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Hi, I’m Delia, and we’re gonna be working with the Balanced Body EXO Chair. I already have the Slastix on, and we’re gonna be using two types of Slastix today, the short yellow and the long yellow. I have the foot straps attached to the long yellow Slastix on the front bottom hook, and I have these shorter yellow with the handles on the back bottom hook. We are gonna be starting at the back of the chair, which is a great opportunity to tell you about the spring. So on the chair, I have a spring one up from the bottom.
So one, two. Okay, so right on the cactus. So I’ll stand up, grab the handles, and then I’m gonna walk myself back but you don’t want that much tension. You don’t wanna maybe be able to pull the chair. The interesting part about holding the Slastix with the chair is that it actually makes you very conscious of how much momentum you’re using when you’re pulling on the resistance.
So you gotta be very conscious of using a lot of control. So from here, just to test out the resistance, we’ll do some elevation and depression. So shoulders rise up towards the ears, and then the shoulders drop. So you’re thinking elevation and depression of the shoulder blade. I really do love this exercise when I start classes that uses a lot of arms ’cause I wanna warm up my shoulder and get it all prepared.
So on the next one, I’m gonna nod the chin on the next little roll down here. So reaching the hands down towards the feet, and then roll myself up. I’ve got a little tension on the Slastix. We’ll do that again. Press my shoulders down.
Little roll down. Don’t think too much about this one. It’s just enough to stretch the back of the legs and warm up the spine. You definitely want your spine nice and warm before starting the Pilates class. And then all the way back up.
We are gonna be using the Slastix here for the next few exercises. So get yourself all prepared for little squat with a bicep curl. So we’re gonna bend the knees and then bend the elbows at the same time. Now, as I’m bending the knees and bending the elbows, I don’t wanna come into a forward pitch. So if you’ve got too much resistance, that might happen, you’re gonna end up wanting to pull.
Don’t make it about your arms. This is just a prop. It really is still about your legs, but you get a little added bonus of arm work here. Bend and extend. Inhale and exhale.
Shoulders nice and wide. As a matter of fact, I kind of like the fact that I don’t really want to pitch my body forward. I wanna load the weight onto my glutes. Just a couple more. Last one.
And then stand nice and tall. I’m gonna bring my legs together so the feet are parallel. We’re gonna add a chest expansion here standing. So just pull the Slastix back. And as you know, if you’ve worked with any sort of resistance, the closer you are to the source, the less resistance you’ll have.
So make that adjustment distance from the chair. Let’s add a little challenge to your balance. As you press the arms back, releve. As you lower the heels, release the tension. Inhale to releve, and then exhale to release.
I like the feeling of pulling back with a spring. So it almost feels like a little bit of a opening through the chest. And then a really good reminder of the posture. One more time as you lift up, and then release. Let’s add some pulses with your releve.
So heels up, and then just pulse your arms back and press and press and think about spreading the toes on the floor, shoulders nice and wide for 4, 3, 2, and 1. Now take your right foot onto the chair in a lunge position. You can enjoy the first one. Just stretch it out. You wanna be your comfortable distance away from the chair.
And this seems about right for me. So from her, I’m gonna lean forward, and as I open up the hip flexor, I’m gonna take my palms, face them towards each other, and then just do some rows here, pulling my elbows back. I might actually pop back just a teeny bit and that gives me a little extra resistance. And as you squeeze the shoulder blades together, drive that left heel to the floor and form a nice long line from your heel all the way to the crown of your head. Two more.
Last one. Hold here. And then just punch the right arm forward as you pull the left arm back and come back to center. Same side. Nice rotation of the spine, nice and tall.
You will get slack on that right side. You’re opening up through the side of your left hip. Should be a nice spiral feeling. So see if you can grow taller. One more time and stretch, and then release.
Let’s go ahead and switch legs. Left foot forward. And then the same thing here. You’re just gonna hold that stretch, opening up through the right hip, shoulders nice and wide, and then back to your rows again. So you gotta get a lot of rows.
