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Chapter 1
Mat Section
Hello. I’m Sally, and welcome to my rejuvenating mat and reformer class. So this is set up to be done as whole session using the mat first and then the reformer, but also put into chapters so that you could do either the mat or either the reformers. So please yourself, do all or one or both at any time. And, hopefully, you’ll feel rejuvenated from this. It comes from the reach, calm and centered programs.
So drawing on the concepts and strategies that we use within the calm and centered program, which is all aimed at reducing stress and anxiety. So something really essential for modern day use. And through movement, we can get a fantastic response physiologically, mentally, emotionally, from integrating breath with good movement and tailoring the kind of movement that we do in Pilates. We’ve got the perfect tools. And if you can do this a few times a week, hopefully you’ll find that It does reduce your stress, your anxiety, gives you some skills to be able to work on those things and, again, feel rejuvenated.
So we’ll start with the mat work. I have Andrew joining me here today, and we’re going to start on the mat seated. So let’s find that position. So sitting cross legged on the mat, Take a nice, easy cross legged position if it feels better for you to sit in a zed sit or maybe up on a prop or a little pillow to give you a little bit of leeway in your backup, then please go ahead and do so now. We’re starting with the calm breathing as we move.
So my calm breathing is 5 seconds breathing in, hold for 2 seconds, 5 seconds breathing out, hold for 2 seconds. So we’ll do 5 repetitions of this and just start sitting with fingertips grazing the floor. We’re going to draw a big circle starting to the back. So we’re inhaling for 5, 4, 3, to one, hold, hold, and forward, exhaling, 3, 21, hold, hold, and inhale circle around. Andrew’s going to keep circling, as I just talk you through that 5 second circle to the back, holding that position for 2 seconds, and a 5 second deep exhale as you circle to the front, holding there for 2 and, again, inhale all the way. 2, 3, 4, 5 lengthen as you hold that breath, deep exhale.
2, 3 round the back. And my head might be up because I’m just wanting to talk you through, and we’re going inhale, but keep your head following the spine as you go forward. And you’ve got a lovely example from Andrew here holding to, and then circle with a deep x, how rounding the spine, allowing the head to follow the spine, fingertips forward, holding for 2 counts, And then one last set, if I have counted correctly, and holding for 2 seconds, get that length as you’re there. Deepx hell on our last circle around 5 seconds, count it any way you like, but I count 1 elephant, 2 elephant, and then bring all that back to the side finger are going to be lined up beside your body. Again, you should feel a little taller starting to move. We’re going to the left with a rotation using a flowing breath. So we’ll inhale and rotate to the left fingertips are gonna go with the body, try and take your rotation around, and exhale come back to center.
So the flowing breath is just the in health, full length of the movement, exhale. Full length of the movement. We’ve got 2 more each side, breathing in, grow taller, taller, taller, go a little further, and exhale let all the air go empty your lungs. I like it to last the in how lasts the duration of any movement, ex how lasts the duration of the movement so that we don’t lose at all at the beginning or gain at all just at the beginning, but it lasts exhale center. We have one more to the right in how growing taller letting the breath still come in. And exhale. Back to the side fingertips are still down.
Place the right hand down onto the floor or the fingertips with a little more and the left hand is coming into a side reach. In how going over, you can just bend into the bottom arm, take the lift of the ribs, exhale bring that back. Fingertips down. Right, arm, up and over in how think of lifting the right side ribs all the way up, exhale back down. 2 more in hell over. So it’s all about that breath fitting to the movement, exhale down.
Up and over reach the fingertips, stay seated evenly on both, sitting bones, if you can. But if one tends to come up a little, That’s all part of progressing the movement. And back one more, up and over, And exhaled back. Excellent. We’re going to sit with our feet right at the end of the mat now. So turn around and you’re going to take your magic circle nearby so that we can use it in a moment.
