more. And then let’s do stalk. Bring your right knee to your nose.
Hug that in nice and tight and see if we can repeat the same movement from the hips rather than your shoulders. That’s it. Bringing it in. Abs working really strong for this one. One more and then change legs. It’s a simple exercise or it’s in the intro order, but it’s a really great way to reconnect with our powerhouse and work deep from our abs.
Nicely done. Alright. I’m gonna step down then. Fantastic. And we’re ready for long back stretch. So from here, we’ll leave everything as is, and we’ll just start by bringing bringing yourself up to sit on the foot bar.
And bring your feet, your heels against the shoulder blocks. So before we go up and put you up on your arms and hang you out there while I talk, which is often something that I do. I’m not gonna do that to you. For this one, we’re gonna keep it fairly simple. We’re gonna press out and we’re gonna bring it home without even the the arm movements initially. So just press it out, bring it home, see if you can do that with just the straight arms and see how that feels for you.
So good energy through your heels again. So it’s repeating that short box round back position and then pull that back in. Very nice. Open in the shoulders a little more. Lovely. Give me a little more glutes. Let’s get this heel to press in here.
There we go. Let’s go one more. So one more presses out. Lovely. Now draw that back in hold 3 dips, tricep dips, and then see if you can step off without putting your feet down on the car as you step straight to the floor. Let’s standing up beautifully done.
Nice transition. Great work. That’s a tough one. Well done. Okay. So moving on from here, we go to stomach massage. So I want you to bring the the pad forward to the front of the reformer, and let’s add one spring.
And then sit onto the pad. Feet swing up onto the foot bar. Hands to the front of the carriage now. Nice round back. We’re rediscovering that c curve, connection to our abdominals, elbows wide. Let’s press it out.
Lower your heels. Lift your heels. Bring it home. That’s it. Good connection. And the energy here wants to be, and it seems strange to say it, but the abs are pushing the carriage out or pulling the carriage out.
Even though the legs are doing that work, it’s that abdominal connection that’s gonna keep you planted downward into the carriage. Rather than just pushing straight back, and that’s when you feel the back of your your pants get pulled and all that, and we slide up the carriage. So this way, good ab connection, a good downward force is what’s pushing that carriage out. Let’s do one more of these. And then reach your hands back to the shoulder blocks. We’ll stay on the 3 springs, lifting toll through your spine, pressing out, lower lift, and home.
And again, press out, lower lift, and I want you to bring it all the way in, bring it in, bring it in. There we go. There we go. That’s nice lifting tool. Eyes can look up the wall on the other side. Closing the carriage fully if you can.
It’s gonna help with your hip flexion. Let’s go one more and then reach down take off 1 spring. Hands reach in front. So lift all here. Big, long spine pressing out and back, and then coming in touch your fingertips to my hands. Come on. Come on.
Come on. Come on there. I’m pressing out again. That’s it. Reach. Reach. Reach. Reach. We missed it. We gotta do an extra one. Go one more. And then let’s add the twist as we twist out, twist, press into my hand.
That’s it. And again, press good. Nice length. Let’s go one more each way. Lovely. Last one. And then monkey stretch, hands on the foot bar, and just take a stretch here. And for you, because you have that beautiful flexibility, let’s press your heels through the gap as well and get an additional stretch.
Alright. Benjonese, come all the way in, and we’re stepping off to the side. Okay. So we’re gonna do semi circle here, but we’re gonna lower the foot bar down for this. We’ll put the pad onto the floor. Alright. Onto your back. That’s it. Lovely swing onto your back.
Your feet prepared, heels together, toes apart, hands onto the, shoulder blocks, and press yourself out as you lift your hips up. Nice. Now good, strong, push as we lower the back. Down into the springs, dust the springs with your seat, pressing out, come out, and then lifting up. That’s it. Bringing that in. And again, lowering down.
All the way down. Keep the carriage still if you can press out. That’s fine enough. And then lift, bring it home one more time, lowering down. Press it out, out, out, out there.
Good lift, you know. You’re gonna bring it all the way in and reverse. Going out. Lower. Keep the carriage pressing away. Bring the hips back in. Reach.
And again, pressing out. Very nice. Keep your seat engaged. One more to do. Good, strong push from your arms all the way through to your toes. Bring it all the way in and let you slide a little bit on the carriage.
Grab the back to your heels if you can, and we’ll just take a stretch here. You can push your hips up a little higher. You need no assistance in that stretch at all. It’s wonderful. Alright. And then grab hold of your shoulder blocks, pull yourself all the way back on, and just hug your knees into your body for a moment.