That’s okay. Pull those shoulder blades together. You should feel nice on your back and nice on your chest. And then I’m actually gonna bring that leg even further back ’cause I’d like a little extra stretch for that hip flexor on that side. And then I’m gonna add a rotation.
I’m turning to my right, so I’m turning towards the hip that’s open. And then return. Don’t even worry about the other hand, it’s just gonna relax as you open and rotate your chest. And again. Elbow back, shoulder wide, arm comes forward.
Two more. Last one. And then release. One little roll down here at the end. One more.
Now the chin flex forward. And then roll yourself all the way back up. All right, we’re gonna go ahead and place the springs down. One on each side of the chair. We’re gonna use the surface of the chair like a mat.
And if this is not comfortable for you, we’ll be doing some extension work and lie in our belly prone. Just take the exercises onto the mat and continue along. So the most comfortable place to be, it’s like the short box or long box on a reformer, you want to bring yourself forward to where your chest is over the chair. So the soft tissue is over the chair so you’re not hurting yourself here. And then you wanna make sure that your knees are in the right spot too.
So there is a little bit of a sweet spot on top of the chair, so that way you feel comfortable on your joints for the most part. I’m gonna go ahead and just press my pubic bone down into the chair and let my legs float up. And then bringing my hands down towards the front, making sure that I’ve got some nice flexion of my spine. I’m gonna take my hands, place them on top of each other, place them on my forehead with the palms facing down. From here, I’m gonna lift my upper body and find a long line with my spine.
So I should feel as though my head and my feet are lined up and they’re getting pulled in two different directions, and then flex the upper body back over the chair. Let’s do that again, just four of them. Inhale to come to a long back, exhale to flex. What’s great about doing it on a surface where you can drop the upper body over is that if you don’t have a lot of extension, then there’s room for play for your thoracic spine. So you’ve got one more.
Inhale breath. And then exhale. And then I’m just gonna place my hands on the chair here at the top and make a little adjustment with my shoulders. I’m going to keep my hands back here. So I’m gonna bend my elbows, hands are in my peripheral vision, my lower body is active.
Your arms will come forward down towards the floor, breaststroke. You’ll circle them around and bring your arms back, palms towards your hips, bend your elbows, dive into the water, circle the arms around, and then lift up out of the water. So your breath should feel like a swimmer’s breath. Exhale. And inhale.
One more time, bend, exhale, and inhale. And I’m gonna place my hands right back here for a little support. One more thing here on the chair in this position, pubic bone presses down into the mat. I’m gonna take the Slastix into my left hand, and I’m just gonna bring it out in front, but my hand is here. There’s not a lot of resistance here.
All I’m gonna do is hold steady as I lift my opposite leg up and down off of the chair. And then you get release tension and lift. And release tension, and lift. And just one more because these are challenging. And then release back down.
Push yourself off the chair. And because we use a Slastix on that side, we’re gonna have to use it on the other side as well. I’m keeping the repetitions pretty short because it’s not the most comfortable surface to do these exercises, but it does work. So I’m gonna come over to the other side, and then my chest goes over the front, the hands come down and I’m going to rest here. So now you get a different angle of what this looks like.
And then from here, my hands go underneath my forehead and I find a long line. And I’ll do that again, just four on this side. One, and two, three, last one, and four. And then rest back down. Then onto the breaststroke.
My arms will come back, shoulder blades here or together. Palms by my side where I can see them. Dive into the pool, dive out of the pool. And what you can also do if you wanted to keep the repetitions even shorter is do one of the prone exercises with the swimming on one side and then the breaststroke, for example, on this side with the swimming. And then you’re gonna go ahead and rest.
Now my left hand goes on, my right arm goes out. So I’m gonna lift the left leg with the spring just four times. So two more. Last one. And then release down, pushing yourself off, and then coming back for a little stretch.
So I just got my hands on the edge of the chair, my knees bent. That’s challenging on the back so be careful with those. And then roll yourself all the way up and then release. And the reason I say be careful with those, I’m actually really talking to myself because I don’t do enough extension. And so when I start to struggle, then I know that it’s time to practice a little bit more movement of my back and my posture.