Starting with 3 rollbacks, reach the arms forward, take that nice lift on an inhale, exhale scoop the abdominals just troll gravity rolling back rounding the back till you get to the low back stay breathe in. Now exhale for the duration of the movement curling you back up to shoulders over hips in how stacked the spine, 2 more. And make it about the breath, just air hail the length of that movement till you get to the low back, breathing in, holding the abs there, exhale scoop them back through shoulders over hips, inhale stack the spine. Last one, exhale curled down, and this time, just exhale to the low back position pause, breathe in, now go down onto the mat, exhale, and roll. So you can bring your feet in a tiny bit, but keep a more open knee joint.
We’re taking our magic circle and popping it in between our needs. So just shuffle it in where it’s comfortable. So make sure that it’s in a position that you can maintain feet are parallel, just hit with the part, and we’re just squeezing to begin with. So x, how squeeze the knees together, think about rotating the sides in slightly as you go in hell open the mouth. 3 more. Now keep the glutes, but cheeks relaxed just rotate the thighs in and then open.
Now focus on the breathing. Exhale. Draw together rotating in even movement, even breath. Inhale open, one more. Now we’re adding a chest lift to the movement.
So eggs, how squeeze the circle chest lift just reach the arms to about mid thigh? And then back down on the inhale. Exhale squeeze and lift. Inhale return 2 more. I think of drawing the abs in without tucking the pelvis, I wanna keep a long, easy pelvis.
Last one, And now the fun begins. We’re rolling all the way up. So start with the squeeze chests lift, continue through. If you need hands on your thighs, pop them on the thighs, and come up to sit and keeping that circle in. Then at the top inhale, just let the circle go.
And then exhale squeeze again as you roll back down controlling gravity rounding the back when you get down, the pelvis just lays easy knees open. And again, squeeze chest lift, roll curling through inhale stack the spine, open the knees, and exhale squeeze uncurled down, and you’ve only got 2 to go. Open the knees at the bottom. Exhale. Circle curl. We could all do with a little with their hands from time to time, open the knees, exhale roll.
Open the circle. Last one, squeeze and curl. Trying to round the back as much as you can. Keep the breath flowing, inhale, and squeeze scoop, exhale all the way down. Good. Alright.
Take the circle out, pop it beside the mat, and we’re bringing the heels in a little closer for some bridging. So make sure those feet are lined up. If you bring the feet together, then just open the toes, open the heels, we’re in a nice parallel position. I’ll have 5 pelvic curls or 5 bridging, please breathe into the pelvis to begin. Breathe out send the tailbone up between the size and roll, the knees over toes.
I want you to draw the body towards the feet, breathing in at the top, shoulders connected to the mat, and exhale uncurl back down. Stay for inhale and think of spreading the sitting bones as you inhale, exhale scoop and curl as you roll up, send the knees over the toes, get that real draw down towards the feet as you inhale, exhale uncurled down. We’ve got 3 more deep inhale. Spread the sitting bones. Exhale, draw the abdominals in, tailbone up first, and rolled.
Now find that strong shoulder support position, knees over toes, uncurl back down. And two more. Scoop to roll. Now I want you to think about spreading your toes, pressing the toe joints into the mat as you stand on them. And uncurled down, let the shoulders kind of go and move the pelvis towards your heels. One more.
Rolling through sending knees over the toes and let the shoulders go, try not to push them down too hard. And, curl just control gravity taking it to the floor and rest. We’re taking that circle again, stretching the left leg out along the mat. We’re going to put the right ball of the foot into the pad of the magic circle and take a little hamstring stretch. So they should have worked nicely in that bridging as you pull the pelvis over the feet should give you nice hamstring hip extension activation and give them a bit of work.
So here, just allow the elbows to drop, allow the circle to pull the foot towards you, but then send ahead of the thigh bone down into the mat. So stay for another breath, breathing in, and out. Good. Now on the inhale, we’re going to bend the knee. On the exhale, send the heel higher to the ceiling. 3 more. Bend the knee.
Heal up. Inhale. Exhale 1 more. Good. Alright. Release that foot.
