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Hi. I’m Christine Crooks, and today, we’re going to go through a nice intermediate reformer flow. Join me. So starting off, not on the carriage, standing just on the side of the reformer with the carriage behind you, feet a little bit wider than that mechanical hip width. Arms are down by your side. So let’s take some body weight squats. So arms reaching forward We’re reaching towards the carriage with the hips and then stand back up trying to keep that nice long line of the spine sits bones are aiming back rather than down.
We can add a breath inhale down, exhale up. Let’s just do about 10 with that equal weight in the feet, hips folding back. The arms We’re getting a little warm up in the shoulders as we reach those arms forward. And as a true Pilates instructor, I lost counts. Let’s do 2 more. Inhale down, exhale up, inhale down, and exhale up.
Now let’s take a single leg squat or single ish. So we have the right foot. The big toe is just resting on the floor for a supportive bow. It’s not actually taking your weight. Arms are beside you again. Single leg squatting on the left.
You sit your hips back, still lengthened. And then coming up through that one leg. Inhale down. Exhale up. In hell down. This is 3.
I’m gonna count because these are harder. In hell down. Exhale up. Inhale down. Exhale up. Let’s do 2 more.
I’m trying to keep that knee tracking over the toes. One more for good measure. Inhale down. Exhale up. Shifting over to the right foot, same thing on the other side, left toes touching for balance, pushing through the floor to Santal, inhale down.
Exhale up. Inhale and exhale. Seeing how low you can get in that single leg squat. One more. Inhale, down, down, down, down, down, exhale up. Push.
Okay. Shake it out. We got some heat. We got some breath. Now let’s move on the reformer. I have 3 red springs and one yellow. So this is my footwork setting.
As you lie down, feet on the bar, on the heels to start, resting in the pelvis. Just settle in for a breath. And then inhale as you press out. Exhale as you return. Inhale press.
Exhale return. Two more. Alright. Now onto the toes, heels are slightly lifted. In hill press, exhale lower. One more.
Now take your toes wrapped over the top of the bar, heels trying to wrap under the bar. As you have that prehensile position, try to feel a slight lift in your arches. So you’re not pressing down through the midline of the foot or even the arch of the foot, but you’re really drawing up as you press away. One more. And down.
Now I’m going to take a slightly lighter setting for the springs. I’m just taking the yellow spring off. That’s all. And I’m gonna move these down. Now Going into our heel raises, on the toes again, we’re going to progress these. So as you press out, hold at the top, lower the heels, lift the heels.
That’s one. Come back in. Now we’re gonna do 2 calf raises at the top. Lower lift, lower lift, and back in, and press. Lower, lift, and 3. 1, and 2, and 3, and 4. Now we’re getting that heat in the calves.
Now what I want you to think of, we’re on 5. I want you to think of holding the bar with your toes as you reach the heels under. So you’re not dropping under the bar. It’s active. This is 61.
And 2, and 3. 4. Oh, fill in the heat, 5. And 6. 2 more sets. We’re gonna go to 8. 1.
And 2 and 3 and 4. 5. Oh, we’re feeling it. 6 and 7. Oh gosh. Last set. Come on. We can do this.
Pressing out. And 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, last one, and down. Reach the legs over the bar. Get a little rolling on the calves. So those progressive calf raises or heel raises.
I love those from my bossy education way back when. Okay. Now let’s shift gears to a little bit more of our center in all fours positions. So let’s take it down to one red spring coming into our kneeling position here. Hands on the bar or on the rails, rather.
Now I like to start in a slightly open position. So I’m not perfectly stacked in my all fours. I have my hands just barely in front of the shoulders. Because what I’m going to do is take a bit of emphasis on the forward to really stack my shoulders over hands, and that opens up the hip creases slightly. So just finding that orientation there, that connection through the upper body, shoulder joint, connecting into the core.
Fold the hips. And back, so we were flat back abdominals. Two more. Good. Now set the carriage back to home. Take a moment. Open the chest towards the floor.
Coming back up. Okay. 2nd round, now taking our round back. So, again, trying to find that stacked position shoulders over hands, but now I’m going to find that rounded shape. So as I draw the carriage off the stock, there. I’m set with my shoulders. Now finding that rounded shape from my pelvis, turning it like a wheel, to round. Now I’m going to pull from my lower half.
Shoulders stay over hands. We’re doing 5 total. This is 4, and 5. Lengthen back out. Again, we’re building a lot of heat.
Okay. Obliques. Take your hands over to the right side of the railing. So we’ve got the right hand. Left hand goes over the right.
Now I’m going to look over my shoulder at my right hip. And as I find that side bend in my right side, I’m trying to keep my sits bones aiming towards the foot bar. I’m setting that connection in my shoulders again, so a little spiral in my shoulder joints. And then as I pull the carriage forward, I’m staying flat back for this one. 5. We got one more.