So it’s just a little bit of a hint for me. So I’m gonna sit now on the mat, but I am gonna switch resistance out. I’m going to take the spring and take it down to the bottom because I realize that that’s probably a little bit too much for what we’re about to do next. Okay? So you can keep it on there if it works for you, but I’m gonna take it down 1.
I’m facing my chair on all fours, hands on the pedals, pedals pressed down. So it is pretty light. So if you’re a little bit stronger in the upper body than I am, then you could have kept it up at 2. Okay. So here, just a nice cat cow, which feels really good after that extension work, and just being able to mobilize the spine, think about opening up the front body and extension and then flexing and opening up the back flexion.
We’re not gonna do much with the pedal, we’re just keeping the pedal down. So curl the toes under, and we’re gonna do some knee lifts. Shoulders back, elbows, point back, pedal stays down, knees lift. When the knees lift and the back is nice and flat, it’s a little bit harder because when your legs are not extended long, your quads can’t help you. And the higher you go, the easier it is.
So try to keep your knees pretty close to the ground. So inhale to lift up and then exhale. Think about your tailbone going up towards the ceiling. Fingertips are resting out in front. This is actually a really nice cushion for my wrists.
We’ll do that just one more time. Inhale to lift. Exhale to lower. Feet go flat. And now you can let the pedal come up for a quick stretch of your shoulder blades.
And this is just the right amount of resistance for me that it’s not pulling too much on my shoulder. Press the pedal back down towards the floor, find your all fours position, and we’re gonna go into round back. So knees curl under. Or toes curl under, knees are on the ground. You’re gonna start off by flexing the spine and then lifting the knees off the mat, lowering the knees and extending the spine or just coming back to neutral.
Exhales or flex. Inhale to lift. Exhale to lower, and then flat back. We’re gonna do that twice more. And the hardest part is being able to lift the knees and still maintain that flexion of the spine.
So be careful there. Wanna pull the pelvis in, really feel those lower abdominals working, knees come down, and then you stretch and then relax the feet. Arms can come up and you stretch and bring the head between the arms. Let’s take the pedal back down towards the floor, and then find that position again. This time, we’re going to keep a flat back and lift a foot up.
So curl the toes under, knees come up, point your right foot, I’m bringing my feet a little closer together for balance, and pull the knee forward four times. 1, 2, 3, 4, foot comes down, knees come down, and you pause. Other side. Inhale, knees up, left foot up. 4, 3, 2, 1.
Foot comes down, knees come down, feet relax. The arms come up, and you go ahead and place your head between your arms for a nice stretch. And release. Okay? We’re gonna keep the same resistance, but this time we’re gonna go into a nice little lunge.
But I am gonna move these Slastix out of the way for this next one. So pedals come down. Here comes the plank again. So we’re gonna curl the toes under, and then find your plank. In your perfect plank, you should be able to come from your knees if you didn’t rest with me just then, and then bring your legs back.
Now from this position, legs are closed together. I feel a little bit better supported. I’m gonna take my right foot to a lunge, but this is how it’s gonna work. I’m gonna take it to the outside of the pedal, drop the back knee down and rest the foot, then I’m gonna let the pedal rise and stretch through that hip, opening up the chest. Take your spine into flexion to press the pedal down, curl the back toe under.
Lift the knee, plank. That’s the abdominal work there. Other foot forward, knee down, foot rest, and then you open up the chest. How fast you do this round is up to how much control you have. If you wanna get your cardio in there, you can go ahead.
Otherwise, maintain control, over to the other side. Relax, inhale. And I’ll speed up just a bit. And switch. And lift.
Extend. (Delia exhales) One more to each side for me. Lower the knee, chest lifts, open up, flex, curl under. And then over to the other side, knee drops, you lift, you stretch. And then from here, you can just go ahead and press the pedal down, find your last and final plank, hold it as long as you’d like and then rest your knees to the mat and then back to that child’s pose.