Take it down. Change sides. So around the ball of foot where the toe joints are, take 3 breaths just to allow that to stretch to begin with. So the underneath leg keep it long, but try not to grip it. Just allow that to be soft and lengthened along the mat. Think about the breathing more so. And then we go into our bend and stretch, breathing in, exhale, send the heel up.
In and out. Good one more, and you can make sure the line up of that foot is as positive as you can get it. Pause there. Take the circle out and lower that leg to the floor. Legs long, we’re turning onto our side.
So we’re going on to our right sides, so maybe that’s a good starting point for everybody, right side, down, left side up, take the feet forward of the body. So I want the legs to be able to balance you a little. And then the top hand will be up on the ribs. I want the thumb wrapped around. So this is a position that I’ve learned from the incredible Deborah lesson, and it’s her breathing.
So I want this kind of lung breathing in how to send that hand up to the ceiling, and exhale let that soften. And the first couple may feel like not much movement, but that’s why we’re here in how trying to move that hand up. Exhale at the air go. So it’s really trying to move the ribs, expand the lung on that side, Get some active work into that side of the body and into the lung. And exhale, I’ll have one more.
And Let that breath go. Good. Now bring the legs back in line with the body so that we have to work on that whole alignment through the body top arm is reaching overhead towards the so, well, parallel to the underneath arm. That’s our best cue there. Now flex the feet long away from you and pick the legs up off the floor. So to start with, just hold that balance.
And I’d like you to let go of your glutes or ripping around the sacrum, let the tailbone be long and then lift the top leg just off the bottom leg. Now the top arm top leg will reach away, and you’re going to stretch that side right down through the top side of the body. And then just allow it to settle there. We’ve got 3 more. Reach further away, the heel and the fingertips in opposite directions, and you’re just balancing on the underneath side.
It’s harder than it looks, or it should be harder than it looks. But if it’s easy for you, then I love that. 1 more, reach it away, and pause. Good. Just lower the legs down. We’re going to turn over and do that all on the other side. So just swing the legs around.
I’ll do a little setup to get there. Andrew will be on to his left side straight away because he’s fast like that, and start with laying out the legs forward. So we’re balancing the body for the first position with the legs forward, hand up onto the ribs, thumb to the back, just cup your ribs and start with the breathing inhale, try and push the upper hand away, exhale, let that go. 3 more. And, x, how does everything soften into the mat?
It’s the real force, the inhale. Open up that those lungs, exhale down, particularly this top side, Think of the lobes of the lungs separating. It’s in the image you can use to try and get more room into the lung, and one more. And let that go. Excellent. Bring the legs back in line with the body.
Find your balance. Take the top arm overhead. If you feel like the hips dropping back, just think about that hip bone coming forward a little to keep you in position and then lift the legs off the floor, flex the feet, then the top leg lifts ever so slightly, and we reach. In health, take the ribs further away from the pelvis and settle that there. So don’t think about coming back to where you came from, think about getting long reach time.
2 more. In how reach, long stay balancing, and let it just settle where it is, and one more. I promise you’ll be 2 inches taller when you finish. And settle. Good. And then lower the legs, lower the arm, and turn onto your tummy.
So starting here, again, another little sneaky drawdown from Ms. Deborah Lesson, who is well worth the time doing her classes. Hands under your forehead, I want a little breastbone breathing to start with. So I might just queue, Andrew. So to start with breastbone breathing, you’re breathing up into the thoracic right around the breastbone. So think about expanding the thorax there on the inhale.
And then exhale let that just drop into the mat. So getting movement in the rib cage thorax again. So forward down, inhale into that area, and, x, I’ll let that go. And I think you can see that on Andreas. You inhale it blows up, exhale it that soften.
So we’re starting to really get that thoracic access as well. One more. Good. Now I want you to have the hands glued to the forehead. As you inhale on your breastbone breathing, We’re going to lift everything. Arms, legs, upper body just off the floor, and then exhale down. 3 more.
In her, yes, Andrew lengthen the legs, lift the head, shoulders, beautiful, and ex, held down, and even not quite so much lift. Think about 1 inch off the mat. That’s enough. Go long, long, long, and eggs held down one more for me, please. Inhale. And hold.