Take a moment just to reset and just get a little decompress there. Very nice. Alright. And step off to the side for chest expansion. So we will stay on the two springs, kneeling facing into the the well. Hook your toes over the end of the carriage. Now Let’s take the handles to begin with.
So arms nice and straight. Now this is, important because it’s very easy for your student to end up down in the well. So making sure they’re nicely connected from the reformer up. So Good connection with your powerhouse, lots of seat, inner thighs, nice and strong, and the movement has to be smooth to prevent that. So just pressing your arms back, taking in, how look to the one side, look to the other, and center and bring the arms forward. Let’s repeat that lengthening up. Once again, just broadening the collar bones and I smile with the collar bones. Reaching forward.
We’re on two sprints. And forward. Should we do one more? Feels good. Right? That’s nice and strong, but also there’s real nice mobility through the neck. Okay. Add a spring for me. Bring your knees forward.
Now we’re gonna take hold of the straps for this 1 and you put your hands through. That’s it. Lovely. Now, this one, once again, it’s like taking that beautiful strong powerhouse connection and putting it into motion now. So from here, let’s begin with the same movement of pulling the arms towards the the hips and then hinge him back at the knees and then lots of seat, lots of abs as we lift up nice and tall. Very nice. Let’s go again. Alright. So hinge him back.
And then lift into. Okay. So noticing just a little bit of pull through the arms, which is a lot of people will do that. Let’s see if we can take that out by adding one thing here. So as you hinge back, let’s take that back lead with the seats a little more lift your arms forward and then lift up tall through your spine. Nicely done. Let’s go one more time. Just one more rep of that.
Hinge him back. Feel the stretch. Lift the arms. Link them through the top of your head. Good job. Alright. Okay. Let’s put the handles onto the pegs.
Turn around for nearly in arms, and we’ll go down to just one spring. So for kneeling arms, we’ll keep it simple. We won’t add the circles, but once again, reminding your students here if if you’re teaching or if you’re doing this yourself, just be careful. We’re on just one spring now. It’s very loose carriage.
So powerhouse connection, really strong stable base. Lift your seat up with your arms as we serve the arms forwards and up and then bring them back down. And when you press in those hands, you can keep your seat lifted. Once you’re up, staying up, and then just the arms up and down. Fantastic. Press. Press. Press.
Keep those handles as horizontal as you can. You even wanna dare a little higher. We can go a little higher. We got this. Yes. Look at that. Drive it from here.
Real big lift. And then one for luck. So it was nice to get a bonus wrap in. Here we go. Lift, lift, lift, lift, and lower all the way back to your seat. Well done. So we can drop the handles onto the pegs again.
Step off to the sides. And we’ll set the extenders up so that we’re ready for some exercises ahead. So here, we’re looping the strap and the handle together and putting the extender on. So the idea of this being is it basically just matches where the handle was anyway. If you look at the length, we’ve now got a a a a leg strap that that should be somewhere around the length of the handle.
And that makes it nice and easy instead of having to put your feet into the handles. Alright. So we’re out of spring and then lower on to your back for frogs and leg circles. So nice exercises. Challenge enough, though, but a great way to add some mobility as well. So without the carriage moving again, Let’s see if we can get your feet into the straps. That one’s twisted there.
I’ll just help out there. Beautiful done. And then bring the heels down. And we’ll start with frogs. So start by just frogging out and back. So this movement will feel fairly easy after all of that hard work that we’ve done, but don’t throw any of the movement away.
I wanna encourage everybody who’s working out with us to make sure you stay connected. Good powerhouse connection. And then the legs are reaching long as the upper body stays strong and quiet down into the mat. Let’s keep reaching. I’m gonna encourage you to reach a little lower as well, see if you can challenge the powerhouse a little more here.
So the lower we go, the more the challenge increases with with the powerhouse. I want you to do 2 more. Reach it long. Now reach all the way out. Stay out here. We’ll begin with leg circles, make them really small, small and low. So even lower, if you can, even lower. There to go lower.
That’s it. And by going lower, Angel’s gonna feel that a lot more in the glutes, right? And the beauty of that is that now when we start to allow her to go nice and big, you can go as big as you want now. The control is there. We’re switched on. We’re ready to go.
That’s it. Press your shoulders down. Press your arms down. So there’s no moment for a true respite employees. We’re working all the time. Let’s do one more, and then we’ll reverse the circles back the other way.
Yeah. Keep them big. We’re going big now, but we’re staying connected. Let’s get those those, ribs knitting together. Let’s go one more. And then it’s an opportunity for you to take a stretch here. So take your legs wide.
Press your hands into the insides of the straps. You can just push these straps out. That’s it. So you’re in control of your stretch. You can take that as much or as little as you want. And then bring the legs up a little.
