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Hi there, Sarah Bertucelli here. And we are going to do a nice zesty, powerful reformer class focusing on legs. So I’ve got my reformer set with the foot bar in my regular position and I just have a blue spring on. Let’s get started, okay? So I’m gonna come around here to the back end of the reformer and we’ll do a nice standing cat cow as our warmup.
So stand on your two feet and just feel your body and take a few moments to ground. Let’s take the arms up lifting, opening through the heart, and as you roll down you’ll take your hands forward and catch the edge of the reformer and then lunge into a flat back pit position opening through your heart here. Feel free always to find your position. Do you, I’m pressing deep into my shoulders here, enjoying that stretch. And then we’re gonna round in, allow the head to hang, the back to stretch.
How about an inhale maybe to go forward, I’m pressing down a little further that feels really nice on my shoulders. And then round in, let your eyes kinda lead the way. It’ll help your head follow along, reaching forward this time reach forward and perhaps change your gaze and go to a little back extension if that feels like a good idea. And then reach forward again. And then round in.
And let’s do one more there please. So I have my legs just resting up against the foot bar so that I can feel that they stay pretty stable in space. Feel free to use that as a tool, but just be mindful if your foot bar doesn’t lock into place that you might need to adjust accordingly. Come all the way to the stopper. Shifting back to your legs and let’s just reach down and change our springs for our footwork.
So I’m on three reds and a blue when I do my footwork. And then because I wanna work range and power with my legs, I’m actually going to take my foot bar up so it’s in the highest position, which allows me to push a little bit more with the legs. So I recommend giving it a try unless your knees or hips don’t really approve. So lie down onto your reformer, please and settle in. Start in a diamond shape so your legs, your knees are kind of relaxed out to the side.
You can settle your pelvis, settle your body, and just try to feel that you are in a comfortable position for you. So I want there to be a gluteal focus here. So by being in this shape with your legs, if you press down into the bar, you wanna be able to lift your hips up and feel both glutes participating. And then lower down, you can articulate or you can just lift and hinge. So I’m just hinging right now and kind of feeling that position.
And then lowering down and then lift again and maybe sway side to side. Go to one side, see what you notice. Go to the other side and see what you notice. Do it again. What I notice every single time is that it’s a little harder, it’s a little stickier on one side.
So that’s the side I wanna sit with, just maybe a little longer and be curious about finding some new tissue there. Come back to center and then lower your body down. Repeat. We’re gonna lift up now set your pelvis to one side. I’ve gone to my right.
I’m going to bear the weight of my body with my right leg and lift my other foot and put it on the bar. So I have support, but the weight is in the leg that’s still in that open shape. And I’m gonna lift as high as I can using that right leg only. And I’m gonna lower down. And I’m gonna do that three or four times, just feeling that nice power from the body, from the back body, glute.
And then lift and hold here, take the other leg back into that open shape, shift the pelvis over to the left. Feel the support from the gluteal there. Lift the other leg up. Again, much harder for me on this side. My leg is there to support, but I’m not using it very much.
Using the gluteal to lift up higher and tap down and try to feel that nice waking up of your glute. And of course you’ve put your leg in a position that suits your body. Put both legs back down and then lower back down. Please put your heels for me on the bar. Now that your glutes are nice and alive, we’re gonna see if we can use them as we do the footwork.
So nice belly of the heel, settling in, we’re pressing out. What’s nice about using this high foot bar is you can come in deeper, you can deepen your squat and your strength here. Try to feel those inner thighs working at the top. Feel the outer hips working as you come in. So pulling with the inner thighs, pressing through the heels as you go in.
Also be mindful of fully straightening your knees and move at a pace that suits you. You are breathing and you’re moving and you’re using your body. One more, please, come all the way into the stopper. Shift your feet for me so that you’re in a sort of a modified prehensile. So I’m relaxing my toes over the bar.