Good. Now Andrew is going to stay with the hands there for a one, I’m going to show you a variation with the magic circle. So choose your poison. This one requires a little bit more shoulder range to make it work. So forward down, you’re aiming to keep the pad top pad of the circle over the bottom pad as you press, and Andrew will show you the head with the arms down. So we’re breast bone breathing inhale to pick up and exhale come down between the arms. 3 more.
So wrap the armpits around if you’re using the circle, press extend. Exhale down. Keeping that flowing, breathing. And exhale one more. And pause. Excellent. Place the circle down if you’ve been using the circle.
And then we’re going into our four point position for cat stretch. So just find a little easy position on hands and knees, Hands under the shoulders, knees under the hips, and then we’re doing 3 little cat stretch just to release the back. So exhale bring the pelvis under. And inhale extend. Let the chest go forward.
Same thing with the breath. It’s length of the movement, exhale your still exhaling as you get to the last of the scoop, still inhaling as you get all the way into extension. One more. And now we’re adding a cat sit. So from the pelvis, Paul, under scoop, Inhale, sit to your heels almost, exhale pull up, inhale, extend 3 more. Learn more scoop and sit scoop up and extend scoop and exhale up.
Extend. Let’s do one more. And around the back. Keep that nice traction of the back as you get back into your sitting position. Extend. Now come back to neutral.
Alright. Simply tuck the toes under here or turn them the other way, and we’re going to sit back on those heels. For a pleasant, perhaps not so pleasant moment or a few breaths, just letting that plant a fascist stretch through the feet. Try over time just to pop the big toe joints down, we’re all feeling it. So stay there. Just take a couple more breaths. I can feel Andrew wanting to move on, and it’s worth it.
It’s really good for you, and then hands onto the mat to sit you back into a little squat. So now you can keep your hands on the mat to balance. That’s absolutely fine or take them off if you prefer to. But think about getting the heels towards the mat so you really don’t have to have them down wherever you are. Just have the weight of the body into your feet. So again, it’s just giving you that kind of bottom of the feet up into the calf stretch and take one more breath there, Alright.
And then you can start with your hands, press the heels into the floor, start to straighten the legs roll up. We’re coming to standing, and that’s the end of the map work section of this MAT reformer rejuvenation session, and we are going to change over our equipment, come back and do a reformer with you. So the reformer will pick up from this matte preparation, or you can do them separately, as I did mention. See you in a minute.
Chapter 2
Reformer Section
Here we are for the reformer chapter of our mat and reformer rejuvenation session.
So just to remind you that there is the matte component first if you wanted to do it first or if you’re joining us here, fantastic. That’s a perfect way to come into it. So I have Andrew demonstrating for me. We’re starting with legged footwork. If you will put your legged footwork springs on We have 3 red, one blue, so three and a half.
So medium to strong setting would be great. And we are working with the Carmen centered strategies and concepts, so incorporating a lot of breathing, and kind of moving through ranges and movement that will help to calm and center the body. Alright. And rejuvenate you. So we’ll start with heels on the bar. I’m in including several pressure points.
So just in the leg and footwork, these pressure points are for you to play with their self care We’re going to do about 4 during the leg and footwork. So the first one, I want you to draw a line from the tops of your ears together on the top of your head, find a little point there and use index finger or index and middle finger just to put a nice firm deep pressure there while we do our heel extensions. So starting with that point, Andrew, just one hair one hand and index finger we might give you. So we’ve gone from the ears right through to that point. So put a little pressure there find an opposing pressure in the heels. And as you move out, we’re breathing into that point.
And exhale empty the lungs. In how think of breathing into the pressure that you’re applying gently, but firmly to your own top of the head. And in hell, I don’t want to disrupt you too much as you focus on that pressure point, focus on your breath, 4, we’ll have 4 more repetitions in how long into the crown top of the head. X. Hello. Just control the reformer back in. Last two.
