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Hi. This is Ilya from Pilates Anytime, and today we’ll do an intermediate reformer. But, actually, that’s not really the truth. This reformer will, has the purpose to be more advanced. We’ll do only some transitional exercises from the intermediate the advance, but we’ll try to squeeze the juice out of all of them. So we’ll try to really get a great workout, a very intense workout out of an intermediate reformer.
I’m working on the graphs Aparado. So I’m starting with 3 full springs, but, of course, you can, decide accordingly what to do. For some more advanced exercise, I always give the option of staying where you feel good today, but look towards where you’re heading in the future. Right? So never push it beyond, your workout level, just, do what’s good for your body, and we’re gonna have fun together. So we’re gonna move towards the front edge of the reformer and trying to do that in one motion without too many adjustments, which sit on the reformer, we swing the legs up and boom, ready to go. So this is, the goal. Right? And here you go. You reach out and in and lengthen and in. And we want to try to keep moving the springs. Right? The heels are together.
We feel the deep work in the medial part of the body with the inner thighs, the pelvic floor, the abs, And we want to flow in these 10 wraps because they’re part of the same exercise. One more in slide to the arches. Curl your feet and you go out in and in. So we keep flowing and moving. We want to fill that work with the springs, both out and in. So picture having 4 Springs going out.
1 or 0 Springs coming in, really making the work nice and deep in both directions. And now we transition to the heels. We pull the toes back, and we go. And 2 and reach. Make sure the spine is nice and long on the reformer.
Your neck is relaxed. The shoulders are open. So now that we did a few reps, just start pressing the triceps on the mat and opening up the chest. And now you go out and here you transition. You grow even taller, and now you go down and up.
Lower lift. So we get into that ankle, warm up, right, an all particular warm up. We solicit the around legs, the abs are ready a little bit, and then soon we’ll get into the 100. And one more lift, and now slowly in. Now we go grab the handles, If you can with the feet, pull the bar down, and we already prepare the headpiece down for the sure spine that will come next. From here, we go.
Reach lengths and lengths into the front. Hold. Hold. Hold and release down. And we’ll repeat it again. Length and the fingertips away, the toes away, and you reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, and now we stay and you pump in and exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale. And again, in and deep exhale reaching along with the fingertips and with the legs.
We try to stay nice and long. Of course, if you need to keep your legs higher, that’s absolutely okay. The back is flat. The neck should not be in too much tension. Because my upper apps are pulling my shoulders and head up.
And, again, you inhale and exhale, exhale, exhale. Keep that exhale as long as you need to empty the lungs. And one more in and you go reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, reach, length in your arms forward, bend everything in. Now we tees her up. We drop 1 spring if you started with 3. Anyway, you get to a total of 2 springs for the short span, usually. You’re gonna go back down, and we prepare the straps. We’re gonna have the leather straps falling side the handle, And, again, we are advanced. Right? We’re performing almost like an advanced.
So we lift the hips. We don’t pull the straps. We put the feet in. And we go to a nice frog. Now feel that connection with the heels, activate the inner thighs, arch is pushing into the straps, you go reach length in a way lift up all the way back.
Bend your knees. And roll your hips away, and then you pull the feet. And again, reach out, lengthen away every time you try to lift a little higher, always with control, and never falling on the neck. Your weight is always on your shoulders. Reach long.
And then you pull. Eventually, you could do a frog up in the air. We’re not gonna do it today because I don’t want to make this reformer too advanced. But if you wanna explore the frogs up in the air, you can go through the feeding strap reformer, and there are so many progressions for their for you to get there. Now last time you lift, lift, lift, you reach back with your feet, bend your knees. Now if you want, you can reach back here you grab the handles, you pull the straps, and now together, we’re going to roll down for coordination, and you go stretch open, close, pull the knees, reach with the arms, and bend, lengthen out, open, squeeze together, pull in, in, in, in, and bend. Now single leg out, only the right, only the left, the hips don’t move together, pull in and bend.
And last one, starting with the left to reach and switch lengthen both, knees into your ears. And bend in. Now handles in one hand with teaser up, and we do a few rolling. So we drop 1 spring, 1 spring total, and we are facing back. Now the first couple of reps, I want you to try not to select the straps.
