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Hi. I’m Christine Crooks. And today, I wanna go through a bit of a workout utilizing the allegro to infinity foot bar. So let’s get started. I’m going to take the foot bar up to the vertical setting first where it is now, And then all of the springs off. Now in the Pilates world, we know this is this is a no go. This is danger zone.
So very carefully, move the carriage away from the platform end and sit towards the edge of the carriage, not on the edge though. Give yourself a little bit of space. Rest your hands on top of the foot bar, and just find yourself in a nice tall seated position. I want to take your focus to your pelvis. And the breath is gonna become a component of it, but first, just rocking back and forth off your sits bones.
So as you find and this could be a really small movement that would be undetectable to the eye for some of us, but it can also be a nice flowing movement just to intend on loosening up that low back and the connections with the sacrum and the pelvis. Now I’m gonna start to take some breaths. To facilitate that movement. And notice I’m trying to keep that length through the crown of my head, I’m finding that elongation through the spine throughout. So even as I rock back into flexion, there’s no collapse in the structure. And a couple more.
Letting that spine now curve throughout. Gently finding extension and flexion. This could be like a seated cat cow. Once more. Now come back to your sits bone, sitting tall, bring your hands to the center of the bar, still rested. And just to find some gentle rotation, breathe in as you turn over your right shoulder, reach the right arm back.
And then breathe out, come back to center. And the carriage moves a little bit with you as you rotate open, inhale, and exhale. Let’s do one more on each side. Inhale and exhale. Inhale.
And exhale. Alright. We got a little gentle breathing, warm up for the spine, carefully step out of the well. Bring the carriage all the way back to home and place 3 red springs on. So 3 red springs. Now when we adjust the allegro two foot bar, you wanna make sure that you come from above, holding both corners evenly, lift, and you adjust its position.
So I have it in that first setting. Now let’s get some footwork, shall we? So lying down on your back. Find your feet on the bar, on the heels, arms long beside you, pressing the carriage out, and in. So starting on the heels in parallel, finding that nice still pelvis, Some days I like to inhale as I press out. Some days I like to exhale just depending on what fills right in my body.
What supports the movement? Really finding that dorsal flexion in the feet, warming up the ankles, last one. Carriage is at home onto the toes, balls of the feet. He’ll stay slightly lifted. Now first one, I want you to press out and hold here.
So feel the tension of the springs. Feel not only your legs doing that work, but your entire body. Stretching the springs underneath you. Then, Bend, as you come in and press. So that sense or that imagery of stretching the springs really adds a bit of deeper connection.
To the movement with a task involved and down. 3 more. I think this is 3. A true Pilates teacher. Carriage is at home.
Now let’s wrap the feet around the bar. So I love the thickness of this bar because it offers a great amount of support in that prehensile part of footwork. So I’m wrapping the toes over the top. Heels are trying to wrap underneath. Now, again, I’m gonna press the first one out and notice where the pressure is on the balls of my feet and on the arches.
So what I’m trying to achieve is a slight lift under that big toe and under the arch. So I’m not collapsing into the midline. I’m drawing up the midline. Very active in the feet. Let’s do 2 more.
Feeling that lifted sensation through the centers of the feet. And down. Alright. Onto the toes again. V position. So heels have that connection.
And as you press out again, finding that stretch of the springs and down. See how far you can go. That last bit of stretch. One more. Alright. Now taking yourself wide position on the heels rotated externally still, flexing those feet, you press out and in.
Letting this be a little bit more of a warm up for the hips. So I’m feeling a sense of drawing into the midline as I press out. And pressing out laterally as I come down. It’s subtle, but it emphasizes the hips taking on a bit more of the warm up. And last one.
And down. Now in this wide position, maybe I’ll bring it in slightly. Feet are on top of the foot bar. I’m actually gonna start on the heels. My headrest is down, and I’m gonna take just a few bridges. So let’s take our articulated bridge. Nice wide position opens this up.
In the low back and pelvis and roll down. We have a lot of support from the springs, so the carriage should not move. Right? And down. One more in this wide position. Take a breath at the top and rolling back down. And bring your feet back to center.
And I want you more on the arches. Now I like to kind of have the bottom of my arch more towards my heel on the bar, parallel position. Let’s take our articulated bridge here, rolling up, holding at the top, using your arms if you need to. Take the right leg straight up. We’re gonna lower down and lift up. Let’s add a little flex and point point down and flex up.