And pause. Our next pressure point will be between the eyebrows. So from the eyebrows draw that little line in and get right in the middle, 1 or 2 fingers there, firm, but gentle pressure going to your toes on the bar. So same thing here. Find the connection of the balls of the feet to the bar, breathe into your pressure point between the eyebrows.
And then try and make that breath very full. So inhale expand anywhere you can get expansion. Breathe up into between the eyebrows. Good. And just let the body move with it. 3 more repetitions.
One last one. And rest. Now we’re going to v position, so heels connect. Let’s take the other hand, and we’ll place it on the chest between the nipples. So draw your line in, find that point, firm, but deep pressure, Two fingers would be my ideal here.
And as you breathe into the chest, think about expanding. We’ll inhale into the chest, exhale allowed the breath to go. Nothing about our breastbone breathing that we did in the mat and go both directions in the chest as you find that pressure point. So it will still find the breath in to the point of pressure, but I also want you to fill up the back of the body into the carriage. And we have 2 more repetitions breathing in, make the most of it let all the air go.
Don’t forget to exhale all the air as well. Let it all go out. Let’s do one more. And rest. Now we’re turning the feet parallel.
We’re going to go into prances. So this time, I want you to take one hand and hold the other hand in that little valley between thumb and forefinger. Give it nice pressure. It can be tender, so don’t go too hard, go progressively, you can also give it a little bit of a circular motion with that pressure, which can help. So Start by stretching out to straight legs. Good. Allow the elbows to relax down.
Find your pressure point. And we’re going to go into the prances. We’ll do a set of 10 holding this hand. Go at your own pace, just keeping that pressure on. 5, 6, and keep breathing through.
Just let the airflow in and out. Good. When we’ve done Henn, which is their rise up, change hands, find that pressure point, give it a little bit of circle motion, little bit of pressure and go into your next 10 prances. 1. Good. We’ve got our last two one to rise up.
Come back in. Excellent. Nice. And bring your hands down beside you. I want heels out wide for one last set of, leg work here, and I want the legs to be as wide as possible. So leaving the pressure points aside now, but what I would like is that you really breathe down into the pelvis.
So think about sending the breath right down to your sitting bones. They spread as you inhale. So as you’re going out, I want the exhale. So breathe out. Now they’re going to spread as you inhale. Think about widening the pelvis, letting the breath in their exhale.
And let the knees go wide so that you feel like everything broadens opens. Good inhale as you broaden. Exhale, use the legs. Find the power in the legs to press you out, and we’ll do 4 more. Exhale. Inhale wide. Last two. And last one, bring that back to the center. Good.
So now just fold your legs into the center That’s the end of the legged footwork. We’re going to slide up on the shoulder rests to do some hundreds, but you don’t need to change your springs yet. Although you can, because we’re gonna change them at the end of 100. So if it’s easier now, I’m just going to take them off for Andrew. We’re going back to a leg strap work spring, but that’s after these 100.
So then or now, for the 100, I’d like you to be resting, but not resting on the shoulder rests. So you’ll be in a kind of a forced flexed spine there. And when the breath goes in, I want you to be able to round it down into here. We were taking our feet into puppy paws so that thighs are vertical shins are hanging. If that’s strong for you, you can pop them back up on the butt. What I want is a nice slow 100.
So arms, I want them to beat between hips and knees. That’s your beading position there. And we’ll go exhale, 2, 3, 4, 5. Good counting. Inhale, 3, 4, 5. Good. So keep going. And as you’re going, just think about inhaling into the pelvis and into the back filling up that gap between the spine and the bed trying to round the back, trying to get the breath into these low ribs at the back.
With the exhale, as usual, just soften, rectus abdominis allow the abdominals to drop in. So we’re creating that kind of open back, deep front, and you will have low abdominals from that puppy poor position. But this resting here, you can take the weight out of the shoulder rests. As much or as little as you like because what I’m loving and Andrew’s showing beautifully is that lack of tension in the shoulders, heads just following the spine. That’s exactly what I’m after here.
