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Hi, everybody. Welcome to class, tower class. Gonna be short and simple. I think I’ve designed it where it’ll fit for those of you who have a springboard. To that end, I have a roll-up bar, mine is at the top of the tower, and then I have just two purple springs or leg springs, and what…
Where are they? They are just about shoulder heights, say from the floor. Not even that high, actually. We can sort that out when we get to there. I’m just gonna have us start standing.
So, climb aboard onto your tower and let’s just face your dance partner here. Okay, so here we are and we’re gonna just play with it. We’re gonna let it give us traction. We’re gonna have some fun hopefully and get in and out of this workout relatively quickly. Looking down at your feet there, parallel.
Straight ahead, just shift your weight forward. Find your groove, find your balance. Take an inhale. We’ll just do one roll down here. Head goes forward, rounding your body forward.
Try not to shift back, already thinking about those collarbones wide. Inhale at the bottom. You can bend your knees. There’s no big deal there. Start thinking about exhaling first.
Re-stacking your spine, bone by bone, until you’re back upright. That’s kind of the time where I like to take inventory, like how do I feel? Where do I wanna go? We have more opportunity for that. So, grab hold of your roll-down bar.
I did step forward. You’ll make adjustments where you need to, ’cause we’re gonna do some more roll downs. Here’s the thing, I think of this bar almost like my collarbones, and that’ll come up again and again as we go through this workout. So, in other words, you’re not gonna round everything forward, you’re gonna keep your collarbones side to side just like this bar. As we inhale, start exhaling, I have a full grip on the bar outside the buckles.
We roll down, pushing the bar down. If it’s too far away, move forward. It’s the exact same position, but now you have this automatic resistance. Inhale, your head is heavy, start to exhale. Resist or reluctantly return to the upright position.
And, inhale. Start exhaling, giving yourself a sense of lifting almost. You’re tall, you’re not just collapsing down. You’re working almost in opposition to the bar. Inhale, start the exhale, feel the abdominals.
Naturally press up against the spine toward it anyway, until you get back up. So, it’s not really about arms right now, it’s just about feeling myself and hopefully you too. Exhale, rounding forward. Down, down, down. Arms are somewhat just hanging, but of course they have to be engaged, so they can be straight.
Inhale should be straight. Exhale, come on back up, up, up, up. Let’s give ourselves one more. Make any adjustments you think you need to in order to take inventory on your own body. Exhale down.
This is a place where it’s really tempting to reach the arms forward, so put ’em back on your back, keep your back round, and then come back up. Voila. More to that point, you’re standing tall again, you may have to step a little further forward, you might step back, but the idea here is collarbones wide, we’re just drawing the bar back to our legs, opposing it by lifting taller. Right away, if all this is… If this is all you did, you’re already feeling taller, exhale, hopefully.
And, I think it’s worth mentioning, you know when you’re holding onto something else, you can put your tension to your hands, but that’s not what we’re going for. It’s more like they’re the vehicle to connect your arms to your back. If you wanna know if you’re doing a good job, oh, boy, I just challenged myself, you’re gonna pull as you rise up on the toe or to the heels, and heels go down. Kind of controlled. Think about that exhale first.
You draw the arms back to lift the heels and you control your way down. Let’s do out three to five more and release. Subtle sense of constantly reaching the arms down, but not to the strain of the shoulder. I said three to five, so I’m gonna do two more. Split the difference.
One more. I always like once I start, just feels like, alright, I’m committed now. I got this. Alright, so then help yourself down to the mat, bar stays where it is, holding just outside the buckles again, go ahead and straighten your legs if you can. Try one like that and then we’ll…
We’re probably gonna switch it, but before we do anything else, in other words, you could bend it, right? So, we don’t want you back here rounded. Sit up as tall as you can. Feel free to bend the knees. And, again, as if the shoulders were somehow connected to the bar, we’re just gonna lightly press down, giving ourselves more space in the spine.