So we’re now going to reach forward on the way. From here, we’re going to pull back into the stomach, roll, open the arms without moving the carriage. Press back. Go over with your shoulders back with your hands. Length in a way.
Length in a way. Keep your ribs lifted. And then you come up and you start again. Pull back. Open the arms. Reach away with your arms.
Go over. Reach back. Left, lengthen away, away, away, all the way around. And now last one, we’re going to stretch the shoulder. So you pull you open, you press, you go over and now reach down to the springs. Left, left, left, left, left, left, all the way up. Get almost like a reverse push through stretch. Keep lifting on the ribs, and now lengthen away And here, feel free to slack the straps and go over and give yourself a nice stretch also with the legs.
Now 90 degrees, same thing. You’re gonna lead with your elbows reach back. Come up to the ceiling forward. Think about pulling straps here. You reach back, lengthen away to the springs, to the well behind, to the ceiling, lift, lift, lift, and ready. We go back again, lengthen up.
You go over and pull reach away, away, away, get longer all the way around. And last one, back, you go up You go over, pull back. Now reach down anyway. Open the shoulders. Lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, and all the way around. And now we go over and we stretch.
Handles on the reformer. We spin around and we do front rowing. So here, in these rowing, we want to think about the lift all the time. Right? We get tool, mostly in this first one. So you go out, down, reach up, and lift, lift lift, lift, and release. Again, in a exhale, in a lift, reach you a long, long long, and one more time, in exhales down, lift up, and tall. Now flex your feet, head down, and reach.
Keep reaching away as you roll up and open. And again, down stretch. Naval pulls back. You roll back up. Shoulders are low.
Reach away with a long neck. On this last one, we arch back a little bit. You go forward, pull back, roll up, reach to the ceiling, reach behind little backband, and then come up. Length and lift, into shaving and up. Try to keep the chest open.
Don’t round over too much. Keep the neck long in line with the spine, and the arms are going to adapt to that diagonal of the neck. One more. Reach. Reach.
Open the arms. Now lift the elbows and you go hug. And open. Now, hug. Feel your back muscles when you open the arms. And again, pull and reach nice and big.
Think about the straps being connected to the shoulder blades, right? The arms are just a connection in between last one and back. Now we place the handles, on the hooks, and we go grab the box because it’s time for the long box. So we’re going to prepare the box on the reformer, headpiece up. I’m going to put the bar over here. We’re gonna need it later.
And one spring. Let’s go on from the front of the reformer because we are more advanced. We don’t do the one, but from here, I want you to go forward in a plank, do one push up, and then come back. And, again, you go. We’re gonna do Tupper shops, down and up, down and up, and back.
And now three push ups, and then we lower ourselves down. 1, 2, and 3. Now down, in line with the end of the box, and we go and we grab the straps. Handles, release, and bring the carriage home. And here you go. You go down and back. Open the trust and reach.
And then resist. Pull pull pull. Nice and long, long collar bones down. And now this time, you stay triceps. 1 for each. And 2, and 3. Now from here, open the arms transition to the t. Open, open, open, open.
And you go. Pull back and out. Pull back and out, reach away. Pull. Pull. Pull. And all the way out. Now handles in one hand where you step off on the side, and we turn around to head one spring for back stroke and teaser. So handles behind.
We do hand foot. Hand foot, you sit in front. And then you go and you curl all the way down. Now here you go. Up, open, and scoop, hold, hold, hold, Banned in. And again, up, open, scope reach. Hold. Hold. Hold.
And in reverse to the knees, hold, and around, and bend. And again, reach to the knees, length, length, length, length, length, length, reach long, and bend. Now we’re going to teaser up drop 1, and you go, and you release. Now stay open for a second. Make sure you feel good on the box. And now here, we’re gonna go up. So here, tensioning the springs, reach, reach, reach, all the way up.
Now, if you can, go a little higher with the arms and down to the shoulders, a little higher with the arms, down to the shoulders a little higher down to the shoulders, slowly release and relax. Now up again. You go, scoop, reach, go as high as you can with your arms. Drop your legs. And lift. Drop your legs and lift.