What set are we up to? 8. 8. That’s 2 more sets. So that don’t let the breath get fast or the pace get fast keep. The last one’s nice and slow focusing the breath into the body. Good.
And hold when you’re finished. Good. That’s the last one. Pop the feet up onto the foot bar and slide yourself back down, and now is when we’re going fit into straps. So if you haven’t already changed the springs, I’ve got 2 red, but one and a half to two springs would be ideal. Then we’re putting feet into the straps. 1 at a time is a nice safe way to do it, keeping that leg bent, The other one goes in.
He can do it without me, but I like to have something to do. Good. So we’re doing a combination little frog. So we’re gonna go out open back and in. So all the way around, all the way back, bend it back in. So I’ll have x hell out in hell as far as you can go. X hell back in.
Inhale to bend. Now exhale softens the abs, inhale breathe into the pelvis like we just did with those wide legs, bring it back together, hinge at the hips get that nice deep flexion. 4 more sets all the way around and exhale. Inhale. Now try and keep that little bit of external rotation as you come back together.
So bring it back to heels together toes out, keep them out. Even if you flex the feet a little, inhale let the hips open, abs, exhale back in, 2 more, Apologies if I’ve added 1, but why not? And back. Last one. And draw it back in. So going from this position, now I wanna a short spine preparation. So it’s going straight out in a little frog, bring the legs hinging at the hip.
So you really wanna think about the thigh bones going down till it just starts to pull the pelvis off and then bend the heels through keeping the thighs where they are perfectly demonstrated. Exhale. Think about the major flexion of the hip there. That’s the point that I really want to emphasize as you come in, that it’s not lifting the pelvis, but you send those thigh bones under femurs coming out, then pull from the hamstrings, bring it back through. 2 more, please.
Flex and draw through, and you should get that little roll of the last bit of the pelvis but not a strong rolling into the back, and that’s the final phase of your short spine. So now we’re taking our feet out of the straps one at a time, so we’re back to the foot bar, back to the foot bar, and in and coming up, we’re going into a kneeling position at the front of the carriage. Now Andrew will be fine staying on 2 red springs, But for many of you smaller or if you want it a little bit lighter for arm work, take it down to 1 a half or 1. Kneeling knees right at the very front point of the carriage, sitting back onto your heels. So straight arms here to begin with and line up the spine and press out to a long flat back. So what I’m looking for here is this is lengthened.
So sitting bones are going to the back wall. Head is in line with the spine and we’re down in the shoulders. Okay. Over time, progressing toward the crown of your head goes to the foot butt. You go to your position where your shoulders allow you. So then we’re bending the elbows to come in and bring the head towards the foot bus, staying down, down down, down, and x help bring press backs. So, Andrew, if you wanna come up just a little there, but keep the head in line with the spine, inhale to come in, ex held to press out.
And that’s wrapping the shoulders under. As you come in, allow the elbows to angle down towards the floor or be a little higher if that works in your shoulder range. But what I’m looking for is maintaining that spinal position with the head right on top in line. Shoulders are not overworking to stabilize down. What I want is that sense of just rotating in that joint as you press away and come back in.
So other than that, there’s no great stabilization or it’s not really released just let it move where you should be feeling mostly in the triceps, and we’ll have 3 more. Good. And don’t forget, even though you’re a little rested on the knees, I want the abs supporting the low back while you do this. So that’s your long flat back. Last two. Good.
And then this last one, I want you to stay out. So now this forms the start position for our next exercise a down stretch prep. So think about your down stretch position keeping your hips on your heels. So inhale, bring her down, stretch up, stretch up. Now keep that shape as you press back.
Good. And in how coming up? Nice. So you do have a little extension and the head follows through an extension. That’s still following the spine of the line. And when you come down, try to keep that down stretch extension of the upper back.
Good. We should be getting some nice ab lengthening, but keep that hinge, keep that sit, keep it long, and I’ll have one more, please. Nice big inhale, and exhale let all the air go again. Hold that last one down, bend the arms to come back in, and we are coming up to an elephant position. Good. Alright. So We’re just going to hold the elephant position in a moment, but heels just off the shoulder rest a little for me. Good.
