Day 1: Cardio Burst & Jump!

Hi, I'm Gia. Welcome to day one of my "Align and Shine" challenge. We're gonna do a reformer class today using the jump board. We're gonna get a little cardio in, and also a little bit of strengthening. So I have my spring set with two reds and one blue, or two full and one half.

We're gonna do some jumping for your legs. So if you want it a little heavier to get a little more power, you can do that. Or if you want it a little bit lighter, that's also an option. My head rests is up and then, I just put my straps over on the side there just so it doesn't make any noise, but you don't have to do that. So you're gonna start on your back.

We're gonna start with a little foot warmup. So you're gonna push all the way out so your legs are straight, no jumping yet. And then I'm just gonna lower my feet down a little bit, so they're more in line with the rest of my body rather than being up at an angle. And we're gonna start just with your feet. So you're gonna lift one heel up, so you're on the ball of your foot, point the toes over so you're almost getting a stretch on the top of your foot, come back to the ball of your foot, and then lower that heel down.

So lift the other heel up, roll over to your toes, and then back to the ball of your foot, heel comes down. So we're just gonna keep alternating. Giving a little stretch on the foot, lower to the heel. Other side, heel up, roll over, back to the ball, and down. One more each side, lift, roll over, back to the ball, heel down.

One more, lift the heel, roll over, just nice little stretch on the foot. Now we're gonna do the same beginning. So you lift the heel up. This time you're gonna push the toes up like you're jumping off the ball of your foot. Lower the toes down, roll through the foot to lower the heel.

So you're gonna lift the heel up, push up like you're jumping. Lower the ball of the foot down and then the heel. So keep going. This is kind of what your feet are gonna do while you're jumping, you're just mimicking that action without actually jumping. That way, your feet are already used to rolling through.

One more each side and lift lower, last one, good. Bend your legs, come all the way in. You're gonna bring your feet a little bit higher on the board. We're gonna start in parallel. This time we are gonna jump.

So you're gonna push out and in, out and in, so you're trying to roll through the foot as much as you can, nice soft landing. We're reaching those heels down. The further in you go toward the stopper. Depending on how flexible your ankles are, your heels may come up, but you still wanna keep reaching 'em down, so you're not tightening in your achilles. Let's do four more.

Three, two, and one and rest. We're gonna change positions now. So you're gonna have your heels together, toes apart in a little first position. Don't go as wide as you can, you want to keep that control. So we're just gonna go about as wide as our shoulder rests.

And same thing, we're gonna jump and in. As I'm jumping, I'm trying to keep my heels together, and really pulling into the midline. Jump and in. And then breathing. I like to exhale as I jump.

Let's do four more. Three, two, and one and rest. So we're gonna change positions again. We're gonna come to second position. Depending on how wide your jump board is, you may need to make it a small second, and you may also need to turn your legs in a little bit more just so you don't miss the jump board.

So take a deep inhale. As you exit, you're gonna jump, and land, again controlling that landing. And just as if you were doing footwork, you're trying to keep your pelvis in a neutral position. (jump board crackling) Try not to crash like I just did. Let's do four, three, two, and one, good.

So, now we're to combine the last two. So we're gonna do, in ballet it's called an echappe. So you're gonna land with your feet in first position, and then land in second. So inhale, exhale, land in first, and exhale, land in second. Alternating, good.

As you come to first, try to come directly to first. We have two more sets, last set and rest. So we're gonna change positions one more time. We're gonna come back to first position. This time as you jump, you're gonna open your legs a little bit wider than your jump board and then land with them together.

So it's like a little bit of a straddle jump, but just don't go too wide, so you don't miss the jump board. Inhale at the bottom here. Exhale as you jump and land, good. So you're always landing in that first position. Trying to get the heels together every time.

We have four, three, two, and one and rest. Got hug your knees into your chest. Just rock side to side. Catch your breath. Sure to feel that heart rate up a little bit, I know I do.

And then we're gonna come on up and change the springs. So I'm taking off all the springs, and just leaving on one blue, I want it really light. If you have a yellow, you could even do that. We're gonna do some abdominals here. So, since the springs are really light, you wanna make sure you're not pushing as hard as you can, so you don't crash into the other side of the reformer, and you're gonna feel that you're floating a little bit.

So if we're gonna keep the head up. So if at any point you're neck bothers you, you can always put your head down. So I'm gonna bring my hands behind my head just for a little support. Legs in parallel again, take a deep inhale, and do exhale you're just gonna jump, hover and down, hover. So as I'm jumping and floating out here, I'm trying to pull the navel into the spine to feel the abdominals working.