Drop your legs and lift. Now lengthen away legs and arms slowly control and release. So we try not to use momentum. Now scope reach from backstroke, you come up. Now from here, lift the arms lower the legs, and back. And again, lift, and back.
Reach. Reach. Reach. Back to the starting position. Slowly. Control. Control. Control, and release. Beautiful.
Now we can’t come up. We can rest the handles down, and then we turn the box around for sure box. The bar is here. You’re gonna prepare it over. I add one spring to stabilize the box, and then your call you can head also a pad for the shore box.
Now here we’re gonna go one foot in You see it, and you go with the other leg. Now for the hug, let’s do one regular one first. So you hug your waist. You curl back. Reach. Reach away with your heels.
Push out your legs. All the way down. And hold the way back. Hug again, curl, and roll back up. Now let’s pretend we’re doing the math.
We do a roll down roll up, lengthen the pole, roll back, bring the bar back, rest it on the frame, and re going out with the elbows. You bend, and extend almost like a shaving, bend, and extend, bend, and extend. Now bar comes up, head, scoop, and lift. Now again, roll down, control, control, control, reach back, try to get the bar underneath the frame. And now elbows in your band, stretch, bend, stretch, bend, stretch really reach with that bar. Get as much stretch as you can. Now, release, butt up, scoop, and lift.
Now push out with your legs. Push out with your arms. You go lengthen and lift. Length and back reach and lift. Length and length and lengthen lengthen and come up, rest the arms for a second, adjust the position if you need.
And now here with the hands together, you lift. You don’t need to do it, but if you can, you’re gonna get a little more stretch out of the lats. So you go reach, reach, reach, and in lengthen sideband, and center trying not to stop the movement, you reach, reach, reach when you cannot go anymore, you come back. Now, twist. The first one is a really mean one because it doesn’t allow us to move too much. From here, you’re going to lift and you twist only as far as you can, but you need to feel the bar behind your rib cage.
So I can go more than this, and you go reach, come up and center. Same thing other side. You lift, twist, twist, twist, you go reach, come up, and center. Now let’s bring it up on the trap. Okay? Doesn’t have to bother the neck just below where the muscle is. And you hold it here.
Now it can go a little bit more. So you lift, you twist, and you go reach, reach, reach, and come up and center. Lift, allow the neck to turn with your shoulders, reach, and up. Now around the world, you lift, you twist, you go reach, you go flat, you go the other way, and come up. And now we go back. Twist, reach long, flat, other side and back. Now we’re done with the bar.
We can put it away. And we start with a tree. So we go. You hold the leg up. I want you to focus on the left all the time, and you go up.
2, and 3, you flex and you reach more, more, more. Now over to the leg, bring it back. Pull down with your spine. Continue all the way down. And if you’re up to here, we can do the leg circles.
Otherwise, we just do the regular tree. 3. Now reverse 1, 2, and 3. Now back to the leg, you curl up, up, up, and always find that lift again, release the tension of the arch at the lumbar spine. Now you stay lifted, As you open the leg out, you grab the handle, you lift here, and then you go back and stretch. And then you come up and lift.
Now you can repeat this 3 or a regular tree. Or you can try going back. We go to a little split. You go forward And then the only thing I want you to do is to press into the box, open the chest, and lift, lift, and lift. And then you can bring this leg back, and we do a nice, rotation over here for the IT band for the outside of the leg for the rib cage and release.
Everything on the other side. So, again, we sit top priority to the left of the spine, and you go stretch, 2, and good. All the way up. Maximum stretch doesn’t matter if you can hold a foot or if you can stay here, whatever is maximum. And you go over, bring the black perpendicular, roll down. Of course, you do exactly the same thing that you lee did on the other side. You reach back and we can do circles 1, 2, and 3, reverse.
1, 2, and 3. Now back to the leg, curl. Don’t forget to curl and articulate back up. And lift. Now go inside the leg, open it out, grab the handles for stability, and open down.
You come up. You keep the leg reaching out to the side. You lift your hip. And you send it back over. And now press into the box as you press, you find your chest expansion and you lift you lift, you lift, and release. Bring the leg back to the front.
Hold it, and now you open open, open, and open. Now let’s do also the size syncs here. And I want you, you can do any position you like, but I like this one because it makes it a little easier for the stability and it forces us to work the good medias over here. We did already work the good medias in the short box. Right? So now we just continue, and you keep lifting this leg up and reaching out with this leg.