I want you to bend your right knee and put your right foot on that floor on the outside of the reformer. And then the left leg can stretch out as well. So you’re in control here. You get a nice, sour stretch, which is an area where we do tend to get tight if we run or spend a lot of time standing even just as pilates instructors. I don’t even need to be holding this, do I? It’s amazing. Alright. We’re gonna change sides.
Let’s bend this one. But you’re still getting a stretch there. Right? Yeah. So this stretch is great. And if you feel it’s like too much for you, because someone like myself, I’m a lot tighter. I might even rest my foot either on a box or on the side of the reformer until I really feel comfortable going into that solar stretch, but it is a really nice stretch. And with your hands, on the straps, you’re in control of the stretch. So it won’t get away from you.
You can always assist your legs coming back in to the center. How’s that feel? You’re ready to rock on for the rest of the workout. We can’t stay here all day. Right? Let’s bring them back through the center and take your feet carefully out the straps. I want you to drop them into the well, and then lower the headrest down. That’s it. You got it.
You got it. Now hold the back of the shoulder blocks. Legg straight up to the ceiling for corkscrew. So from here, press your thighs together, glute connection. We go to one side down around and stop at the center. We’re reversed. Come back the other way for the first one. And then if you feel you want to, let’s turn it up. Let’s go down at that’s it around and lift and then returning back down, down, down, the other side.
And again, down, around, and lift, and then resist me as I press down, resist, resist, resist, good, and again. So I’m giving some not too much, but a little downward force so that she has to resist as I lower down. We go one more. Lift, press the heels together. That’s it. Resist as we come down.
And then Keep your legs where they are. We go to tick tucks, take them to one side, look to the other side. That’s it. And you got control with your arms, come through the center, to the other side, back through the center. Let’s go one more each way. And keep your shoulders nicely anchored into the mat.
And then take a moment just to bend your knees in. That’s it. Great. We’re gonna step off to the side. For knee stretches. Woo hoo. Everyone’s favorite. Right? So let’s bring the foot bar up, kneeling on the carriage.
We’re still on two springs. We’ll begin just do a little cat and cows. We take a moment just to tune into our spine where it is within space. Find find those positions. Feel how that is.
Ride ride the wave of your spine a little bit so we feel nicely, mobilized. And then we’re ready to move. So let’s round our back, reconnect with the powerhouse, and let’s press it out. Pull it home. Press it out. Pull it home.
And I wanna encourage you to go a little further out. Press it out. That’s it. Explore the range of movement that we have. And you’ll notice she’s keeping her upper body nice and quiet, which is great. Nice and strong and stabilized and the lower body doing the work.
So we can speed the in up to bring in and bring it in and in 2 more and then arch your back looking up. Let’s see if we got 10 of these. Same thing. Press out. Pull it home. Press it a little further each time if you can.
Try and explore that space that lies out behind you. That’s it. And home all the way in. All the way in. You got it. And 3 and 2 and one. Nicely done. Round your back for knees off.
Off we go. See if we can get 5 of these for me. Nicely done. Come all the way down. Okay. Take a moment. And when you just rest your elbows on top of the foot bar, put your hands together in prayer position, and just take your seat back and allow your head just to fall through. So we get a little shoulder stretch in there as well, taking advantage of the body position, on the reformer and exploring that space. Very nice.
Alright. You come. Ready for running. Well, the running’s great. Everyone likes running. So everyone looks forward to this.
We’re gonna do our running and pelvic lift. On two springs. So onto your back again I’m gonna lift your head rest up. Sorry. Over there. And then just press out and stay out there.
That’s it. And off you go. So the thing we’ve run-in is It’s really important. When we’re doing it with less springs, it forces us to use our powerhouse a little more rather than just letting the spring stretches. And then therefore, our student doesn’t just switch shaft because often this becomes a throwaway exercise where it’s like, people start talking in the group class or what have you. This keeps it focused, keeps the work happening from the the powerhouse. Let’s do a couple more.
Nicely done. And then bend your knees come all the way in for pelvet lifts. So feet wide on your arches. I want you to keep the carriage in as we draw just the pelvis up. Let’s go up a little higher, a little a little higher, a little bit more for me. Perfect. Let’s press it all the way out and then draw all the way back home. And where once again, we’ve only got two springs.
That’s gonna make the work on the in extra hard. So She’s really working hard with her glutes, hamstrings to close the caries. Let’s see if we can press a little further out. That’s it. And then bring that back in. We got 3 more to do.