Point down, flex up, point down, and flex up. Now bend that knee, set the foot down, reengage through the midline. Both sides taking on weight, left leg up. Reach down. And up.
One more lower and lift. Bend that knee. Set the foot down. Again, find your midline. Find both feet. Pressing through the bar and rolling back down. Now hands on the shoulder blocks just to get them out of the way. Take your feet to the corners of the footbar flexed and just let your knees windshield wiper from side to side.
So you find yourself releasing. A little rotation in the spine as well. A little rotation in the hips. And let’s bring this up to a seat. So rolling over to one side, Now we’re going to adjust a bit of the settings here.
So let’s go to a different footbar setting taking, again, from both corners, we lift and lower it all the way down to flat. Now coming over to the carriage, Let’s change our body orientation a bit. I want you to have your hands on the standing platform shins on the carriage. And just start with a little bit of moving in the scapula. So those sternum drops or scapula wraps Trying to achieve this with that length that we worked on as you were seated doing the sits bone rocking, finding that length through the crown of your head.
So the movement doesn’t really come from the spine. It really comes from the scapula. One more. Now bring your hands onto the foot bar and bring your knees just slightly closer to the edge of the carriage. So from this, I wanna start to take a little bit of cat and cow and open. And one more time.
So the carriage isn’t intended to move here because as we now incorporate a little bit more flow into this, wanna make sure the carriage is steady underneath us. So the hips start to sit back. Notice them in more of a flat back. As you start to shift your weight forward, you’re going past your kneeling plank and releasing the hips in a bit of extension extension lumbar extension hips. Now sit the hips back fold the hip creases.
I don’t know if this is actually called lazy dog, but I call it lazy dog. So finding this moment of drop, allowing it, Right? Finding some passive movement in joints is perfectly fine. 2 more. And back. One more.
And back. Alright. Now another footbar change. So now moving it a bit more up the track. This is one of the beauties of the Allegro to infinity foot bar.
As we move it down the track, We have new things to do. We can pull. We can push. So on the side, there are dots and that’s where we could lock the football in place. Now that could be for a stable a stable footbar moving carriage. What I actually wanna do is leave the footbar unlocked so it continues to roll.
Now sitting on the carriage, I still have 3 red springs, so that’s totally steady. Crossing one leg over the other, but you could take the shoulder blocks out if you wanted more room for the legs. Now let’s take a play on the rollback. So sitting tall, I have a good amount of space behind me, at least two hands amount, Take a moment. Breathe in.
Exhale. I’m starting again rocking beyond those sits bones rocking behind them. Rolling back. Take a breath. Exhale. I’m gonna go all the way forward, forward, forward, forward.
Think spine stretch forward, reaching. And restack. Now there is a little bit of work to do because the foot bar has some weight to it. So this is not totally passive for the upper body. But it does allow us a little bit more flow.
One more time. And over. Spine stretch. And then restock. Now just because I can’t do that with the one leg crosses, do one more with the other leg on top inhale.
Exhale rocking back. Breathe in. And over. And they stack. Okay.
We’ve warmed. Now let’s move the footbar down the track And when when we decide to do any movements under the bar, if we’re pushing it, if we’re pulling it, It’s definitely a good idea to put our locking pin in place. So I’m going to do that now. On both sides. There’s one pin on either side of the foot bar, so I’m putting those locking pins in.
And then let’s take our springs down to one blue. Alright. Now lying down on your back. I still have the shoulder rest in. I’m gonna take my hands on the bar, bring my legs up to tabletop.
Find length first without those shoulders getting getting crammed in. And then as I pull under, I’m just doing a test run to feel what kind of tension I have as I go all the way under the bar. And then extend back out. Now I’m gonna pull this time, start to lift my head, lift my shoulders, abcurl, and then roll back down. And again, and back down.
And again, And down one more time, we’re trying to find that height coming up. And down. Now I know if I go a little bit lighter in my springs, I could get a little more height. So I’m going to do that. I’m gonna go down to a yellow, So there is, in fact, tension, but I have a little bit of play at the top.
So please, if you find yourself wanting just a little more room for range. Go lighter on the spring. Pulling under, lift your head, lift your shoulders. Here we are. Now I’m touching the bar to my thighs. I’m trying to lift my head and shoulders off.
Holding this abdominal curl, one leg extends, and then in. Keep the elbows slightly narrow. Other leg and in. Reach and in. Reach. And in.
2 more. Last one. In, start to roll back. We woke up. Alright. Second variation.