So hands back, you lift and you go. 3, up, 2, up. One reach, reach, reach, long arms. You go all the way and up. Reach down and lift, reach down, down, down. And, now let’s go back to the neck pull. You go reach horizontal, turn, look to the box, come up, look forward, look to the ceiling, center and all the way down for a big stretch.
You can touch the floor. You can reach as if you wanted to get to the back of the frame. I can’t. Maybe you can. And now from here, you reach all the way up, and we change. We go to the other side. So we switch the lag.
We sit on the hip, again, tension in the strap and right leg reaching away from us. Neck pull position and you go down and up. Down and lift. Reach. Reach. Reach. Make your body long and up. Now lengthen and you go reach into the well, and up to the ceiling, down to the well.
And up to the ceiling, down, down, down, and up, neck pull, reach parallel to the floor. Turn Look at the box, come back up, ceiling, long, and now down all the way for a big stretch, reach. This is nice side body stretch from the IT band all the way up to the lads, and now you come up and release. We can drop this thread. And now we’re going to set up for the long stretch because I want to work on something on core stability.
We’re gonna start with 1 spring only. So over here, I drop 1 spring. I have only one full spring, anyway, make it a little lighter than what you usually do. You put the bar up. We’re going to tilt this. I prepare the pad on the headpiece. And now I go to the back of the reformer and I rest everything here.
Cool. So we’re gonna work now both with single spring, and then we add the usual resistance. Okay? So as we get on, as an advanced person who gets on, you are gonna have the hands here, you place the toes of the first foot in the groove, and then you reach forward right away. And you come up. Now less resistance means you need to work more with the core. Okay? So go slowly on the first one and see how it feels. You go, go, go, go, and then you pull in, in, in a slider on the shoulders, a lot harder on the core on the mid part of the body. You go and you go in in in.
One more. Push, push, push, and pull pull pull. Now we step forward with one foot, and we go and we add the second spring. For this other long stretch, I want you to put the feed in front of the blocks this time, and we’re gonna keep it here until the end. So from here, reach forward, and we go back and forward.
And you go push, push, push, and you go forward, close the carriage, keep reaching. And again, back and all the way in. One more, you go back. Stay here, kneel down, open the chest, down stretch, push back, exhale lift, push back, reach, exhale, exhale, exhale, exhale, one more. Back Exhale up.
Now keep reaching lift, head down, nose to knees, up stretch, push, hips down, go forward and up again, push down, forward the carriage, roll up combination, open, exhale forward. Go back. And down your pull. And again, push. And forward, the feet never moved, push back, head down, pull in, in, in.
Now we lower the feet down for the elephant. Let’s do 3 or 4 regular elephants. Now from here, I want you to stand on the right leg. Reach back with the left. Square off the hips.
And if you can, you lift up your right arm and you go out, pull out in out. And of course, if that’s too much, you can hold onto the arm here. Okay? Now we switch. You go to the other side. Reach back. Left and you go 123. Now we’re gonna repeat the same thing with the lag out to the side because we’re preparing the tendon stretch leg side. So make sure you’re not falling on this hip. You wanna stay nice and in balance on your right leg, standing leg. The left is out.
Open the arm out, and you go 1, 2, 3. As you can see, I’m not lifting my leg too high. It’s more important to understand the pelvis work than anything else out and you go. In, 2, and 3. And now we can step off. So In a little bit, we’re gonna work on this stand on stretch.
And if you want, if you can, you have the option to start understanding what the pelvis needs to do and how we should balance on that standing leg when the reformer is moving and when we’re doing many different things. Now for the long back stretch, I’m gonna give you many progressions. So if you feel that your arms are really weak and need some extra work. Come with me to the front of the reformer. We’re gonna put the hands here, feed forward, and just work on your dips over here.
The nice thing here is that you can help with your legs, and you can decide to help as much as you need. So you can go down and up You know, now I’m mostly on my arms, but if I have enough time, I can have my feet help a little bit. My legs help a little bit more. Right? So that little by little, I can get stronger. Okay. 2nd step.