And on this last one, bring it in, keep it in, keep it closed, keep it still as you lower down, down, down, down, and then lift the hips up again. No carriage movement. If your carriage moves, you’ve gotta do it again. And then we lower down with control one more time. Really nice. Really good back body work here.
And then lower down with control. Fantastic. Okay. Let’s step off for some stretches now. We’ll start with side splits. So if you lower the footbar down for me, pack goes on, and we go to one spring for this. So with this exercise, if you need to hold a pole for balance, then do so.
But remember, we’re on one spring, so it’s gonna be a moving carriage. It’s gonna be a little bit, shaky at the start. So everything, cautiously, careful, safety first. You know? Alright. So I’m gonna stand here and just secure it, but if you step up, you can just have your arms as as you need them. And then one foot comes onto the frame, heel toe onto the pad. Lovely. Now, arms nice and wide. Fantastic.
So we’re reaching up. We’re reaching down, and we’re reaching out. Let’s press the carriage out to 3 and hold to 3, draw it in, 2, 3, and hold to 3. Out, we go hold. Drawer it in and hold one more time. Here we go. Press it out.
Hold it out. Draw it in. Zipping up and hold 2, 3. We’re gonna turn around very carefully. So step the foot in Step onto the carriage, turn around very carefully, and then it’s all the same, stepping on, heel toe out, ready to do the same on the other side. Alright. So once again, keeping the carriage closed is a challenge.
So I want you to press out and hold. Zip up and in 2, 3, and hold 2, 3, and out, and hold. Draw it in all the way and hold one more time. Pressing out. And hold. That’s it.
And I draw it all the way in. Thighs together. Lift all. Fantastic. And then very carefully step both feet together and carefully down onto the floor. Nicely done. Alright.
We’ll bring the foot bar up ready for our splits and lunges. We’ll put two springs on, and the pad is gonna go on to the headrest. Okay. So actually, yeah, that’s it. And then I will have you put two hands on and just step onto the the carriage for now. Bring your right foot between your hands, heel to back with the back foot, and that sits here and keep the carriage still in quiet as we do. That’s the challenge. And then your heel’s gonna drop nicely into the the groove here.
Bring it back a little further if you can. Bring that heel back. You can hop a little if you need to. It’s a real challenge. I really do believe in that, though, because I really feel that if we’re working that and we keep the carriage still, The heel toe part is designed to loosen up your hips already. So we’re already working mobility before we’ve even started the exercise.
So stay nice and round here, look down. Your body, see your knees, see your ankle nicely aligned. We can turn this foot out just a little more. That’s it. And then press the carriage out. Press it out. And then draw it all the way back in. Let’s see if we can just square these hips.
And again, press it out. Draw it in. We’ll do a couple more. Pressing this hit down and forward a little more. One more time. And then lower your back knee to the carriage.
Heel goes higher on the shoulder block. Stay nice and round again. We’ll do the same thing. We’re pressing back and then draw the carriage back home. And again, pressing it back.
Draw in at home. So keep this hip pushing forward legs going straight before the front leg straightens, and then draw that back in. One more. One more for me. That was really nice. Bringing that in. And then what I want you to do is lift your head, shoulders, pelvis forward.
Keep your hands on the on the bar for the moment. Just three little pulses back with the carriage. That’s it. And then bring it in. Left arm’s gonna reach forwards and upwards.
Now the right arm’s gonna join it. Lift that right arm up, and we’re gonna stretch and lift. Look behind you if you want. Go to wherever you can, which for you will be way further than me. That is fantastic.
Hands to the foot bar. Now, right foot steps down. Left foot steps between the hands. So bring your right foot to the front. Left foot straight onto the foot bar. He’ll tow back. And it’s all that same same kind of joy.
Here we go. Yeah. You can get away with a little hop there. That’s it. Good. Alright. Stay nice and round. We’re gonna press back.
Pressing out through the back heel. Outside blade of the foot. I want you to draw this hip back towards me a little more. There we go. That’s it. Let me do one more press this hit back first. There we go.
And then lower your back knee down. Alright. Same thing. Slightly different position as we press back and draw the carriage back home I want you to focus on this leg going straight to before this one presses out. That’s it. So just changing the energy into the into the stretch.
And again, press in back. Draw your left hip down. There we go. Bringing it home one more time. That’s it. Press your hip forward as you come in.
Lift your heart nice and tall. That’s it. 3 little pulses. Just pulse your hip back. It deepens the stretch. It’s really nice feeling.
Prepares us for the next stage, which is right arm lifts up and back. Lovely. Left arm comes forward, and that was gonna look to those hands, arch and backwards. And then hands to the footbar step down onto the floor. Stand nice and tall and present to the judges. Fantastic. And you are done. Excellent.
Thank you.