We’re gonna come up into that same abdominal curl, extend one leg, and then back down. Again, so now we’re combining the movement pieces for a la added coordination. And back down. Still curling the head, shoulders, upper spine. And down.
2 more sets. And in. One more on each leg. Last one. And back down.
Okay. Find your standing platform at the bottom with your feet before you let go of the bar and then bring yourself down to the stopper coming up. Okay. Abdominal work. I always like to pair that right after with a little extension. So let’s grab the sitting box.
Taking our sitting box, long box position. I’m placing it over the shoulder rest so the box is totally supported. By the carriage itself. Now I don’t want the carriage to actually move. So, again, I’m going back to at least four springs on, we might as well do all springs for extra safety. So taking our prone position with our feet hooked under the bar.
I like to take one leg long. I lower myself down, and then I find that connection a little bit about hip width. Okay. I’m giving my my low back and my pelvis little space. Chest is at the edge of the box. So I want to engage through the legs first.
Knees are extended. I’m pressing long and up. Arms are long beside me. Ben the elbows. Let’s take a play on breaststroke.
So as I reach forward, I’m gonna take an exhale. Now I feel that straight line of energy, Crown of head reaching with the arms as I open and reaching up and out. First one can be small. I was never a swimmer, so I apologize for the arms. This is my version and through and up.
Now with the support of the foot bar and the legs, we can make this a little bit bigger and down and out and up. This is where having those pins locking the footbar in place is essential for safety and down. Alright. Now one more on each side. We’re gonna add rotation. So here, I’m gonna look over my right shoulder and down. I’m gonna look over my left shoulder.
And down and rest. We have a lot to do, so let’s keep going. Okay. Coming up to standing, we’re taking the bath out of the way back to the top. Okay. Now moving on, let’s take those pins out and then change our spring load down to one red spring. Now again, this this is fluid.
We can change that spring. We’re not married to it. So coming on to the knees, up against the shoulder rest. I want you to think to your kneeling abdominals facing towards the risers, but instead of the hands on the rails. We’re gonna take the forearms onto the foot bar.
So now aligning through the spine controlling and supporting through the shoulders. I’m just starting with that flat back folding the hips in. Yeah. The red spring’s not too bad yet. Fold. So I’m what I’m attempting to do is not change the angle at which my sits bones are aiming.
So I’m reaching back through my sits bones. I’m not lifting them. I’m not tucking them. And in that, I’m folding the hip creases. Alright. Now this position where I have my arms stacked one over the other It’s not the only way you could do it here. I feel more support in my shoulders when I go to the stacked position.
So I wanted to offer that for the next piece. Now single leg, We could do this one of two ways. I’m choosing the harder way today. So join me. Reaching the right leg back. Now I like to flex the foot so we have energy through the back line.
I stabilize support through the shoulders, single leg fold. And reach. So I’m trying to keep those shoulders over the forearms. Hips relatively square. 3 more. And one.
Good. Now bring the knee down. Let’s just come back for a little stretch. Arms reach. So I said, well, I chose the harder way. I’m pulling the carriage from the stopper.
I could pull it and then reach the leg, but Again, different variations for different days. So set the shoulders long through the spine, reaching the left leg back, trying to keep my hips relatively square, but there has to be some shift, you know, physics. And One side’s always gonna be harder than the other. Keeping that leg reaching behind you. One more.
And bring the knee down. Again, one more stretch. Arms are reaching. Hips are heavy. Chest melts down. Try to keep your head in line with your arms here, though, and let your chest do the dropping, keeping that head dropping down takes some of that alignment out of the spine, and I wanna maintain that.
Now rolling internally and externally through the arms, Good. And coming up? Now another great thing we can do with this footbar and this position is elephant. So we bit different than our other our other elephant, our usual elephant, So I have a red spring on. I’m gonna take this to a blue, and the reason is that I don’t want all of the work in my shoulders.
I do want to be able to control the carriage with my center. So I’m holding on to the foot bar as I stand on the carriage. Now if I bring my feet all the way to the shoulder rest, this is already a pretty tight position to start in. So let’s step the feet back just until you feel your feet are behind your hips and your hands are in front of your shoulders. Now take a moment.
You feel that wrap of your hands. You feel the wrap of your shoulders in their sockets. Now start to look through to your hips. Maybe your thighs, depending on the flexibility in your spine, lifting those toes Now I’m starting to find that rounded cat shape in the spine. Notice my hip start to move a little forward as I do that. And then I’m going to pull the carriage off the stopper.