It's kind of fun. It feels like you're just floating. If it you feel in your back at all, you can also lift your legs a little bit as you jump, and then just make sure to bring 'em back down before you land, so again, you don't miss the board. We have two more, and then we're gonna reach the arms out. We're gonna do the same legs, but we're gonna pump the arms with a hundred.

So we're gonna pump. So inhale and exhale, inhale and exhale, so it's not quite a hundred or five beats like we normally do in a hundred, but just do as many as you can, and just try to keep your rhythm. Inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale. Two more.

Last set and rest, hug your knees in. Take a breath. You can rock your knee side to side. I'm gonna go into single leg stretch, so I'm gonna keep my hands behind my head again just for simplicity. So if you're ready, you're gonna curl your head up.

You're gonna bring one leg onto the, or one foot onto the jump board. The other leg is gonna be in towards your chest. You're gonna jump on that leg, land, and then switch in the air and land on the other leg. Just keep alternating. Try to switch as quickly as you can, so you're already in position well before you land.

Switch and land, switch and land, and just keep curling the head and shoulders up. Elbows are nice and wide without being, without slaying too much. So you should be able to see your elbows in your periphery. One more each side. Good, rest for a second.

We're gonna change the legs to a scissor, so, same idea, we're gonna switch in the air. Just one leg will be up to the ceiling this time. So start with one leg up the other foot on the jump board, curl your head and shoulders up. You're gonna stretch, land and then scissor switch. Good, so just like before, you wanna switch as soon as you can.

Keep it nice and sharp so that way you're in position well before you land, so you don't have any hesitation about if you're gonna make it to land on that jump board. And then you're using your abdominals to bring that leg up to the ceiling. Let's do two more each side. Last set, and rest, good. Take a breath, catch a breath.

You can even rock your knee side to side. We're gonna do the last two exercises again, but this time we're gonna add a little rotation. So start with one knee into your chest, the other foot on the jump board, hands behind your head. You're gonna start twisted toward that leg already. So we'll do one jump for nothing.

So you're just gonna jump and land. On the next jump, you're just switch legs, switch your twists and switch right away. Good, and the hard one about this is you can't see where your foot's landing as easily as you could when you were just straight. So really switch right away and trust that you're landing on that jump board. Good, you wanna land toward the top of the board, so you're not getting into your back.

Really twist from the ribs. One more each side, and then we're gonna go straight into the scissors. So one leg up to the ceiling now. Switch and twist. Good.

Really switch right away. Try to get both shoulders off the mat. One more each side, and rest. Hug your knees into your chest, catch your breath, and we're gonna come on up, we're gonna do some arm work. We're gonna take a little break from jumping.

So I'm staying on this blue spring that I was on, but if you want a little heavier you can do that. We're gonna grab your straps, and hang 'em up if they aren't already, and then come onto your knees. If it feels not great on your knees, you can also do the sitting on a box, or just seated on the carriage. So the front strap, you're gonna grab it, and then place it in the hand that's further away from it. And then we have some options.

You can either use this other hand that's free to kind of help guide you, or you can just have it down by your side. So we're gonna keep both shoulders square, and down your back. You're just gonna reach your arm out to the side, and then bring it back. So it's like you're drawing a sword. So you're gonna pull the arm out, and then bring it back in.

You're leading with that elbow and then back. So as I'm moving, I'm trying not to lean from side to side. I'm trying not to twist. And again, if you feel like you're struggling, you can use this other hand as a guide, or you can even just come to a bent arm, so you don't have to straighten it all the way out. You can just pull that elbow out, and then you're still gonna feel the backside of the shoulder and the lap working.

One more. Now we're gonna switch hands. You're gonna have your arm just slightly in front of you bent. The other hand is just down by your side, and you're just gonna reach your arm up toward the ceiling and then back down. Again, I'm trying not to lean in any direction, staying as straight as I can, lift.

So one way to tell that is if you feel the wait coming off of one of your knees, you want it equal on both. And then as I'm pushing that arm up, the shoulder is coming down the back. Two more. Last one. Now keeping into this hand, we're gonna bring this arm out to the side.

You're gonna bring both arms up and then back down. You don't need the other arm, but I like to add it just so that I can feel the symmetry and that I'm bringing both arms over my head instead of it crossing or not coming all the way up just helps me a little bit. Two more like this. Last one, and then the last one this series. So you're gonna switch hands again.

This time you're gonna add a little side bend. So you're gonna place this free hand on the shoulder rest. You're gonna bring your elbow up toward the ceiling with the palm facing up, and stretch your arms out and then back in. So it's like a little tricep press. So as you're in this side bend, you wanna try not to sink into your waist, and let all of your weight go onto that hand on the shoulder rest, you wanna still pull up out of it.