And then I want you to come up and over the arms like cat stretch round back dropping the head. So I want you to think about cat cow here or cat stretch position here, and we’re going to do that movement without moving the bed. So exhale, pelvis comes under abs come up, inhale, going to the extension of your cat. Exhale wrap. And I like to think of the wrap of the cap from the pelvis first, inhale from the upper back first, and you can let the arms rotate out. Drop the head as you round.
Extend the spine as you inhale. Good. Good. We’ll have one more of these. Alright. Now we’re going to add a little movement of the carriage. As you extend, the carriage goes out with the inhale just a little way. As you scoop, carriage comes under heels, under like you would with an elephant. So we’re kind of cat cow elephanting.
And exhale wrap, nice, Angela, the head drop, 4 more inhale bed presses back a little, exhale scoop under. So there’s there’s reasoning and Like, what kind of strategy behind that? Please don’t confuse it with an elephant. I’m not asking you to use your back for elephant generally. We’re doing cat cow with the press of the carriage. So so long as you can keep those ideas separated, you’ve got all these tools, just extra tools to use and round, and that will hold us there. Excellent. Pop your hands down to the toes.
Just allow your head to hang. And with everybody, just let it go side to side like I’m rotating it for you. Just swing that head. Then we’re gonna go from pelvis tucking under to just roll you up to standing and coming off the reformer for me. Alright.
So now we’re going into a kneeling lunge, but I want to take the footbar down one click So we’re going to lower it down to that lowest point on the balance body. It’s the bottom insert, not right down flat. So the equivalent of that after this exercise, we’re going to put the jump board on. So the other thing you could do is just set your bar for where your jump board would fit. Then we’re coming back on into a kneeling position for a kneeling lunge.
We’ll start with one football of the foot up on the low foot bar, The back foot is my key foot, so I want you to press that back foot back without taking the body back. Yes. So it just puts you into hip extension or a more open hip joint. And I want you to hold there for a moment. Take one breath, breathe in, and breathe out. Now This angle of the leg, I don’t want to change, I want it to go in, hell, a little way out, exhale, come up with the chest, but leave that heel back. Back. Back. 3 more in how press, exhale forward with the sternum up, hip, ASIS or hip bones forward.
In our back and exhale forward. Nice entry. One more. Good. Now we’re just going to take one more press out and then stretch the front leg. So try not to go too far with this back leg. I’m gonna bring Andrew under him a little more. Yes.
Because then I wanna work on the hamstring side. The head of this thigh bone come up a little, think more about lengthening the back, sending the thigh bone back, rather than dropping into your split too much, aiming to kind of pull this hip back in line with the open hip, would be my preference today. There’s all sorts of ways we can do it, but there and the more you can rotate that hip under you can get the outside of those hamstrings. The lateral hamstrings would be great. Alright.
And then brewing that back in, we’ll do all that on the other side. So ball of the foot on the footbar is best for me, and then just let that leg do what it needs to. Start by setting this back leg back. Oh, you saw that. I’m sure you saw that beautifully.
So the open hip and that heal stays back. So I want a breath in, take a breath in keeping this open hip. Good. And then that’s our starting position for the next part. So inhale goes back, exhale the hip bone comes forward with the heel goes back. Good. And see how that knee comes over the foot by then. That’s perfect.
So the back leg is where we’re really focused. Breathing is long and fluid flowing breath. For the duration of each movement. Now this is our 4th one. We’re taking it back and stretching the hamstring without taking the bed too far, bring the hip back Yes, Andrew.
Good. And then work on lengthening the spine, sending the head of the femur or the head of the thigh bone back and wrapping it under to get the lateral hamstrings a little more, line up the pelvis, Keep breathing. Good. Big breath in. And exhale. All that hamstring tension away. One more breath.
Good. And then bring that back in. Alright. And coming off the bed again, we’re going to put the jump board on. So take your jump board, So setting your jump board should be ready to go straight in. Secure it.