Position of the long back stretch. So hand, foot, hand foot. I can do 2 things. First, only the dips. Easy here. I don’t push.
I just work my triceps in a little bit more advanced way. Then here, I lift the hips and I just do the push out out and end. Nothing more. When you feel stronger, then you go for the whole thing. You go sit, you push, you lift, come back. Sit, Push, lift, come back. We try not to move the carriage out there. Sit, push, lift, and back, and then reverse out, down, back, and lift.
Out, down, back, and left. Last one, out, down, back and lift. And now we can step off, and we’re going to stomach massage. We’re gonna play a little bit with the stomach massage, I’m gonna keep 2 springs, so lighter than what I usually do. And as we sit, we’re going to lie down exactly the same way we started with the reformer. So from here, I want you to grab the bar with your toes And you can help yourself with the arms on the first few reps. So we’re gonna roll up into the stomach massage.
So we can keep that tailbone and pelvis in the correct position. So from here, you go, you grab, and you go come up, up, up, and you’re ready. So here you go. Length and the legs, lower and in, roll down and you go out lower and in. And again, come up out lower and in, pull pull pull. No help this time, down, out, lower, and in one more. Come up. Open and close.
Down. Open and close. And now you come up, you send your arms back on the blocks, lift all, and we do five 4, 3, 2, One more. Then we go forward with the arms for reaching, and you go 1, so only 4, 2, stay lifted, 3, and now twist. On the first time, as you go out, put one hand on your legs, one hand on the block away from you, And you go lift into his, lift into his look all the way back and center. Same thing on the other side. You go hand on one leg, hand on the block.
And you go lift and twist, twist the heels are together. And now without help, you go and in, exhale, and in. Good. We step off. And now we’re ready for tendon stretch. So you can use the pad if you want.
We’re gonna sit And first, we do the regular tendon stretch. Okay? And today, there are always many things we can work on and we can focus on. We can work on the feet or many different things. I want you to focus on your upper body, on the shoulder. If you look in the video, At least I hope so. The shoulder should not move. Okay? So from here, you put the hands on the bar. You’re going to go over and you flex over your legs, Now push the carriage and push the bar away, push the carriage away.
And if you look at my shoulder, it stays in space in the same place. Okay. Almost like a rotisserie chicken being cooked. And then you sit. Okay? So practice this a few times.
Shoulder is a stable point. Let’s do it again. You go and you go out, you can go bigger. The shoulder’s always there, and you go push and in and push and in. Now when your two legs tend to stretch is strong enough where you can start work on the single leg. Right?
I advise to go the single leg to the side, and you start preparing it with, the elephant that we just did. Right? Another thing you can do is you can come here from the front, put the hands on the bar, Open one leg. Make sure you don’t fall on the standing leg. You need to stay lifted on it. And now from here, you go lift up. 2, 3, 4. Hold up higher, 5.
And maybe you try to go higher, higher, higher, higher. And down. Other side, you go, you go lift 1, 2, 3, 4, hold, and now to go up, up, up, up, and release. And then eventually, you can go. We just kinda try 2 or 3. Same thing from here.
You’re gonna lift, go forward, shoulders are in place, You don’t need to bring it too high. You can keep it here, and you go 1 and in, 2 and in. 3, lift, don’t rush the way down, bend your standing leg and lower. Now we go to the other side. You go.
Slowly. No panic. You’re gonna go lift and position. Now you go 3 and lift. 2 and n, 1 and n, lower down. Beautiful. Now it really is all the way down, and we go into the same circle. So it’s your call, to try to make it a little more challenging, I’m gonna do the bar up, but, of course, you can do the bar down.
No problem. So you sit make sure you don’t hurt yourself getting into position. And, just be safe. It doesn’t have to be pretty. You’re gonna walk forward with your shoulders, If you’re sweating, sometimes it’s hard to slide in the position. Arms are fully extended either with the or with the hands, and you place the feet here. Now, roll down, drop the hips push back, and then you curl, lift, lift, lift the carriage doesn’t move, and you come all the way in. Again, meltdown at the sternum, lumber spine, pelvis, feel that opening at the sternum, push back, curl the pelvis, lift, lift, lift, and hold the weight in.