I’m gonna press out. And the reason it’s modified is because I wanna find the place where I’m not dropping my heels fully under the bar yet. I’m just keeping my foot sort of soft but stable ish. So as I come in, I’m endeavoring to keep that feel, that shape of my foot here. So I’m trying to keep my heel basically where it was at the top and the bottom, keeping the foot still relaxed.
And we can push with a little bit more energy as you feel you’ve got it. So backs of the legs are participating. Inner thighs are also working. Quadriceps are working to pull up specifically at the top through the knee, but they’re working throughout, of course. Last one here.
We’ll come all the way in. And now we move the balls of the feet on the bar. So this is going to be the most challenging range of motion. One, I’m fully flexed in my knee. I’ve got full knee flexion, which is great.
Heels are comfortably lifted and we’re going to press out. You’ll also feel that whatever your regular spring tension is, it’s going to feel a little heavier here because the bar is higher and you’re stretching more springs. So feel free to adapt as needed, picking up the pace if it suits you, breathing and moving. And also feel free to move slower if you need to. So feel again, back to the legs, inner thighs, quads.
Feel that, couple more here. And then while we’re in this position, let’s keep our legs straight. Use both feet to press down through the heels and press up for your calf raises again, try to feel that your whole body is participating in the lift up, that it’s not just your feet, you’re lengthening through the crown of the head, growing a little taller with each repetition, moving into your prances, we change, change. Passing through that straight leg position each time, especially if you’re picking up the pace here. Feel free to pick up the pace and breathe please press up one more time please.
And we’ll hold the stretch. Adjust your foot so that your foot feels really relaxed in the stretch here. Again, it’s a lot of springs, so if it feels like you don’t wanna stay here as long, feel free to adjust. Change sides. I do like working on strengthening and I feel like these days that’s been my focus, really trying to keep my body strong as I age gracefully.
That’s the goal. And then we’ll press into both feet and find our way back home to the stopper. Put your heels together for your small V positions. Squeeze the heels tightly, feel your support here and out you go. So again, find the pace that suits you and make sure you are breathing please, enjoying a little zesty workout here.
Also check in and be sure that both legs are participating equally. Sometimes as we move faster, we may be compensating with one leg a little bit. So think about it, come all the way in and we’ll take an open V position so the heels are in a comfortably wide position for you. Ankles are flexed. I always need to settle just for a moment or two before I’m ready to press out here and then feel gluteals are participating.
And then out we go inner thighs too. Feel those gluteals. Feel the inner thighs. Sense that you’re actively pulling up through the kneecap so the quadricep is working. And then also be mindful of lengthening through your whole body.
So your whole body is involved in your footwork. Yes, couple more here and I’ll take one more please. And come all the way in. Find the stopper, hug those legs into your chest, perhaps roll a little bit side to side. And let’s make our way upright.
So we’re going to move back to that standing cat cow, but with a variation. So the bar needs to go back to the original position so that it doesn’t get in the way of your movement unless you’re quite tall, in which case you could keep it there up to you. So let’s come around. Hands stand once again, same arrangement. We take a breath up, we roll ourselves down and we reach forward into a flat back position.
Feel the beautiful stretch there. Now I’m gonna ask you to come up to what feels closer to a flat back position. Your arms are quite energized, your legs are straight. Lift all five toes up, squeeze your inner thighs and straighten your knees fully. So drive through your right arm.
Think about that, standing on your right arm and try to keep your shoulders level and your pelvis level as you send your right leg back. Okay, my leg is endeavoring to be parallel with the horizon. And then I’m gonna send my hand opposite hand forward and up. So I’m looking for lengthening here. Let’s tap the finger in the toe down and lift five and four, three.
So the goal here is to stay level. We’re gonna change that later hand and foot down other side. So drive through that left arm first. So there’s your root so that you have the space to rise with the other leg. So be mindful of keeping your pelvis level.
Your standing leg is very powerful here. Straight. Okay, float the other hand if you can. And then we’re gonna lift and tap and lift. You don’t even have to tap all the way down, although I said that.
We’ll do two more here. Keeping that energy of reach, hand and foot down. And then push forward deep into your stretch once again and round yourself all the way in and reaching forward again, let’s add on rounding in now, reaching forward first and then come up just a bit so you feel nice and stable. Same thing. We’re gonna root through the right arm.