It’s a subtle exhale. If you find yourself really dropping forward, it just means you’re working too hard. We’ll get there. It’s like, alright, my arms are connected to my back. The springs are there to assist me in some ways.
Keep going. Let’s do five. You inhale up, exhale two, three, four, and five. And, go ahead and either go to a diamond position, that means the soles of the feet together, the knees are outside, or dropped to the side separated. Remember that start or what we just did?
The shoulders are engaged. You’re not just starting from zero on the springs. You’re inhaling. Start the exhale and drag the springs towards you by moving your spine. We go down just to about the shoulder blades.
Take an inhale there. Start the exhale. Where are your collarbones? Right in line with that bar, right? Nice and wide.
Exhale, come forward, stay curved, stay curved, stay curve. Shoulders over hips. Sit up a little taller or very straight, light press on the bar, roll back. Exhale. Inhale, hold, check yourself out.
What’s going on? Start that exhale. Coming forward, stay curved. It’s supposed to feel kind of good. We’re warming up.
Inhale, little press on the bar to lengthen your spine. Exhale, hip bones, the front hip bones pull back. You can engage your abs all you want, but mostly if you just breathe, it’s gonna work. Inhale, start the exhale. Coming forward, keep the curve. Keep the curve.
Don’t just rely on the spring until you get over your hips and sit up tall. Inhale. Again, exhale down. Nice. Take a deep breath there.
This time, think about holding the waistline back. So, that might require a little bit of holding the abs harder. It also means that the collarbones stay where they were. They don’t get to go forward. Lift up, exhale back.
Make it a kinder rhythmic. Can’t help but think of the waves and the undulations. That’ll come up again too. Sit up tall. One more like that.
Inhale. Exhale up. Then, you can keep your legs like that, might be really appropriate for some. I’m gonna go to parallel feet. My knees are just a little…
Actually, put… I’m gonna put ’em together, but the diamond still works. We roll back. Same thing to about the shoulder blades. Check yourself.
Are you letting the bar pull you or are you in charge? Stay here. Inhale. We’re going to curl up partway. Exhale, hold the waistline back, but come as high as you can, if that makes sense.
Inhale right back down, exhale up. You’re gonna hold onto that bar, but you’re not gripping it with all your might. You don’t have to. You’re just holding it and allowing the springs to help you up even as you resist them. Again, just loosening up that low back.
Keeping the curve on this version, right? Curling up. I’m not going quite up to my hips this time. I’m just trying to make sure I’m massaging that low to mid back. Inhaling down, that’s what I’m doing.
You could do it either way. Starting that exhale. Sort of becoming more acquainted with my tower, my springboard. Alright, happy? Sort of?
Let’s go down again. Inhale. We’re gonna go towards the front, towards your screen. Rotate the whole body, so it’s not just your arms, right? You’re just gonna…
It’s not that big actually, but feels like it sometimes, curling up again. So, I’m just hanging out on this side. My knees aren’t going either direction. Just thinking shoulder to hip, zeroing in on that one side. Exhale, really holding back a little bit.
I’m not trying to make you strain, I’m trying to make you almost realize if you start that exhale, it’ll do the job, and your action will create the actual work that you want. And… We’re gonna come down and just cross over to the other side, so check yourself out. It’s always a little different. My legs wanna swing on this one for some reason.
Just a note, I am pressing down on the hand closest to the leg that I’m to turning towards, and come up just a little bit, just so I can keep that connection to my back. And, exhale. It’s almost like you want the springs to try harder. And, you’re like, uh-uh, nope, I got this. You got three to four more.
Here we go. Again, the legs can be apart. They could even be straight. I wouldn’t go for straight though. I’m doing one more after this or here it is.
And, then we come back to the center, roll ourselves up, stretch out your legs. Reengage, so you have the shoulders on your back, that little subtle press. You can loosen up your hands if they got too grippy. We’re gonna go down all the way this time, just for one. If it’s really heavy, you could slide closer to your feet really.