So there’s no doubt this is shoulder work, but I want the movement not to come from the shoulders. I want the movement to come from. The lower half. 3 more. One more.
And then hold at the bottom. Find your flap back here. Bend one knee and the other. Just let this let this go a little bit. Bend and extend.
Find movement in the spine. And then coming down. So let’s move the foot bar up to the top of the the rails. Make sure you line it up with one of those dots so it sits in place. And then for this next piece, I do want to lock the foot bargain.
So I’m putting those locking pins in for safety. Shoulder rest will come out. Okay. And spring load. 1 red spring Sometimes I do this on a blue spring so you can decide that day, which feels better. This is one of my favorite things, if not the favorite thing to do on the leg row too.
So and make it carried away. Okay. Line down. Make sure you’re near the bottom of the carriage because if anything you might start to scooch up, feet on the platform, press. Notice where the foot bar is. Hold on with the palms facing the ceiling.
Bring one leg to tabletop and other leg. So now there’s some more tension here in order to put the emphasis on the actual shoulder. So I’m gonna feel that connection to my center, legs in tabletop as I pull, and then extend. Finding this extension is really nice to get that traction and stretch through the shoulders and the lats and then feel the scapula glide down as you pull and extend. And again, and extend. Let’s do 2 more like this. And extend.
Now I’m gonna change my grip. I go underhand grip. Now as I get the first pull, I might feel a little bit tight in the shoulders, so you may need to take a slightly wider grip to feel that alignment in the shoulders is comfortable. Again, as I pull under, shoulder blades gliding down. Now with this variation, I’m gonna add in a little bit of legs.
So as I pull, I feel one leg extend out and then back in. And Heather’s side. And back. And in. Now three more with this grip. I’m gonna take the leg straight up.
And down and up and down. And up, and down. Now changing my grip. Once again, I’m going to the corners of the bar. So I have a wide grip Now the legs, let’s add a little flare, right leg vertical, left leg horizontal, feel that connection to your center here, as you pull under the bar, I want you to switch the legs and extend.
And so we’re coordinating now. I’m doing 5. We have 1 more. Now hold at the bottom, get a little hang time, switch the legs. So now we got the left leg up, And as I pull, I swap and reach. Two more.
And reach both feet come back to the platform. Make sure you find it first. Then release the hands. Take a moment. Let the arms reach out to the sides of the room or down to the floor if that feels good to the chest and shoulders.
Take a couple easy circles at the arms. Wiggle the fingers. Open up the wrists. Alright. So you’ve experienced my favorite.
You’re welcome. Now let’s grab the sitting box again, place it on the carriage, but notice the shoulder rest are out. So let’s put those back in. They easily slide right in. Now I’m putting that box over the shoulder rest. And with this one, let’s go down to a blue spring.
Now on the box, prone, facing towards the foot bar, it’s still at the top and it is still locked. So I’m holding the corners of the box to lie down. Taking the rails in order to reach for that foot bar. So, again, we get a little hang time. We get a little stretch, but let’s send energy out through the legs. Long through the crown of the head, long through the legs.
Now a little hover from the knees to just turn on the backs of the legs. Start to lift through the crown of your head, glide the shoulders down your back, little swan, and then lengthen Inhale. Exhale. I’m keeping the bottom of my ribs on the box. To emphasize more in that thoracic spine.
And down. But you can absolutely take this up to a more full swan. Inhale. Exhale. Last two. Inhale.
Exhale. One more. Inhale. Now exhale just to the ribs drop down to the box. Feel energy through the legs, energy through the crown of the head, pull to the bar, 1, and extend, and 2. And extend.
3. Keeping the collarbone wide emphasize those shoulders down the back, elbows wide, and pull. And lengthen back out. Get that hang time again. Let your legs just drop.
Hands to the rails. Carriage hits home, bring yourself up to standing. Let’s take the box back out of the way. And now the foot bar, for its last act for the day, take the pins out. So now it’s unlocked, we’re going to then release it always towards the risers when you wanna move its position, and then bring it to that 3 quarter position again.
Good. Now keeping the shoulder rest in, And let’s stay on a blue spring coming to a kneeling position on the carriage. I’m starting in about the middle of it. K? And my knees are somewhat in line with that shoulder rest kind of forward to the side. So I wanna make sure that I feel hips align over knees, arms out. Let’s take a little lateral work.