Float the right foot up, float the left arm up. Now we round the back as we come in. You might touch your hand to your knee, you don’t need to. And you reach to that long position going deeper. And we’re gonna round in and we’re gonna reach and maybe go a little deeper into extension, rounding in and a little bit deeper perhaps into extension.
And one more time please. And perhaps into extension. Two hands and two feet down other side. So root through your left arm, keep your pelvis level if you’re able to, lift the leg up, reach the other arm. Nice strong, straight standing leg.
That was a lot to get outta my mouth there. Round in, perhaps you’ll touch your hand to your knee, you don’t need to. And you’re gonna reach forward, rounding in. And then as you reach forward, you can keep going if you want with the arm. And look into extension, opening the heart a little bit there.
Let your eyes go along with the movement ’cause where your eyes go, your head goes. And it’s good for our brains to have to change it up a little bit where we’re looking. Reach, reach, reach. And one more time please. And we’re gonna reach, reach, reach, two hands, two feet, push forward one time enjoying the stretch and round and roll yourself all the way in please.
Let’s adjust our springs for our hip work. So I like a red and a blue for my hip work. And we’re going to do some fun variations here. So lie back down. Oops, I got stuck on the bar.
Silly me. Lie back down. Settle in. You’re going to grab your straps and please put your feet in your straps. And let’s just begin with a few frogs first.
So just start classic frogs here. So I like to stop my frog about 90 degrees hip flexion. Going just a little bit beyond, but not too much beyond. Mostly that’s because I wanna put the attention on keeping my pelvis grounded. But certainly if you wanted to have more range of motion, you can.
My ankles are flexed and I’m really trying to wake up again. My hip extensors. So my hamstrings, my glutes. One more time, please, press the legs to straight and stay Two straight legs. We’re gonna come up and we’re gonna do circles in one direction down and around to the top.
Try to keep an external rotation. And just for fun, we’re pointing the feet. That’s plantar flexion plantar flexion. Good, just do one more like that please. And then reverse the direction of the circle.
Enjoying the range of motion here. So yes, I do want the pelvis to be stable, but feel free to explore your edges as long as you’re safe with the movement. It’s okay to be a little bit, to adjust a little bit to find a bigger range. Good. And then let’s just bend the knees in and pause for a moment.
So here’s where we’re going to change it up a little bit. Press the legs back out to straight, rotate to parallel, come up to about 90 degrees. Hip flexion, two straight legs, long-legged marching first. So we put one leg down, the other leg stays up, we come up and we go down. Now the goal here is that we can get the leg all the way down so you can feel the strap on your thigh.
So you can actually touch the table with your, like your foot is going into the spring. So if you’re able to do that, then the next piece will be no problem. If you’re unsure about the next piece, then feel free to modify and simply take a stretch or watch and work up to it, okay, so we’ll do one more like this and then take your right leg. I’m gonna start with my right leg and I’m gonna take it down and I’m gonna go out to the side. I’m holding the strap of my other foot just to be safe until I can find the frame of the reformer.
That’s so funny. I had a hard time finding it today. Once I find the frame, I’m gonna rest my foot on the little ledge there. And then I’m gonna take my other foot and put it on the little ledge. So I’m actually resting my feet on the ledge that the wheels roll on.
Now if you don’t have a balanced body reformer, you might have to modify this a little bit, but I think that it’s doable on most reformers. I believe that I’ve done it even on the allegro. But press down through those heels, feel the gluteals. I also would like you to feel this outward press. So I’m down and I’m out.
So I’m waking up my outer hip, I’m waking up my glutes. I’m just gonna keep my arms up. So they’re outta the way from the ropes. You’re welcome to do so as well. Hold this, lift one leg up and then put it down and then lift the other leg up and put it down.