And, I’m just wanting you to connect to your back a little more as we carry on. So, what I’m doing is I’m pulling the bar right or very close to my chest with the elbows going wide, not allowing my low back to arch anymore. Just going, oh, yeah, there’s my back. Feels good. Get those arms a little tiny bit warmed up.
Let’s do four more. One, not popping up the ribs. Two, just doing one action. And, finally, forearms are straight. And, then up we come.
Rounding up, up, up. Sitting tall. Okay, you can just set your bar down. Let’s just flip round. If you have poles, you’ll wanna use them.
Just hold onto them kind of low and hopefully so that you could let your elbows drop. If you don’t have poles, just take your arms out to a T position. We’re just doing a little bit more spinal warmup and it goes like this. Bring your knees up to 90 degrees or a little closer to you if needed. They can also stay on the floor.
We’re gonna rotate as if the leg were one to the front to the window. Inhale, start the exhale, and it’s almost like you’re let knees sway back to center. Other side. Inhale and exhale. Inhale.
Oh, my back is loving this today. Exhale, it’s popping, and cracking, and talking to me. Other side. Things to check for for yourself, are your knees aligned? So, especially as you go to the front here, look at it.
It’s as if you have one leg. Start exhaling and come back. Sort of the range of motion is really dictated by you being able to keep your shoulders down. So, if holding the poles is too much, you can also just go to that T position or even lower V. But, let’s keep those shoulders down.
To the back, inhaling. And, start to just feel how naturally that exhale allows the abdominals, the center, it’s not just the abdominals, to contract and support you. Let’s go for support rather than work right now. To the back. One more each way.
And, last one. Okie dokie. Feet go down, arms go down. Let your feet be apart. We’re doing a couple pelvic curls.
We’ll make it a slight bit more interesting hopefully. Collarbones are wide, inhale. Start the exhale. Allow the pelvis to roll off the mat. Look, let’s go all the way to the shoulder blades.
You get to stand in your upper arms a little bit and certainly your feet. So, it’s as if you’re in a quadruped on your back. Inhale. Again, allowing natural things to happen. Just exhale and let your chest fall.
Let your middle back fall. Let your low back fall all the way down till you feel like you’re at level or neutral, perhaps. Inhale, start that exhale. You can use your feet, but try to use the middle of the body first until you really have to lift your hips up. Then, go for it.
Stand on it. But, check yourself out here. Here’s a thing I like to do. Put my arms on my legs. Make sure…
Go for flattening out that area where your leg meets the hip, rather than being piped down here, I’ll call it a tucked pelvis, right? You’re gonna round your low back, and then step in your feet more, and you ought to fill your hamstrings. Come on, find the hamstrings at least. Inhale, exhale, roll down. And, then we hang onto the hamstrings to a pretty good degree until the very end.
You can let ’em go for a brief moment. Inhale, start the exhale. Let the natural ability of the abdominals to pull the pelvis off the ground. Step on your feet. Your knees are still where they were.
They’re not going to the side or inward for that matter. Inhale, check your hamstrings, re-tuck, step into it more. Exhale, come down. Do one more like that. Inhale.
Start the exhale. And, I’m just gonna remind you about those arms. You’re kind of reaching ’em, ’cause in a minute you’re gonna really need them. Inhale and exhale down. Okay, so far so good?
Yes is the answer. Reach up if you can or sit up and grab the bar. This part’s a little tricky. You’re gonna hold the bar, bring your legs over the bar, and hook your knees. If it’s really slippery, you could stay without the bar and do the…
Or most of this, but or you could wrap something. But, we’re… We’ve got that. Once you’ve got the bar down, you could put your feet down. Then, you find those poles or you could push against the wall if you have a springboard.
Okay, from here, the real goal is to keep your feet on the ground for this first part. So, you’re gonna do the same thing. Pelvic curl up, stand on it, be careful with that slippery bar. Take what you need. So, I still have weight in my feet.