So finding first just that lateral bend in the spine. And then back up. Now breathing into that side bend to feel that length on the top side and that deeper connection on the bottom side. Now this time, I’m gonna reach for that bar, not for my hand, for my forearm. So as I take the side bend, I’m going shift my weight onto this knee, take my hand first, find the foot bar, and adjust your position to where you feel that forearm is really on the foot bar and supported.
Hips are still forward. Arm is up. Now we could take a little lateral bend here. This whole sequence can be done on a blue or yellow. I have it on a blue, so we feel a deeper sense of work and lift in that side body. Now I’m keeping the carriage home, but I’m feeling myself pull this connection shoulder to hip, long top leg. Now let’s take her side kicks.
Let’s lift and lower. Keeping that top hip forward. So we’re square. Now lift and hold, hand can go behind the head here, feel that connection pressing the head into the hand. Flex forward inhale, exhale back, inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale.
Two more. One more. And back. Bring that knee under. Bring the arm up. Coming back up to high kneeling, oh, dismount other side.
Excuse me facing away from you. Nailing again, finding just that lateral bend first, hips over knees. And up. In hell. One more time. Now we’re gonna find the bar.
As we laterally flex, hand finds the bar slowly bringing the foot bar or the forearm to the foot bar. And then connecting the knees here is gonna give a bit more connection to that midline. And we always have one side that’s stronger. Right? It’s just the human experience. 2 more.
And out. Now reaching that top leg, connecting again, That side body, lower lift, 1. 2 more. Hold it up there. Hand behind your head.
Press your head into your hand. Elbow in your periphery. Flex your foot. Pull the leg forward, inhale. Exhale. Reach it back. Inhale.
Exhale back. So we’re feeling that pull of the heel forward, that open of the hip back. One more. And back. Bringing it back to your side body. Taking that knee underneath you pressing yourself back up and down.
Okay. Football stays there. Still on a blue spring, let’s take our mermaid. So find your zigzag of legs Hand goes towards the middle of the bar, just barely in front of the rib cage, similar to how we set up for our regular mermaid, right? Now this is a bit different.
You’re taking the arm up right alongside the ear, shoulders away from the ears. Now I’m going to actually press my shin into those shoulder blocks as I start to lean away. So this hip comes with me. I’m bringing my pelvis with me as I lean. Then reaching up and over through that top arm, this is the big moment, the big arc. Restock the spine first, then initiate from the pelvis, leaning you out, reach through that arm, side bend.
Now I’m not collapsing here. I’m reaching that top side. Restack. Let’s do 3 more. And over last two. And over.
Last one. Up and over. Now from here in that side bend, take a few circles of the arm 1. To reverse it. 1.
To rotate towards the carriage and then come back Okay. Carefully. You’re going to let go of that foot bar rotate to the other side. So I do a little swivel seat. Find that mermaid seated position again, grabbing the bar just slightly forward of the middle. Outside arm comes up beside the ear, find that lift, and then lifting out towards that platform and springs and then reaching the top arm, lengthen into that side bend. Restack.
Pelvis takes you over in that lane. So here’s this nice dynamic control of the shoulder. And then lengthen that top arm up and over. Restock. Leaning out.
Up and over. Restack, leaning out up and over. I think we have one more. We can milk it. Laining out. Up and over. Nice pull of stretch on that shoulder.
Here, we circle 1 and 2. Rivers. 1. And 2. Rotate towards the carriage.
Back to center release. Carriage goes home. Let’s all stand up. Shall we? Okay.
After every, really every workout, doesn’t matter, reformer, mat, anything. I always stand at the end, so we reintegrate into our vertical human body. So we have feet on the floor a little wider than hips, arms by your side. Just take a couple bounces. Let your eyes close. If you’re comfortable with it, feeling your weight shift slightly forward in your feet, slightly back in your feet.
Finding where you feel centered in a balance, hips over feet, shoulders over hips, and your head floats on the shoulders. Shift your weight into your left leg, taking your right foot off the floor. If you have your eyes closed, extra credit, I’m trying it. I’m not doing great, but I’m trying it. And then set that right foot back onto the floor, shifting your weight, taking the left foot off the floor, and down. Taking inhale. Arms up.
Eyes up. Find gentle extension through the back line. Exhale. We dive forward, forward fold, bend the knees, let your body drape over your legs. Inhale. Exhale. Push the floor away. Restock the spine with ease.
Head floats at the top. Thanks for joining me today.