So notice if you feel a lot of adjusting in your pelvis or notice if you feel that it’s harder to lift one leg, just notice. So we’re gonna go ahead and lift the right leg, hold the lift of the right leg, really push into the other foot. It’s really about the standing leg. Push down and out. And then allow that right knee to bend.
And you’re gonna, as if you’re pushing yourself into a big lunge, stepping up somewhere. So I’m pushing with my back leg and then I’m pushing with my back leg and I’m pushing. And then we’re gonna change sides. So right foot goes down on the ledge again, and then you’re gonna lift the other leg up. It’s in a bent knee position and I’m holding the rope just for support.
And so with my right leg, my standing leg, I am pushing myself in the direction of as if I were going to take a step forward with the other leg, push. So I’m using the gluteals, a little bit of lateral hip work as well. And then let’s come down from that. So that feels really nice and grounding for me. Now lift the feet up and place them on top of the wood piece, slightly roll in and squeeze.
So I would like your legs to be fully straight, but if they can’t be, the focus is inner thighs. So you’re squeezing the frame with your heels. That’s the rule, okay? Or that’s the goal. I don’t know if it’s a rule.
Straighten your two legs if you can, and squeeze. So keep the squeeze. It’s all about inner thighs for me. Trying to keep the stability of your pelvis. We’re gonna float one leg up, squeeze more to bring the leg across, right?
So I’m squeezing with my standing leg, but my other leg is moving. Squeeze. We’re changing now we’re gonna squeeze to bring the leg across. So try that a couple more times. Squeeze to bring the leg across.
Squeeze to bring the leg across. So let’s hold that first side. So we’re squeezing with the standing left leg, the other leg has come across and you’re gonna just see where you can go. How far across can you go? Keeping the inner thigh squeeze and you might feel a really nice stretch through your side body.
Feels good to me. Also feels like I’m learning how to use my adductors a little better. Let’s change sides. Squeeze, bring the leg up, pull it across. But you’re squeezing with that standing leg.
And hold for a moment. Feel that stretch, perhaps starting to show up in that side body and then undo it. You can bend both knees to come out of this if you’d like. And rest for a moment in just a comfortable position here we’re moving into short spine with some variations. So press your legs out to straight, make sure you have enough space against the shoulder rest a little bit of space between your shoulders and the shoulder rest.
Let’s fold at the hips until we find our way to the stopper. Once you’re there, use your abdominals, your arms, your everything to get up. That first time I have to wiggle a little. That’s okay. We’re gonna bend the knees and then we’re gonna roll down with control.
Flex the feet perhaps and come through pointing the toes down. Fold at the hips. Here comes the variation. We’re gonna roll up. So once we get to this position, feel the power from your whole core, your belly and your back.
Rotate your legs to parallel. If you’re able to, you’re gonna take your hands around and you’re gonna hold the frame with your hands and help yourself get up a little higher. I’m gonna keep energy in one foot as I take the other foot down. This is like our control, balance, my friends in mat work. So it’s a really great way to feel the hip extensor that is needed to help you support and control balance.
So feel the hip extensor that’s holding the spring and changing. So I’ve changed a couple times. So go ahead and rotate back to turnout. You can keep your hands there if you’d like. Bend your knees and roll yourself down and press out to straight.
Let’s do one more please. Folding at the hips, roll yourself up, rotate to parallel. Let’s just walk a couple times, lots of cross patterning, unilateral movement as well in this class here. So enjoy. Last one here, rotate back to turnout maybe, and bend your knees and then roll down.
Take a beat before you get up. I like to let the bottoms of my feet come together and my knees open. I also like to come into a cross-legged position sometimes too. And just relax here. That’s my new favorite one.
So I just take a breath or two. And then please remove the straps from your feet. Carefully climb up from your reformer and we’ll move on. We’re gonna go back to that standing cat cow shape. Just one more time for some really fun variety.
Here we go. So once again, you are going to stand in position like we have been. Take a breath up the exhale to curl down, reach forward and find that first shape where you’re in, not your overextended down dog shape, but a nice flat back. So your body is pretty much in alignment with your arms. So let’s root through the right arm.