I am pushing away from the wall. And, I feel good, like now it’s easy to find those hamstrings, or more so, ’cause I don’t wanna lose this bar, right? Inhale, exhale, and give yourself traction on the way down. I’m pushing away from the wall. I’m lowering my spine back into the mat until it is down.
My feet are still on the ground. That’s the hardest part right there. They don’t… They wanna pop up, don’t they? Exhale, rolling up, up, up.
Yes. Inhale. You could do this with your arms down. I’m not recommending it at the moment, but you could. And, down.
And, the reason I’m not recommending it is ’cause I know where I’m going next. Inhale and exhale. Rolling up. Stay here. Tuck your pelvis more.
I know you think you are and you probably are, you’re not like me, but I’m gonna recommit, do I definitely feel the hamstrings. Then, I’m just gonna lift both heels up. Theoretically, leaving my hips exactly where they are, push the heels down, lift them up, push it down, lift them up, push it down, lift, and lower. I’m gonna play with this next one. It might be a tiny bit hard if you’re on a springboard, but I think it’s gonna work fine as long as you can turn your hand sideway to push off the bar.
But, we’ll see. What we’re gonna… Roll down. And, I’m actually gonna give you a little jump at the end of this. So, we’re gonna peel back up again and then you’re gonna do just a few little hops and back down.
Hop, back down. Again, push away if you’re too close to that wall, it’s not gonna be easy. Up and down. One more. Okay, then roll down again, give yourself a minute.
I’m gonna let you bring the bar in just to kind of stretch that out. Hang on to it with your knees. We’re going back and we’re gonna make this a little bit of a full articulation. Feet are back down. Inhale, prepare, hands are on the wall, pretty straight arms, you’ll want that distance.
Exhale, peel up. When you get to the top, hop and bring your knees right over your shoulders. You can hold and then roll back down. Hold onto that bar. Hold onto that bar.
Hold onto that bar. Your feet are back in the starting position, okay? So, if you missed that, you can stop and check this one out. But, we’re gonna peel up just like the pelvic curl, but right at the top, we get to hop off, curl the knees overhead like we’re doing a backwards summersault. Here it is.
Pop, bring it over, leave your spine up for a moment, then start rolling it down. Ah, feels good, right? Push, push, push, and hop, and roll. One more time, rolling it up. Once your pelvis is up, your hamstrings are still engaged, you can roll it down.
Do you think you could reverse it? Give it a shot. So, what you do here, you’re gonna to bring the knees into your chest, roll your spine up, reach your knees up, reach those feet for the floor landing in the pelvic curl up position, ooh, hamstrings, and roll your spine to the mat, okay? So, draw the legs in and in. Roll the spine up.
When you get up there, you start to reach the legs out, toes down, and bring it down. Again, you’ll have to push hard on that wall if you don’t have poles. Here we go, two to go. Roll up, reach out, soft landing, and down you come. Last one, I’m doing my best to articulate when I come down.
I kind of missed that last one, so I’m gonna really think about it this time. Chest, upper back, middle back. Woo-hoo-hoo. Bring the knees in, hang on, hold on to the bar pretty strongly. Now, take your feet out carefully.
We’re gonna sit up. I like to hold right in the middle and then I just help myself up from there. Alright, we’re heading into leg springs. So, where I have mine at the moment, it’s one, two, three, four, down. It’s not as…
It’s not what I would call sort of shoulder height with me just standing. It’s a little higher. But, that’ll depend on your strength and what… How heavy your springs are. I have the purple, the heavier ones.
And, we’re gonna do just a couple double leg springs. So, come on down on your back again. Place a foot in each strap just to kinda remind you how squirrely these straps can be or these springs. And, then with your hands on the poles or the wall, slide yourself away until your arms are straight. At that point, you could put your arms down, but I’m just gonna leave ’em here for now.