So arms come up, head drops, you pause, and then release. I’m gonna turn to you all kneeling now. We’re gonna do a little side stretch here, but we’re gonna add a little movement of the leg. So instead of having the legs here, underneath, one’s gonna be out. So I’m gonna take one leg out.
I’m gonna feel that nice stretch in that inner thigh. And I’m gonna have my other hand here. My right hand will go to my head. So I’m gonna press my head up into my hand and that’ll line up my neck and my head with my shoulders. And I’ll press the pedal down for a little stretch, but I’m gonna hold it here.
So as I’m getting that long line stretch, I’m gonna do a one arm press, one. So the elbow’s gonna come close to the ribs. Two, three. Last one. Four.
And then let the pedal rise, and then just counter stretch. Now we’re gonna press the pedal all the way down. Pedal comes all the way down. I’m gonna adjust myself so I’m in good position. Hand behind the head.
The leg is gonna come up for a kick. So flex forward with the ankle and bring the leg back. Exhale breath. Inhale breath. Just two more for four total.
Last one. And then bring that leg down, hold. Now pause from here. So we are gonna go into a little side plank. Now my left leg comes underneath my right into side plank and my arm reaches.
Then I’m gonna bring my hand back behind my head, drop my knee down, and then let the pedal rise. We’ll do that three times more. Three more times. Press the pedal down, find a side plank, drop the knee, lift the pedal. Two more. Exhale.
(Delia exhales) Inhale. Exhale. Inhale. One more. Exhale.
Inhale. Exhale. And then inhale. Last thing here on this side, we’re gonna add a little twist. We’re gonna press the pedal down, side plank, twist, turn, all requires a little bit of control, and then back up.
Three more. Press it down, hook the foot, twist it under. Rotate back, drop the leg, and lift. And again, last one. And side plank.
And twist under. And rotate. The knee comes down, the hand comes up, the pedal rises, and counter stretch. Sadly, we have to do the other side. So we’re gonna turn over to the other side.
And let’s try that here. All right, so hand comes down, leg goes out, hand behind the head. Let’s start with just an arm press for 4, 3, 2, and 1. Press the pedal all the way down and then take that leg up. So I’m adjusting myself, and I’m gonna kick forward.
Exhale, forward. Inhale, back. Exhale. The other side is always a little bit easier, I feel like, ’cause you know what’s coming, right? Last one.
Exhale, bring it back, release, and then counter stretch over to the other side. Now onto the side plank, we’re gonna take the hand behind the head, and let’s go onto the side plank. So as I bring my leg underneath to hook it, I reach my arm up towards the ceiling, and then I bring my knee down, and then release the pedal. Three more times. Inhale.
Exhale. Inner thighs, arm reach, hand behind the head, which is a nice way to reset the head. Let’s do that two more times. Exhale breath. Feel the length on the side body here as you reach.
Knee comes underneath the hip for safety. Last one. And you bring it down, you take it out. Arm reaches, arm behind the head, and then you lift, and release. Now we’ll go into the twist.
So the hand comes down, hand behind the head, you’ll find your side plank and reach the arm up. Then you’ll twist. Yeah, and then reach the side plank. And then the knee comes down the head with the hand and the arm comes up. So we’re just keep adding on to this.
Inner thigh, arm reach, pike. Rotate back to side plank, hand behind the head and lift up. Two more. (Delia exhales) And up. Last time.
The arm comes down, you press, inner thighs, arm reaches, find that last final pike. Smiling. Reach the arm up, and then the knee comes down, pedal releases, and you can place your hand wherever, but I’m gonna do a little counter stretch, and then back onto the knees. All done with those, we’re gonna lie on your back. So now you have a couple of choices.
You can keep the pedal up or you can completely take the resistance off and bring the pedal down. We’re gonna lie on our backs with our head towards the chair with one of the foot straps. So I’m lying all the way down. I’m gonna start with the left foot straps so you can actually see it. And then of course you want your head off the surface of the chair ’cause that won’t be very comfortable.