Actually I’m gonna change my mind so I can look at you for the first time. We’re gonna root through the left arm. Okay, we’re going to float the left leg up and stay. So now we’re going to shift the weight to the other side. So same arm as leg is gonna support.
So I’m gonna rotate around and see how that feels. Okay, hopefully that feels okay. Let’s try bending the knee and let’s lift the leg up. So the free leg. And then you’re gonna open the pelvis.
And then you’re gonna come down. You’re gonna lean into same arm as leg. You’re gonna take the leg up, you’re gonna open the pelvis. Then we’re gonna stay there and we’re gonna decide if we can unweight the hand. Maybe you put it on the foot bar so that you can transfer to your side.
So I’m standing on one arm and one leg, and I’m gonna extend that leg out to straight and hold. Now if you feel safe here, you can lift your arm up and you can balance. I’m just keeping my finger here. And I’d like you to first try to reach deeper into it and come up to about parallel with the horizon and reach deeper into it and come up. And one more time, we’re gonna reach deeper.
Now we’ll come up support here. Take your arm up, bend the knee, the leg that’s lifted, and press using your glute. Bend the leg that’s lifted and press into the glute one more time and press and hold. And now we’re gonna try our sidekick standing. So you take your leg forward, woo, hand down.
Take your leg forward, take your leg back. Point the foot, perhaps take your leg forward. Take your leg back, see if you can work on your balance right now while I’m teaching you, I’m gonna keep my fingertip down, but maybe you can lift yours up last time, reach, rotate back to two hands and two feet. And wow, does my hip feel nice and juicy? I hope yours does too.
Let’s go ahead and round in one time. Reach forward again. Stay. So we’re gonna drive first through that right arm as we lift the right leg, okay? And let’s just bend the knee.
Okay, that’s, I think that’s a little bit easier. So I just have a bent knee. Now I’m gonna shift my weight. Same arm, same leg. So I’m on my left arm, left leg.
Okay, my hand is just supporting but it, my right hand is supporting, but it’s not actually doing anything right now. We’re gonna take the leg out to the side and then stack the pelvis and come down. I’m creating a little figure eight leg out to the side and try to stack the pelvis. And one more time, we’re gonna take the leg out to the side, stacking the pelvis. We’re gonna try to find this shape.
The power from the arm and leg that’s standing. See if you can take your hand maybe to the foot bar. Change your gaze, stacking the shoulders, stacking the hips. And then we’re gonna kick the leg. Actually kick the leg to straight first.
And then we’re gonna reach into it and come up. And we’re gonna reach pushing the spring. I’m reaching in and coming up. So I’m doing kind of a little bit of a side bend. It’s more of an arm movement.
Here we go, stay. So I’m parallel with the horizon about, with my body. I’m gonna try to find my balance with my hand, right? We’re gonna do a few donkey kicks there where you press, bend the knee and press, good. One more time and hold.
So try your sidekick here. You’re gonna take the leg forward and you’re gonna reach back and you’re gonna go forward and you’re gonna reach back and forward. And maybe your arm is up, maybe it’s not. When I’m not talking, I can mostly balance here. Hold, come on down.
Two hands and two feet. Just reach forward one last time, round and roll all the way in. And let’s move on to a little bit of arm work. So boy, that feels really nice in my hips I’d like to use two red springs to push my arms today. So it’s kind of heavy.
If you wanna change it, I invite you to do that whenever necessary. Okay, so, well, let’s start sitting. I got tongue tied there for a moment. Let’s start sitting at the back edge of the reformer and then reach forward and retrieve your strap. So I really like when I’m using heavy spring like this, wrapping my wrists around first and then allowing my hands to cut the straps so it gives me some support for my wrists.
And then I don’t have to squeeze so hard on any of the pieces. Certainly you could put your handles on if you wanted to. So I’m letting the spring pull me forward. So opening through my back body a little bit. And then I’m gonna squeeze back.
So just a nice little upper back work. So let your body, your head change here. So you’re stretching and then you’re bending, squeezing those shoulders. Let’s do a few more there. Little energy.