Linkedin. Oh, boy. Okay. Other side. Right hand over left side bend. Again, sits bones aiming. So I’m not swaying my hips over to the right side of the room. I wanna keep my side bend as the moving piece. Now, stabilize through the shoulders and then fold from the hips.
Trying to keep the shoulders square to the side of the reformer. One more. Okay. Now after those obliques, side bending, we gotta center ourselves again. So taking our square position here, we’re gonna go into a little single leg. Flat back.
I’m, again, connecting into the shoulders. I’m gonna reach, you know, what? We have a red spring on. Let’s go down to a blue. That’s gonna be nicer for all of us. Alright. Again, sitting in those shoulders. Now extend the right leg straight back, reaching back through the heel.
Pelvis to square to the floor, feel you’re pushing the floor away, fold at that hip crease. And extend. One more. Bring that knee back down. Carriage is home. We sit back.
Last one. Center the shoulders over the hands, long through the spine, Left leg reaches back, extending through that heel, fold. So we’re lifting abdominals away from the floor. We’re reaching back into that left heel towards the wall behind. Reaching out through the crown of your head.
And set the carriage back. Knee comes down. We sit back. Okay. It’s time for feet and straps.
I know some people like to save this for the end. A colleague of mine who used to call it milk and cookies, but for today, we’re gonna do it in the middle of class. So I have a red and a blue spring. Head rest is down because we are going to go into some inversions partway through. So I have my straps, straps on feet.
Okay. Arms are beside. Let’s extend the legs up towards the ceiling. Pause here. So this is our vertical position. Right? My vertical position may be different from your vertical position.
Whatever that is, the legs are up, the pelvis is anchored. So I have a nice level position through the pelvis and hips. And what I feel to be a ported position for the low back and pelvis. Now as I lower the legs, that doesn’t change. That position stays relatively the same.
So that dynamic control of the pelvis allows this work and movement into the hip joints. I’m just lowering and lifting the legs a few times, finding that stretch up through the hamstrings, and that connection down through the abdominals. Now take a v position and continue the lower and lift just for a slightly different pull on the back of the legs. Slightly different connection for those abdominals and midline. One more time.
Now lift to your vertical and hold parallel the legs. Carriage does not move right leg open out to the side back to center. So we’re not moving the carriage the tension in the ropes stays the same the whole time. Dynamically controlling where the carriage is, where your legs are. Two more, right, leg open. So we’re doing the one side to really ground down through that opposite hip.
Now hold at the top. Feel that center connection. And then left leg out. And center. So while the left leg is moving, the right leg is reaching up towards the sky, keeping that nice isometric energy into the strap.
One side might need a little more persuading. Good. Now both legs are vertical. Let’s press down 2 or 45 ish. Right? It could be slightly lower if that’s fine for your spine. Now bend your knees. Let’s take a few frogs.
We have the heels connected, folded in, and then press. And press. So with my leg shape, as I fully extend, to keep my heels together, my knees don’t actually fully extend. So just for those of you at home that have always thought, oh, gosh, I could never get fully extended my frog. Hey. Use what your body needs.
Because I feel that stronger connection to my midline as I keep the heels connected. Last one. We press. Hold it there. Now let’s take this into our short spine. So arms are down.
Head rest is down. Right? Legs start to float up. I’m staying in a slight v position as the carriage keeps going down to the springs or toward the stopper, I’m starting to peel my pelvis up. The carriage hits the stopper for me. I roll up in my short spine, tension in the rope stays, bend your knees.
Keep that distance from your heels to your sits bones the same as you roll your spine. Back down. Anchor through the sacrum. Press. Fold. Peel up, inhale bend, exhale roll down.
Extend. We’ve got 2 more. In helpful. So I’m trying to reach the stopper. Right? This is not the absolute. I’m trying to reach it.
And then as I peel up, I reach it. I keep the carriage still here. I keep the carriage still as I bend the knees. And then roll the spine down and pressing out last time in hell up. Exhale rise.
Inhale. Bend. Exhale roll down. And pressing forward. Now parallel position, we’re gonna go towards the 90, and I fold just a bit inside of the 90 because I’m just nicer to myself. Because if I’m really at that vertical, there’s quite a bit of work to have happen in the front and back body.
I’m just gonna buy slightly in towards me. I’ve got my pinky finger on the rail telling me if I’m in fact stabilizing the carriage. I’m gonna roll up long spine. Now reaching up into those straps, back body, front body working together. Legs separate slightly, roll the spine back down with the support of the arms. Hallelujah, the arms.
And then circle the legs back down to 45. Good. Inhale. Find your vertical inside a vertical just slightly. Exhale rolling up. Now eye gaze is on the ceiling. I’m keeping the back of my skull pressed into the headrest.