I’ll put my left foot in. And then my hands could be, they’re not really convenient here with this strap, so I’m gonna bring them down and just hold the side of the chair here. Or honestly, you’re pretty safe to just bring your arms down by your side. Let’s try that. Right foot is flat on the mat as this Slastix lift and lowers with your foot.
Let’s keep the hips as stable as possible. And if you feel like you’re not comfortable here and you feel like the chair, it’s actually pretty safe. But you can place your hands here if that makes you feel a little bit better. But as the leg comes down, I want you to feel the length at the front of the body. And as the leg comes up, you’ll feel the stretch and length at the back of the body.
Let’s go into some circles, but this time, I’m going to extend my leg long. That’s gonna be the more challenging way to do it, and flex my ankle. Take your leg down towards your midline and circle it up and around, one. As you come around, that resistance is going to pull you this direction, so make sure you anchor that right hip. Inhale breath, exhale to circle and up.
Let’s do one more, four. And then reverse. Inhale breath. One of the most important pieces to the one leg circle is going to be that right supporting hip. Two.
So keep that steady and make your circle smaller if you have to. Let’s just do one more. Lift it back up to the top and hold. I’m gonna bend my knee again and place my hands down onto the mat. From here, the leg is just gonna stay in a nice little stretch.
So I’ve got a little bit of resistance to the back of my foot so it feels really good. I’m gonna lift into a bridge by just pressing into my foot to open up my right hip, pressing my arms down into the mat so that my shoulders support this position. And then I’ll lower the hips back to the floor. This is a hip lift, so let’s think about just lifting through the right glute, and then lowering back down. Inhale, up.
Exhale, lower. Two more. Last one, then hold it at the top and then press that leg down as you hold the hip up. One, and two. Slastix towards of floor, three.
Last one, and four. Pause, bend that left knee, press it to the ceiling. One. Inhale, exhale. Two. Right leg glute is working. Three.
One more. Lower the spine all the way down. Extend your legs long. Grab the Slastix with your right hand and put your left hand up against the chair, and then press over to the other side for a nice stretch of that IT band. And if you bend the knee, you’ll feel that glued as well.
And then release. We’re gonna go over to the other side. Gently dropping into the floor ’cause it could be a bit noisy. I’m gonna reach back and grab the other, placing my right foot into the strap. And then now I know where I want my hands ’cause I wasn’t quite sure.
So I’m just gonna keep them down by my side. And the left foot presses into the floor. And then from here, up and down. And press. Shoulders are nice and wide.
One thing that I found when I’m pressing with the Slastix is that my pelvis wants to move more. So you wanna think about really anchoring that hip. And now the leg comes up, left leg extends, arms go out a little bit wider for support, and then I come into those leg circles. One. And exhaling around.
Two. One more. And four. Reverse those circles, keep that left hip down. One. And inhale and exhale.
And two. Feel the length of the leg from the pubic bone to the inside of that ankle, and release. I’m gonna bend the knee again. Arms a little bit closer. Lift up to your bridge.
Always hold that first one, see if it feels comfortable. You don’t want too much tension on the right leg. You’re trying to reach that leg up like you’re trying to poke a hole in the ceiling. So now drop the bottom, lift the bottom. One.
Just a four. Up. Two. Inhale, exhale. Last one, hold. Lower that leg up and down.
One. With a flat foot, so reach through the arch. Three. One more. Hold, bend four times.
Press towards the ceiling. One. And exhale. Two. Glute is working. Three. One more. Four.
Leg comes up, spine rolls down. Leg extends long. Grab on with your left hand, and hold onto the chair with the other. Little stretch. And then bend here for a stretch in the glute.
And then release that tension. We’ll drop the springs down, and then all the way up. That concludes the Slastix work with the chair. We’re gonna move on and do a little pike series or elephant on the chair. This is gonna require a little bit more resistance.
I am gonna unhook the Slastix that are towards the pedals just so that it don’t get caught up in the pedals for any reason. Moving them back. All right. Then I’m gonna add enough resistance for me that I know that I could comfortably pike up on elephant, which is two 2. And I could do that with a little bit of an assist, but I’ll still be working, which is really nice.