Now single arms. So looking around the shoulder of the arm that you’re working. So let your eyes change. Now you could get caught up doing this really with your hands and your bicep and really try to feel that it’s coming from your scapula, from your shoulders, from your back body. And do use your eyes here.
We’ll do just a couple more here. Feeling some heat growing for sure in my back body. And then we can go ahead and rest that. Put your straps away. Let’s just flip around onto our knees and do a little bit of pushing with this same heavy spring.
So here I do like to have my knees quite a bit off the reformer here so I can have more range. Start with your hands wide on the bar and push out if you need to lighten the spring, you’ll lighten the spring. So I’m gonna be as low as I can be here. As I bend in, maybe the tip of my head will touch the bar. That means I’m working more deltoid that way, especially if my back is pretty flat.
So you might slip your head just barely above the bar, but you wanna avoid if you’re focusing on deltoids right now, you wanna avoid getting up too high in space ’cause it’s gonna be more pec. And a couple more here. This nice powerful lift or pushes, strengthening those arms pushing. And one more time, but now we’re gonna lift the body up a little bit and we will do pecs. So bringing your chest in the direction of the bar and out.
So just bend and straighten at a pace that suits you using bull arms. Going a little faster, perhaps pushing your strength a little bit. I’ll take three more here. Good. And let’s rest that.
So one spring, we’ll do a down stretch. Take your feet all the way up against your shoulder rests and let’s settle into those feet and enjoy the start of the position. Curl your pelvis forward, open through your heart, press those feet into the shoulder rest and find that beautiful extended position. And then we slide the carriage back and we lift up and we’re breathing and we’re moving. So you are using your glutes, you are using your hamstrings, your abdominals are supporting your low back.
And your upper back is supporting your low back. Finding the range and the pace that suits you. Go ahead and rest that. Sit on your feet in a rest pose for a breath or two. You can keep your hands on the bar.
Hmm. Or you could take them out in front and rest them on the foot platform if you prefer. All right, let’s finish with some, well let’s not finish, but we are going to do quite a bit more legwork here. So let’s take the bar down to the bottom position again on this reformer. This piece is really easy to do because you have this foot bar to help support you a little bit.
If you don’t have the same foot bar mechanism, just take the bar all the way down and you’re gonna have to work on your own balance, which is fine. Okay? So you’re going to wanna find your best way to step up now onto the reformer. It’s nice when you have the foot bar like this because you can use it to help you balance, but it’s a good challenge to not have a foot bar to use. So let’s stand on our two feet with our big toes hanging off just a bit, okay?
And then bend both knees and then see how deep you can bend. I’m gonna lean into my standing leg and push the leg into the bar a little bit and keep this really deep bend as I use the leg that’s on the reformer to push out. So I’m really trying to get this gluteal focus. Let’s take the arms out to the side because it looks pretty. And I’m working with a little bit of energy here.
I really wanna push out a forward folded single leg skate here. Let’s do a few more here. Bam, and one more here. Bam. So we’re gonna come all the way in and then we’ll stand up.
So here I would like you to bend your knees a little bit and we’ll rotate in the direction of the standing leg. My leg is still facing forward, but my pelvis and my body is rotated. I’m gonna move my foot that’s on the reformer back a little just so I can get more extension, bend as deeply as I feel comfortable, and then push that leg to straight. So lots of gluteals here. We’re gonna take our two arms up and reach up as you push.
So nice energy with that leg and working agility as well. Two more here and one more. Now here’s where it’s going to get just a little bit creative, so whoops, I would like you to set your foot that’s on the reformer, maybe three or four inches in on the reformer. Turned out. Lined up with your arch.
So those of you that take yoga, we’re doing a little bit of a modified yoga pose here. Bend the front knee a bit, okay? And I’m focusing though on the leg that is on the foot platform here, rather than the leg that’s on the reformer. So I wanna use this strong glute to propel myself into the stretch and come in. Okay, so I’ll take my two arms out to the side and I’m propelling into a warrior pose, if you’re a yogi.