We’re not gonna be here long. Taking your feet into that frog position, tailbone is down, so be careful that… Or, mindful, I should say, not careful, you’re not gonna hurt yourself, but let’s let the pelvis, the sacrum, the whole spine be down as much as possible as we extend the legs straight out, and pull in. So, it’s a little bit different than if you were on a reformer, right? They’re the spring, so you’re not necessarily going on the high diagonal.
In fact, you’re not. If anything, if you could see your heels, they’re going straight out from you and they stay on that straight line as they come in. It’s one way of looking at it. They end on a diagonal, but it’s not… You’re not going up with those heels.
Yes. A little spring in the morning, it’s good, or the evening, I suppose. Just getting yourself reacquainted, ’cause we’re about to go to single leg. That’s why I just want us to have this moment of regrouping with the leg. How about one more here, come all the way in.
Go ahead and take ’em both off and turn towards me. The spring in front is the one I’m gonna use first. Lying all the way down, place your top foot in that strap, and then you’ll adjust here for really the tension that you want. I’m gonna lay on my lower arm. You could put a pillow there.
I’m gonna use the top arm, for now anyway, to brace on the bar. If you don’t have the bar again, you just put the hand down. Alright, so I have my legs turned out just a little bit. And, for now, we’re just gonna allow the leg to come up, try not to move the pelvis, and draw it down. Sort of like what we were doing earlier, right?
You’re not really tensing the foot, it’s gotta hang on of course, but if you think maybe of moving the leg from a little bit higher up, you probably start to connect to the torso as well, which is kind of the point. We’re doing three more here, go all the way up. It’s okay if your spring goes loose, but pretty much trying to keep it, so you might wanna move it away. Last one down, hold it down. I’m keeping that little bit of turnout.
Kick the leg forward. Try not to move your pelvis. Just kick it back from there. Kick it forward, kick it back from there. Oh, god, it kind of feels good, you gotta admit, right?
Here’s some ideas. When you get back here, it sometimes can drive the hips up. So, reach into the spring, open up those coils. Do two more like that and then we’ll make a circle or a box. One more.
And, here we go, we’re going forward. Raise up. You might lose tension here, that’s okay, ’cause that just makes you work harder. Take that leg behind you and meet back up in the middle. Go forward, raise it up, circle it back.
Spiraling that leg in the hip joint. Again, three, lift it up, take it back, and close. Four. How many should we do? Let’s do six.
Take it back, milking it a little. Here’s five. Oh, yeah, one more time, sort of, right? You know it’s coming, right? Line it back up.
Adjust yourself if you need to. You probably don’t. Take it back first. Raise it up. At a certain point it has to turn, so do it, and then take the leg forward, catch the spring, and bring it back again.
Number two. Three. Just noticing how you can control the leg where you’re not rolling backwards or forward. Here’s four. And, finish this one to come on down.
Alright, go ahead and take that out, set it down, and just if you can reach onto your foot back to that idea of that pelvic curl almost. You’ve got a slight bias to the tuck of the pelvis. Knees are basically lined up, so don’t let the knee come way forward. And, then just see what you can do about pulling your heel towards your glutes for a stretch of the quad. Woo-wee.
Right, we are gonna just get up, swing round, do the other side. Try to kind of be in the exact same position if you can, although our sides are different. Placing your foot in that spring that’s in front of you, resting on your head or your pillow, you can bend that elbow, and just look down your body. It’s always worth checking yourself out I think, that your legs aren’t way behind you, or really far forward, a little far forward’s fine. Alright, we have that little bit of a turnout, a long waist.
We just allow the leg to go up and then reach longer than where you started if you can. And, this top arm is not holding on for your life. If anything it’s almost bracing or pressing, so you have some stability from there. Three, and up. Okay, we’re down on this one.
Come down, stay there, go forward. I’ve still a little bit of a turnout. That means inner thigh sort of… Well, it’s not facing the other one. Forward and take it way back.
I didn’t go back on that last one. Again, forward, trying to maybe keep the leg level as it goes forward and back. Three to go. And, then here it comes, going forward, you probably will lose a little resistance here, that’s okay. Get it up there.