All right, here we go. I really do love this series, this next one. It makes me feel really strong and gymnasticlike. All right, feet on the pedals. Watch this back part here.
Don’t smash your foot. I always warn cause I sometimes feel that people forget, and then put the feet onto the pedal, the legs are together. My hands will be on the side, but you can put your hands where they feel most comfortable. They could be towards the back or they could be side or they could be flat. So I prefer side grip.
All right. First one, drop the heels. Nice little stretch. Shift the body weight forward to the shoulders, and the tailbone comes up. And the tailbone will come up so that it lines up with your shoulder.
The feet come down, the hips shift back. Let’s do that again. Inhale, and then lift. Tailbone up, foot down, and then stretch. Pay attention to your neck.
And normally, if I’m reminding you of something, it’s because I didn’t do it or I wasn’t thinking about it. So it happens. So I’m not going into an extension of the neck, I’m gonna try to keep the neck nice and level. I think that feels a little bit better. And then the feet come down and the heels come back.
Now, we’re gonna shift the body weight forward, keep that flat back, and we’re gonna do some pushups. So you’re gonna lift the hips up. And then from here, pushups for just, let’s do six of them. 1, 2, 3. Try to keep your hips in line with your shoulders.
Last one I believe. And then the feet come down and the heels come back. And then enjoy your stretch for a moment. So that was with a flat back, just lifting and lowering with a stretch, and then also with a pushup. And the hands could have been anywhere for that pushup.
Again, that was the most comfortable for me. Now we’re gonna go into a round back. So fingertips pointing out. Shift the weight to the balls of the feet so that you’re a little bit lighter on your feet. Start to round your back.
Once you’re here, wait over the shoulders, pike yourself up. Go to a position where you could actually hold, and then lower your feet down. That was aggressive. And then drop the heels. Soften that.
So we’re gonna go to the balls of the feet, scoop the abdominals in. You wanna be at the balls of your feet, just an FYI. Lower. And then rest. I’m gonna stay up for this next one.
And we’re gonna do some pulses. So I’ll shift forward, but you’re welcome to rest between. And then I’m just gonna lower just enough that it feels like it wants to drop me to the floor, and exhale up. One. I’m gonna go for eight, two.
5, 6. You’ve got two more. Watch your shoulders. Last one, and then lower the foot down, and then the heels come down. Next is a little fun variation called the bicycle.
If it doesn’t work for you, then make sure that you just stay bilateral, both feet on the pedals. Here we go. So listening to my cues, shift the heels back. Shift the body way forward, round the back, and lift up where you can hold that hover. Take the right knee in towards your chest as you press the pedal down gently.
And then you’re gonna bring the left knee in and the right leg back four times. 2, 3, and 4. Similar to on the reformer, place the ball to the feet down, drop the heels. Let’s do that again. Shift the weight forward.
We have the other side. Lift the hips. The left foot goes in towards the chest. As the left foot goes back, the right knee comes up. One.
Little pedal, 2, 3, 4. Feet to the pedals, pedals down, and you rest. And that concludes those. However, I’m feeling a little energetic, so I’m gonna turn my body towards you guys, toes pointing forward, and we’ll do a little side pike, but I’ll add a little variation. I’m gonna go through the whole thing without stopping.
So if the second part to this, the last four repetitions doesn’t work for you, just stay on the first four repetitions. So hands on each side of the chair now. Shift the weight sideways so that you actually feel the abs working. This is a side lean. This is not a twist from your lower back, so be careful there.
From here, I’m gonna lift my hips up towards the ceiling four times. One. And two. So where the corner of the ceiling in the mall meet. Three.
Last one. Four. If it’s not the right resistance, you’ll see the knees start to bend. So be careful with that. I’m gonna take my right leg back and place a side by side with my leg.
And I’m gonna lift in lower from here. So I’m gonna lift. Lift the leg with me, lower touch. One. And two, three, four.