If you’re not a yogi, you’re just trying to use your leg to find a stretch here. So let’s press out and stay here for a moment. Use that strong glute. Take one arm behind you, reach the other arm up and see if you can extend your leg to straight, the one that is on the reformer. Now if your foot feels slippery, don’t choose to do that.
My foot feels very grounded. Good arms down. Let’s come in. One final thing here, we’ll take the foot now facing forward, middle of the platform. So we’re working some side splits, but my focus isn’t only on energy in the inner thigh, but it’s also energy in the outer thigh, hence the foot placement here.
So arms are gonna set start out to the side for me. And we find that place where we can go as far into the split as we feel comfortable. And you’re gonna lift your body up as you pull in, hold the carriage at the stopper using those adductors, those inner thighs, pressing out maybe a little further this time. And then we come in and we hold. Here’s an add-on.
We’re gonna press out perhaps a little further. You can put your hands on your hips and you’re gonna fold forward, keeping the carriage there. You’re gonna stand back up and then come in here, keeping your arms like this. Can you fold forward inner thighs and come back up one more time like that out. And keep your hands out if you want.
Or hands on your hips if it helps you, fold forward, come back up and in arms overhead, quite challenging to fold forward there. You could go out to the side if you want. Always up for a good challenge though. Let’s carefully come out of that and we’ll do the other side. So you’re welcome to use your hands to help you get up and down.
But I really like pushing myself to use my body without using my arms. So going to encourage you to give it a go. But feel free to use your hands if you need to. So I’m stepping a little bit forward on the reformer so that my big toes are hanging off and I’m generally about in alignment with my front shoulder rest. Let’s bend both knees.
Standing on the leg that’s on the foot platform, we’re gonna bend a bit deeper, trying to be parallel with the horizon. And we’re going to push the leg out. We’ll take the arms to the side ’cause it looks nice if you want. So creating some power there through the push. Using the gluteal, the whole body here though, breathing and moving my friends.
Just find a breath that really suits you. We’ll do three, two, and last one here. Good, come up from that. Standing on the same leg. We bend the knee just a bit.
We’re gonna rotate around, take the foot back a little bit. The one that’s gonna be pushing out and in. And notice I have my heel lifted here so I feel comfortable with my foot. And then I’m going to push my leg to straight. And then we can add this energy from the arms.
So the arms reach. Try to feel that you have equal weight on your front and back of your standing foot. So your glutes and your quadriceps are working here as well as the one that’s pushing. Last two here. One more please.
Ah, and we’ll come in. So now our modified warrior will take the leg turned out a bit in alignment with your arch, bend the knee, and just stay here for a moment. So we’re working on pushing with this straight leg. So really find the power from the straight leg to take the spring out in-in a few times. Straight leg.
You can take your arms out to the side and have a nice energy here. And really push, really, really like the way this feels. It helps me a lot. Hold here. Take the one arm behind your back.
Look up, reach up, attempt to straighten your leg. If your foot feels grounded enough, please don’t if it doesn’t, if it feels slippery, just don’t do it. But mine feels plenty grounded. Find your breath please. And one more here.
Good, we’ll come in and we’ll come out of that. So now at the stopper, turn your foot to face forward. So we have parallel feet about the middle of the reformer approximately. And just make sure you feel good here first, right? Then we’re gonna push out as far as we can go.
And you’re gonna feel good here. And then as you come in you can lift those arms. And that actually helps to, to get this engagement in the abdominals. I feel, opening out to the side. But there are so many birds out in the ocean right now, it’s really cool.
Pull in one more time. Here we go. Now we stay here. Hands on hips if you want. And fold forward and then lift back up.
Come in. Arms are up. Fold forward or hands on hips if you need. Okay, we’ll do that again. So we’re just trying to find agility in these positions.
Mobility, dynamic movement here should be challenging, but it should be doable. And we come in last time and we’re gonna fold forward and come up and carefully step down from there. So, whoops, bouncing my reformer around a little bit. I’m going to put the bar up to the middle position and finish with a luxurious mermaid. I sure hope you’ll join me.