Get it up there. Use the bottom leg for help by the way. Spin that leg around behind you, bring it down, and do it again. Number two, up, around, and down. And, then just notice like if you didn’t use your hands at all, you’d be holding a little more from the middle maybe.
So, just an idea. You can do both. Keep it going. Lift. If I’m giving you an extra one, you can just sit tight, but I don’t think I am.
There we go. Line ’em back up and let’s reverse it to the back. Raise it up as high as you can, then spin it forward, place it in front of you even without that tension, bring it back again. Up. Kind of make it feel good.
It’s sort of like a mortar and pestle. I don’t know, it just feels like it’s just lubricating in the best of ways my hip joint. And, up. Let’s go two more here way back, without changing much in your spine for this version, way back, and then bring it home. Okay, you can let yourself out of there and sit yourself up.
For this next one, we’re doing a little bit of arm work. I think you’re gonna wanna lower your roll-down bar. So, I am. So, that’s what I’m gonna take the time to do. And, I’m taking it down to…
For this tower, is just two eyelets down, so it’s kind of near the top. But, we’re gonna stay kneeling. So, this one, you’ll find your position. We’re doing a little bit of a tricep situation. So, you’re, as if you were standing, you’re on your knees, you’re upright.
And, I’d want you to try to be in a position where you’re not leaning back on your knees. So, it’ll… We’ll don’t have to be here all day. If anything, I want you to feel your hamstrings first, then we’re gonna just press the bar down. Just very similar to that first exercise we did, except for we’re bending the elbows.
So, arms are right by your upper body, and you straighten the arms, and you bend it. I do have a grip on the bar, but I’m not focused on it. It’s just down, up, down, up, down, up. Oh, we do a few, few more of these, don’t you think? If it’s too easy, backup, but if you get too far back up, it becomes something else, ’cause I do want the hamstrings involved.
Let’s do three more. One. Check those shoulders. You know the deal with the collarbones. One more time.
Boom. Boom. Thinking of Tom Cook when I say that. If you need to shake out your hamstring, do. And, be glad that you had it.
Now, what we’re gonna do is a little bicep. So, I’m holding onto the bar, again, outside the buckle, over hand grip if that helps. This one you can move forward a little bit. And, for starters, we’re gonna stay completely upright. So there’s a subtle downward press just a little bit.
Then, you keep the upper arms where they are, and you just bend, and straighten front there, okay? It’s a little funky at first, so if you need to lean for… Or, move forward, I should say, go ahead. But, the idea is that your chest again is open, that your arms aren’t going up and down. You’re just from there bending and straightening.
If you need more, move forward a little bit, and maybe even, we’ll first find those hamstrings, lean a little bit, and let’s do 10, nine, eight. Again, the upper arm’s not moving. Seven, six. Two. And, one.
Fabulous. Alright, little bit of side action. We’re getting there. Going fast, isn’t it? Hopefully.
Have a seat facing front, I suppose. Same roll-down bar situation. But, now you’re gonna hold right in the middle. And, this is just to engage the side of the body with maybe a little stretch too. For starters, you’re upright.
Make sure your feet are on the floor. If you are on a floor, go ahead and just cross your legs, or whatever’s most comfortable. You might even wanna sit up a tiny bit. This one’s not so easy. So, from here, first thing’s first.
I’m holding the bar, middle of my palm. I’m… I don’t know how to say it. I’m popping my elbow up. So, like the middle of my elbow, the eye of the elbow’s hopefully facing you and yours facing me, so that my elbow’s not to the ground.
From there, just press and lift, feeling the lat, feeling the obliques little bit. And, whew, whole other leg just came off. So, I’m gonna ground myself again and do four more. One, up. Two.
Three. Four. Now, we make it more, more. So, pull down as much as you can. Other arm goes straight up.