Foot comes down and I rest. I’m gonna flip it. Other side. Hands on top of the chair, same thing. Always set yourself up here if this feels uncomfortable to start, don’t go anywhere, fix yourself.
Hips nice and square and back. And then from here, four times. One. Inhale, exhale. Two. Obliques are working, elbows are straight.
And then we’re gonna place the pedal down. The foot’s going to come to the side of the chair, and we’re gonna lift and also lift that leg. A little abduction. One, two, three, and four. Press the pedal down gently and then stretch over the chair.
Even go into little pedal here if you need to, relax the shoulders and the neck. Careful as you step off, you have a decent amount of resistance. And then off the back. I’m gonna take one of the springs off for our last and final series. Stepping around to the back of the chair.
And then just moving the Slastix out of the way so your feet don’t get tangled up in them. The last are gonna be prone exercises, but we’ll have our feet supported on the floor this time, which I thought was a really great variation for those that have a really hard time keeping their legs up, doing the prone work on the chair. So my feet are back. You still want the top of the body to be as though you are about to lift your leg. So I’m still gonna put my chest towards the front here, but this is all gonna be very dependent on torso leg length, et cetera.
My feet are anchored. So make sure you start comfy here. Press the pedals down. All right, I think that’s about right for me. So from here, let’s just do a little swan modified.
Head up, shoulders up, stretch, and then press it down. If you’re having a hard time with the edge of the chair, discomfort at the edge of the chair, you could put a little pad there. One of those little pads that you’d use, the grippy pads. As long as it’s grippy and doesn’t slip around. Two more.
Head comes up, shoulders wide. That resistance is perfect for me right now, and then press it down. Last one. Lift and extend. Open up that front body, and then release.
I also like the fact that my legs are nice and extended and I can feel my heel stretch just a bit. Now lift to where you feel a hover and your back is working. I’m gonna take my left arm out to the side as I press the pedal down with my right. So it’s just at a T position here. The chair is close to my elbow, so I’m taking my elbow out at a diagonal.
Okay. Now from here as I press the pedal down, I’m gonna swing my arm back. And then I’m gonna swing my arm to the side as I return the pedal. And then you can make that bigger if you’d like. Press.
Bend. And then you can also add a little rotation with extension, looking over the left shoulder and reach. Two. Last one. And then rest.
Okay. Press the pedal down, we have to do the other side. So you’ll take that arm out to a T. And then just bend, extend the arm. One.
And you can see my elbow here at a diagonal. Two. And three. Eliminate the arm reach if you need to place your hands right on the chair for support. Now the arm is gonna go behind me as I press the pedal down.
And press. And then it’s gonna go into a bigger one. So forward and press back. One. And exhale. Two.
Arm reaches back. Three. And then I’m gonna add a little rotation with extension. So I’m gonna open up. One.
Exhale. Two. Two more. Last one. And then let’s just end with another little swan here.
So I’m gonna lift it up, up, up, up, up, up, up. And then hands back and release. Walk forward to the chair. And here’s a little cool down. Reach those arms up, inhale breath.
You can get as close to this divot of the chair as you’d like. Put your hands to the pedal, round your back. And here’s a little cat cow, nothing fancy. Just pull that resistance up, and extend through the spine, look up. You could even take your hands to one side, stretching one side round, especially with that extension and rotation that we did.
And then maybe over to the other side. Don’t worry about repetition on these. This is a feel good one. So as many as you need, in whatever variation you’d like. And then both hands to the chair, roll yourself up one vertebra at a time, and then a little arm reach.
And take your right leg on top of the chair now so we can stretch it out. This is optional for you, but it feels really good. A little pigeon. And then you can bring your body forward. The chair is actually a really great height to do some of the stretches, ballet stretches, et cetera.
You could take that leg out as well, give it a nice little stretch here. And we’ll try the other side. Pigeon. Right leg back. Well-deserved stretch.
Hold here. Breathe and then extend the other leg out, and stretch. And then release. Well, I hope you enjoyed that class, and I hope to see you again soon. Thank you.