Always good to have a mermaid after all that work, right? So in my mermaid, I generally like to tuck my foot closer to my bottom. It makes me feel comfortable and I have enough flexion in my knee to do that. I’m going to encourage you to work on finding fun surprises in your mermaid today. Okay, what do I mean by that?
So starting in your position with your arms straight sitting upright, we’re gonna reach out and we’re gonna stay there. So what can you do here? If you were to wave in the wind forward and back, can you feel a little bit more sensation by doing something? Rotate around. What about here?
I’ve got two hands on the bar. Perhaps if you were to wave in the wind a little bit and lean toward one arm or lean toward the other arm, do you feel something different? And where do you wanna be? Breathe in and breathe out. And then as we unwind here in this shape, looking forward in the side bend, can you open your heart looking up?
Feel that rounding as you go forward. We always do that. But when you open your heart and go back, does that feel nice? It does to me. And then come in.
Let’s do one more mermaid here in inhale, reaching away, finding your open position. What feels good? Rotate around, stretch. Take a breath here in this shape, maybe going a little deeper into it. Unwind and come on in.
I always like to have my arm sort of push me over. I get a nice stretch in my neck and my shoulder here. Let’s switch sides please. Okay, so I’m just gonna swivel around the other side and look at this. There are so many birds out there.
I don’t know that I’ve seen this many anytime recently. It’s crazy. So your foot is where it needs to be for you. You’re setting yourself up for your mermaid position. Your arm is straight.
Just be here for a moment and check it out. What do you feel? Where do you wanna be? And then we’re come gonna come to that side bend position. And maybe you wanna go right away to that rotation, but maybe you wanna do something else.
Just check it out for a moment. Breathe. And then you’re gonna rotate around for me. Find the next shape. And perhaps sway side to side.
Find something that’s interesting to you and breathe into it, please. It’s not about right or wrong, it’s about finding something you need here please. And then unwind. We’ll hold the side bend and actively see if you can open your heart and do a little bit of a back extension here in rotation. And then you’re sort of compressing a little bit or closing if you will.
So you could also think of it as opening your heart and then opening your back. And then let’s sit up and do one more mermaid. And you do you, we reach away, enjoy that shape and we rotate around whatever path makes sense to you. Mm. Breathing in and breathing out and unwind and come in.
And then again, I always like to let my straight arm, I come all the way into the stopper and I let my straight arm just kind of push me into a little bit of a neck and a shoulder stretch. It just feels really good right there. Let’s swivel around and finish with just a little bit of a powerful standing exercise. So sitting on the very edge of your reformer and we’re facing each other now, the knees are bent comfortably. You are gonna shift for me into the legs and make sure that you can shift comfortably and just come to standing and then shift comfortably and sit back down.
Not that hard when you have two legs on the earth, right? And come down, okay? So now will you cross one leg over the other and find your figure four stretch and enjoy a little hip release for a few moments. And the goal here is to see if we can stand on just one foot and come to standing. Let’s see.
Okay, so one foot is in, you’re in your figure four stretch. You’re gonna lean into those legs, lean into that foot and see if you can bring yourself upright to a balanced position. That’s fun, right? And then see if you can bring yourself down and take a soft seat. Or maybe not that soft, change sides.
We’ll just do it one more time please. Just once on each side, feel a little bit of a stretch here. Now this is my tighter hip here, but my stronger legs. So it’s interesting ’cause it’s the always an interesting challenge to see what will actually happen, right? But I do feel a nice little stretch.
Lean in and see if you can stand on the leg that’s on the earth and find your way to a standing position. Ah, and maybe you didn’t have to hop around and stick your tongue out to find balance. Good, and then you can try sitting down. Whoa. And maybe you fell, maybe you didn’t.
Let’s all stand up and take a big breath up. I thank you so, so, so very much for joining me with this class today. Another breath, inhale opening the heart. Good. My legs feel both worked and strong.
I hope yours do too. Thank you so very much for playing. I’ll see you again soon.