My chin is not on my chest. Separate the legs, roll the spine down. Anchor the sacrum, circle the legs to 45. Last one for a little flair at the top, inhale, exhale rolling up Now the legs are together at the top. I’m gonna separate them and then little tiny circles, but guess what? I’m pressing straight up to the ceiling.
I’m not pressing down. I’m not letting the straps pull me. Now reverse the circles. 1. Vertical energy, 3, 4, 5 legs together, find that midline, then you can separate them to roll back down.
Oh, yes. Sacrum lands. We circle. Oh, fold the knees in. Taking the straps off to find your foot bar and then set the straps on the pegs. Okay. Coming up to a seat.
Let’s go down to 1 red spring. Nope. 1 blue spring. Okay. Now facing towards the foot bar, I’m going to be in a low kneeling position. This series can be either in this position.
It can be seated. It can be cross legged. Any facing of this direction. The high kneeling is definitely a bigger challenge of stability today. I’m gonna show the low kneeling version. So we have the straps. I have one blue spring, bringing the elbows into my sides, palms facing up. So right away, I have to make sure that I’m, in fact, sitting on my heels in as vertical of a spine as possible.
Right? This is not as as inclined to happen as this in this position. Right? If my legs were out in front of me, I might lean back So sit right on the heels. Reach forward, hold the first one. The first one is always a tell of how much connection you have in fact into your postural muscles in your core. Then we bend and press.
And bend and reach. So we have that forward reach. We’re trying to find that energy out with the arms. But staying stacked on the hips with the spine. I could do this on a red spring, but continuity between the different exercises, I’m going with the blue today. Next one, reach forward and hold.
Let’s hug a tree. So palms facing slightly in. Elbows just barely rounded. We open. Exhale hug. I’m just below shoulder height.
So I’m trying to think about keeping this width to my collarbone. And as my arms open, I’m not allowing my body to fall through the arms. Right? So we’re staying nice and stacked on the hips. And feeling that dynamic control from the shoulders. Last two. One more.
And hold here. Now, palms face back up and then bring the elbows in. Let’s take a little play on a single arm reach. So left elbow stays beside me as I reach my right arm forward. And then bend it back in.
So as I have the single arm, the other strap is gonna go slack. Don’t let that distract you. We’ve got unilateral work, with this right arm. And I’m trying to feel the anchor in my left hip, my opposite hip. I’m gonna take 5 of these just reaching the arm forward.
We’ve got one more and reach hold. Now what if we keep pressing into a rotation? Hello obliques and then bring it back all the way in. Good. Let’s flow that together. Reach. Add the twist. Notice.
My eye gaze is forward. So I’m trying to find that spinal rotation without my head initiating it, not right or wrong, just different, right, different challenges to find in the body. Let’s take one more and reach. And back in. Right arm gets a rest. Okay? Sitting tall again, reach, No rotation first.
Just find that unilateral work with the left arm. At any point in the series, if you need to change your sitting position, by all means, Now adding in the rotation. So we take that single arm reach and add the twist back to square and bring the elbow back in. Let them flow together. This is another point where it’s easy to kind of lean side to side, so make sure as you reach, you stay centered on both hips and heels.
Last one. Reach. And back in. Okay. Now adjustment to the springs for this next part yellow spring only.
Trust me. It might seem wide at first, but there is a reason. So we’re sitting facing the risers. You have some space behind you on the carriage, feet towards the edge of the headrest. Now I’m grabbing the strap where the 2 loops meet, they call it the neck of the loops.
And then in that position, the knees ideally are bent. It offers a bit more support from the pelvis, but do what you need to do for your body. So we have the straps, arms out in front, just below shoulder height. I want you to come into a a goalpost row. So the arms are parallel to the floor. And, again, this is light at first. So just finding that alignment within the light spring load.
And I am connecting into my my scapula on my back, so I feel that upper back working. Now one more, we’re gonna hold that position, that goalpost. Now let’s turn it up and then down and up. And down. Rotate up and down. Finding that hold at the top and down.
3. Notice I’m trying to keep my elbows right beside me. I’m not letting them pull forward or the straps pull them forward. One more. Rotate up and down. Okay. Now there’s a full movement here.
We’re gonna pull rotate and reach up. So pull first, rotate. Now I’m leading with my sternum. I reach. Come back to that goal post and turn it down.
This is scarecrow. Rotate. Reach. Down and return. I learned this one from the lovely Karen Clippinger.
Reach back to goalpost and down. There’s that yellow spring. That’s all we need. Rotate. Reach goalpost.
1 more. Rotate. Lift the sternum. Lift the eyes. Reach the arms. Come back to goalpost.
Down. And forward. Oh, yeah. Okay. Setting the straps on the hooks, let’s grab our box.