Try to hold that down or maybe take it further down as you lean, not lean, arch over to one side. Come back up and you can let it go down. Let your opposite free hand go down and the bar up. Here we go again. You start to press, the arm floats up.
Try not to lock the elbow on this one. Doesn’t have to be big. Rotate over, both sit bones stay on the mat. And, hopefully, both feet. Number three, we’ll do six, arm comes up, so you’re already engaged here.
Now, as you press down, it’s like you’re going up and over, as if you could go over that bar, keeping the shoulder in place, and up. Two more. Press, reach up and over, come on back. Last one for this side, of course, lift or press, lift over, come back, and up. That’s hard, harder than I wanted it to be, but that’s okay.
Switch around, other side. Hand in the middle. Just reminders that sometimes it’s really easy to let the fingers start to do all the work and it’s just way harder and way less effective. So, let’s get the middle of the palm and don’t be shy to grip it. Just take some focus off it.
So, just with the free hand down on the mat, elbow kind of pointed to the back of the room, you just press and feel what it is on this side before we do the whole stretch, here’s two of six. Three, kind of getting all that energy under the arm lifted and working. Two to go. Same start, but now as you press, the free hand kind of lines up, take it overhead, and start to arch over. Come back up.
I’m sure I scooted further away on this one. We press down, start to side bend over, come on back, and up. And, again, press. We arch over. And, if the arch gets too much, you can think up, right?
Just that’s sort of almost more important, but I am trying to get a little bit of a side bend here. And, up. Again, press up and over. I believe there’s one more. If, again, if I’m giving you an extra one, sit tight, we’re almost there.
Cool. Alright, then, a little back extension and we’ll be done. So, the bar should be good. I might take it back up. I think I will take it back up just for security.
So, I’m taking it back to its starting position and then the trick is gonna be getting down here safely. So, hang on to it. Lower yourself down. And, positioning, I’m just trying to get to straight back. I mean not straight back, straight…
Pretty straight arms. Holding outside the buckles again, and get that full grip. And, best you can lower your head to the mat, forehead down, okay? Something to think about here, you don’t have to touch the mat, but near there. If it’s too tight for your shoulders, you can get out of this whole position, and just keep your hands on the ground.
Otherwise, your legs are straight. If they can be together, fantastic. If not, that’s okay too. Just don’t let ’em get super wide. From here, all you’re gonna do is start to, just hold the bar a little, you’re gonna start to look up, start to lift your chest.
You’re not pushing on the bar anymore than you were a minute ago. That’s it. And, then go back down. So, theoretically, the bar’s basically staying where it started, getting a little shoulder stretch there. Start to lift your head, look forward.
For a moment, press your sternum into the mat before you try to lift any higher. The idea is not that you’re gonna push on this bar and just get higher, it’s that you’re actually articulating your own spine, using the muscles that do that to get up and then reverse it going down. Alright, more fun. Here it is. You start to lift up, same thing, same thing.
Get as high as you feel you can hold, without falling. Now, you can just press the bar down just like we’ve been doing. From upper arms, two, hold it here. Three, body’s not moving. Your legs are stretched so long.
Four, we’ll do six. Here’s five. Here’s six. Let the bar go up. Lower your chest down.
Yeah? Let’s do it again. Lifting up, lifting up, and we press, we press, we press. And, let the bar go up and you go down. Nice.
Last one. Coming back up, peel yourself up. Get where you can stay as best you can. And, now lower and lift almost to no spring tension. Lower and lift almost to no spring tension.
Three, four, five, we’ll do six of course, six. And, then lower yourself down. Take a moment there. And, then again the hard part, carefully walking your hand, one of them, to the middle. Help yourself up to place the bar back and come into a rest position.
Arms in front or back, whatever feels best to you. Probably back at this point, huh? Breathing here. When you’re ready, just put your hands maybe by your side to help you roll yourself up to a kneeling position, or standing, or seated, and just give yourself a pat on the back. We did it.
It’s enough for today for now. Thanks, see you next time.