Again, all the way down, release down, push into the blocks, curl back up, And in our reverse, out, melt down, drop, drop, drop, and come forward, and you feel the bars start to come up, and you reach out, control down, forward. And in last time, back articulating, 4, and all the way in. Here you can grab the bar. And you can get pull forward a little bit more to get deeper into that thigh stretch. And then slowly walk the way back.
Which is even worse than getting into position and release. Now we can come up for the knee stretches? We’re gonna do something today. Instead of we’re gonna do only the knees off, which I know is usually the ones that we, like, we we like the least, let’s say, and that we’re gonna get in that position from the top. Okay? So we go into the up stretch position.
We place our toes like we had them before. And now just a couple of times from here, Hips are back. I want you to go and curl into that knees off position with the knees at the level of the heels, at the level of the ankles. And then you roll back up. We’re gonna do it one more time. You’re gonna stay power in power with the arms, with the upper body, they are are strong, but they’re not moving. And then you go.
You go. You go. And similar to the tendon stretch, hear the shoulders. Never move. They should stay here all the time. Come up for a quick rest, and then we go down and we’re gonna start kicking back. So you go Go. Go. Think about that stability of the upper body. Don’t move your shoulders.
Lower body goes. And in and in. And in, and pull, and pull, and pull. All the way up. Now let’s go with a single one. You go forward, then to the same point.
You go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, come in, slowly up, change. You go down and in. And 23 4, 5, and come up. We can now step off and we go lying down for running. Feet on the bar, open the chest, and you go stretch, nice cool down. So just enjoy it.
Make sure that those are all the way on the bar. Just listen to your body, see how it feels, After this breeding towns and a powerful reformer, you go. Nice little run. And now you lengthen and you come in. And now out here to the sides, you lift a little bit the pelvis, out and in and pull and in in And one last one down, hug the knees into the chest, do a little rocking side to side. We’re not done yet.
But we’re almost there. So now we come up and we do the front splits. So we prepare the foot back. 1, the other foot in front. We try to square off the hips as much as we can.
And we go push with the front leg, come in. Front leg come in. Front leg come in. Reach hold front leg in front leg in. Last one.
Now hand spot down onto the bar. Lift your heel, turn and kneel down. Make sure you don’t do the two things together. Otherwise, you twist your knee. Now power pushing back, you start with the back leg, follow with the front one, and come in. Back leg, stretch, and in. And if you want, you can go all the way lower and lift your heel, come all the way in, and then you reach up for a little backband and then change.
We’re gonna do everything on the other side. Back leg, toes on the bars, square it off, you go in, 2, 3, come up for balance and in, and 2, and 3. Reach for the bar. Lift. Turn. Neil. Go back with the foot.
Hips are forward. Start pushing with the back leg, front leg, and come in. Back, reach, and in. And now if you did on the other side, you lower the heel, lift, come all the way in, reach away for the back end lift and release. Now this could be the end of the reformer.
If you feel like, I want you to follow me on this, preparation to the star. The star always scares us because it’s supposed to be such a and advanced exercise with this big choreography of the leg. It doesn’t need to be that way. If you pull down to what the star is at the end is a side plank. Right? So we’re gonna go into a little bit of this side plank and eventually dipping down the hip a little bit. Exactly like we did on the long back stretch. So one spring, you could do also with 2, but sometimes is too much for the shoulder to push the carriage away.
So one and a half, if you have the option of the house spring, could be a good way to start. Hand on the bar, foot on the on the reformer. And then in the beginning, it’s kind of easier to press the leg down and almost use that block as if was a magic circle. So the first progression is out and in, out and in, one more out and in. Then you can do, dip down, push out, lift your hips, and in one more time, down, out, left, and in. Now reverse, open, down, come in and lift, open, down, come in, and lift. And it doesn’t have to be big.
Start with small range of motion. You can step off, and now we walk all the way around to the other side. So hand, foot, and you go up for the plank. Squeeze that block one solid piece and you go out and in, out and in, out work underneath Come in. Now, you can go. Dip, push, lift, and in. Dip, push, lift, and in, and now reverse out, dip down, come in and lift, out, dip down, come in, and lift.
And then your release. Perfect. So I hope you enjoyed this reformer and go step by step and build up those advanced exercises sometimes look so scary, but at the end, are not.