Taking our short box position, we still have the yellow spring, which I’m gonna keep there. We’re taking a nice deep quad stretch, quad and hip flexor. This 2 joint muscle that tends to be tends to be missed in some of our quad stretches. So what I’m doing is I’m bringing the actual knee to the carriage, the shin running up the edge of the box, hands on the bar. The yellow spring is just making sure that carrots doesn’t go flying back.
So hands are rested. We’re in our lunge, Let’s take our lunge position here thinking about getting that knee as close to the box as that quad will tolerate. Square the hips. Relax the shoulders. Now what I want you to do here, you press back gently, again, not dumping into that lumbar.
So we stay lifted in the abdominals. And then as you come in, instead of bringing the knee in, I want you to bring the body up. And then press. And up. So my standing leg is doing most of the supporting here.
And up and down. Last two. Trying to keep those hips square. If you need a little feedback, take your hands to your pelvis. Good.
Now bring the hints to the bar, bring the carriage all the way in, and let’s go to the other side. Right foot on the floor, left knee on the carriage, getting that shin as vertical to the box as possible. Now pressing the first one out and take a breath or 2 while you’re here. Just to feel that first bit of length and stretch. Now inhale you deep in a little.
Exhale. Bringing it up. Inhale. And exhale. Two more.
Again, more feedback in the pelvis if you need it. One more. And up. Gosh. Bring that carriage all the way in. Okay. We’re nice and calm.
We’re ready for a little more work. So now just taking the foot bar down out of the way a little bit doesn’t have to be flat. We’re just needing the the foot strap. So all springs on. We know what that means.
Short box work. So sitting on the box, let’s go into our mermaid and side ups. So I have the left foot under the foot strap. I have the box on the carriage. Now if I was a little bit taller, I might put the box over the shoulder rest, but I think this is gonna work for me today.
So I have the leg long and my foot hooked underneath squaring the hips right away, and I wanna take myself into a nice little prep. So take the bottom hand to the head rest just barely pressing into the palm. Top arm is up. Now as you take the side bend, I want you to come over bending that elbow towards the box and find yourself in a nice, long reach. And then as you come up, you hold to test that stability. Hand supportive on the over.
Left the hand for the hold. 2 more inhale. Inhale. Now this one, inhale, Exhale, up, hold, hand behind the head, press gently. Other hand, moment of truth, that leg is supporting us inhaledown.
Exhale up. Inhale down. Exhale up. Inhale down. Exhale up.
One more. Holding here. We’re gonna open the arms. Let’s turn to the floor. Come to side. Turn to the sky.
Come to side, and let’s take a nice stretch over. Reach, reach, reach, notice I’m actually putting my forearm on the headrest to find that nice long pole through that top side. You can even take your hands to the rail for a little deeper stretch. And then bring yourself up. A little counter stretch.
Now I’m externally rotating this long leg and taking a counter stretch over. And we have two sides. So here we go. K. Turning to the other. Right foot under the foot bar or a foot strap, left leg on the box squaring those hips first.
So this is where I kind of test myself. I get aligned and I start to lean to find that tension and that support from the foot strap. I think we’re good. Hand on the headrest. Now we take the top arm up.
This is our first little prep. We bend the elbow we reach over and then come up. Hold. And over inhale. Exhale lengthen through the crown of the head.
So it’s not necessarily a side bending feeling, but really a lengthening out feeling, crown of the head away from the heel. Inhale down. Exhale up. One more. Inhale down.
Exhale. Hold. Hand behind the head. Press so we don’t start to fall forward into our reflection. We’re looking for lateral. Inhale down. Exhale up.
Inhale down. Exhale up. That foot strap is supporting me with my life inhale down Exhale up. Last one and up. Hand comes down. And we take that nice side stretch.
Forum can come to the headrest if you like. Take your hands to the bar or to the rails. Nice stretch. Man, coming back up. Okay.
Now let’s take the box away. To kind of wrap up a session like this, I really wanna get a sense of how this all incorporates into my body. So I have the foot bar back in its footwork setting. 3 red springs, lie down on the toes. Now we did our progressive calf raises earlier. Now let’s get a little bit more fluidity.
Just take some running in place. Heels are slightly lifted. We press out hold. Feel that stretch of the springs underneath you, feel that deep connection through the midline of the body, lower one heel, press up lower the other. Now remember what I said earlier about holding the bar with your fore foot and your toes? This is where it really counts because that’s the air situation in the mid foot and toes and ankle all involved.
Steady your breath. Inhale. And exhale. 3. 2, and 1.
Up through both. Make sure you feel that lift and then lower all the way down. Taken inhale, release the exhale. Come up to standing. Okay.
Find yourself just standing on the floor. We take that energy that was horizontal through the body. We bring it into gravity. Take a moment. Inhale. Arms up. Eyes up.
Exhale down. One more inhale and exhale. Thanks for joining me.