And then we’re starting in a seated position, so I’ll have 1 red spring. You may have done this in another class with me on Pilates anytime think my circulation reformer are one of those where we did side arm jumping, but I wanna do a little side arm jumping again today. That that was a quick upsell. Hand onto the board, Press the bed away or the carriage away and start there, and I’ll have, yes, where Andrew is, the right hand down on that shoulder rest today, because I don’t want it to be about, like, too much balance challenge. I want you to be a little bit connected and just use the right arm to be a little dynamic through the left side of the the left arm to be a little dynamic through the left side of the body.
So here we go, and you’re just gonna bend and jump. And jump. Good. Again, you can take that down to a half spring if this is strong for you. Feel free to do so.
Right now, but if you can use the opposing arm to keep your little connected to the carriage and just find that dynamic work, Then what are we gonna do? We’re gonna breathe. Exhale. Exhale. Good. And I’ll have 4 more. I’d say that’s about 12. Yes.
Good. 12. I actually would like 12 to 16. And then hold. Good. So keep the arm connected to the jump board, and the other arm is going to go up to the ceiling as you stretch the position out or stretch the carriage away. So then from here, what I want is that you inhale up, see the lift of those ribs, and then take it over pressing out through the underneath arm. And when you’ve gone over as far as you can, push from this underneath arm a little more. That’s it. So I really want you to feel like you’re getting the maximum length out of the body in that side reach, bring it up, arms come down and in, and we’re going the other side.
So just one big long side reach to finish our jumping. So turn it around, cross the legs. And we’ll try not to get the giggles with each other while we face each other. So starting with that, press it out, connect with the opposing arm on the carriage, and 12 jumps. So exhale. So the exhale’s a little faster than when we started the class, we built our breath.
We built our centering, and it should be a nice dynamic load. And that side of the body closest to the jump board is getting a little feedback, a little circulation, a little fun. And we’re up to 8. Is that 12? Ah, we’ve done 14 and pause.
Good. So stretch the arm at the jump board. The other one goes up to the ceiling and lifts the ribs. Good. And then presses over. Calms to me, try and stay aligned on the side bodies. And then the under yes.
And you can probably see that really well nice, Andrew. Get that pressure away And then when you’re ready come up, good. So now we’re coming on to our backs just to finish the session off with a little bit of very light jumping, I am going to add a little bit of spring. So 1 a half is probably our ideal spring for this at the moment. You could go higher or lower depending on your size. What I want though is that it’s soft and bouncy and happy, not power jumping. So we’re not here to kind of nail jumps.
We’re here to just introduce some function and dynamics back into the body, the psyche before we wrap up the So starting with our legs out straight, good. And just allow the body to be easy. I want little bounces. They don’t have to look like anything specific. They don’t have to feel like anything specific. Just get that. It’s the triple flexion of the ankle knee hip, just bouncing through the lower limbs for me. Let the breath just flow.
Good. Yeah. So it’s just kinda it might be more into the board. It might be more off However, it feels bouncy for you. And keep bouncing. And then when you’re ready, go into an alternating leg. And single. Single. Good. And you just keep changing.
And you can add or subtract kind of range or power as you feel it suits you. So some people might like to feel that glide of a bit more spring out, Some much. You’d like to be a little like little pony trots. I want you to find bouncing and alternating in your body. And the rest of the body is just gonna stabilize and start to bring all its systems back into, how you function. Good. And then we’ll land back into a V position And last 8, 7, 6, keeping the heels connected just for that centering moment.
And 2, and 1, bring the bed all the way back in, the carriage, bring the feet up onto the jump board, And I would like you to finish there just rolling your carbs on the top of the jump board, and it’s not as piercing as it may seem. But find those little kind of sweet spots in your carbs, just roll them out as you’re rolling, take a deep breath in. And exhale all the air out, and one more breath. As you roll, you can find different points in the carbs as you go. Make it productive, and then roll them back to center.
Just let the legs hang And just leaving that there Hopefully, you feel rejuvenated, refreshed, restored, and ready to go back out into the world.