Good. We have two more. Last one. We gotta hang up that strap, and we're gonna do all of this to the other side. So we're gonna turn around, grab onto that front strap, and then you're gonna put it in the opposite hand.

So again, trying to keep everything square, so you're not twisting or leaning in any direction. You're just gonna pull this arm out to the side, draw your sword and then cross it in front of you. Pull it out and you're leading with the elbow to pull that arm out. We have four more if you only need to go halfway out, that's always an option. You can use this free hand to help guide.

You just don't wanna feel any strain or struggle. One more. That switching hands, you're gonna bring that elbow in front of you slightly, it's a little bent, and then you're gonna reach the arm up toward the ceiling and then back down. So it doesn't have to get completely straight, just go where you can. I'm just trying to keep the arm in front of me, and not out to the side 'cause that's a different exercise.

We have four more. Wait even on both legs. If you notice I have my legs about shoulder distance apart, or even a little bit wider is okay, just to have a nice solid base. The arm out to the side, you can bring the up, the free arm out as well. Both arms up over your head, and then back out to the side.

So just as you do with any unilateral movement, you'll notice which side is a little harder. Sometimes it could be from fatigue cuz it's already worked on the other side cuz we did do arm exercises on both arms on the first side, but sometimes it's also just an imbalance. It's good to notice. One more. Last exercise, you're gonna switch hands again.

Lean over and bring your free hand on that shoulder rest. The elbow comes up toward the ceiling with your palm facing up, and then push the arm up for a tricep press, and press. So I'm trying to keep the upper arms still, and just bending and straighten my elbow. Again, trying not to put all of my weight onto that hand on the shoulder rest, I'm lifting up, lifting up out of it. Last two, and last one.

Good, so we're gonna take the straps off, and hang 'em, I'm gonna hang 'em up over here just so they don't make noise. And I'm gonna do some sideline jumping. So I'm gonna change springs. I'm gonna use one red, take off the blue. Again, you can do what feels good to you.

You can have your headrest upper down. If your headrest is down, you also have the option of coming onto your elbow this way. I'm gonna lie all the way down though with my headrest up cuz I prefer it. And then I like to grab onto the peg with my bottom hand. Your hips are back toward the back end of the reformer.

The bottom leg is just tucked outta the way. And then the top leg is a little bit toward the front about hip height. Make sure your hips and shoulders are stacked one on top of the other. And then try to maintain a space underneath your waist so that as you're jumping, you're not collapsing, and you wanna keep that length the whole time. I'm gonna have my top hand on my hip just to kind of help keep that length.

So in parallel, we're gonna jump. So you're gonna take a deep inhale here as your rest, exhales, you jump and then back down. You can't really see where your foot's landing, so you just have to trust that you're in alignment, and that you're not shifting your leg forward or up. It's staying right where it is 'cause we don't wanna stare at our foot the whole time and torque our neck. I wanna do four more like this, still landing toe ball heel, rolling through that foot.

One more, good. Okay, now you're gonna turn the leg out from the hip. So the foot's facing toward the diagonal, or the corner of the jump board. Your knees right over your toes. Again the hips are and shoulders are stacked.

Take a deep inhale here at the bottom, exhales, you jump and then land. Again, I'm trying to get the heel down. My ankles are a little tight in the Dorsey flexion, so it's a struggle for me to keep my heels down, but I'm reaching 'em down anyway, so I don't get tight in the Achilles. Let's do four more. And three, two, last one.

Now we're gonna come back to parallel. This one's gonna be a little bit of a test of your chest again. As you jump, you're gonna lift your leg slightly, bring it back down quickly and then land. So you're gonna jump, lift and lower. You don't wanna go too high partly so that you don't miss the jump board, but also so that your hip doesn't sink in, and so you don't turn out that leg.

So it's just a little lift to get the side of that hip working. We have four and three. Two, last one, and rest. Now we're gonna switch legs. We're gonna stay on this side, but you're gonna use the bottom leg to jump.

It feels a little awkward at first, but once you get going you'll feel fine. So the top leg is just gonna reach out over the jump board. You're already gonna feel that hip just holding that leg out and you're just gonna jump out on that bottom leg. Try not to roll back or forward. You wanna say directly on that hip.

We have four, and three. Two, last one. Good, shake out that leg. You can go ahead and hit that hip if you need to. We have one more on this side, so we're gonna still jump at the bottom leg.

This time, as you jump, your bottom leg is gonna kick forward. Your top leg is gonna reach back. So you're making a small split, and then you land with everything back together. Again, it's the test of your trust of your legs that they're, you're laying on the board. Just take a deep inhale here at the bottom, exhale, jump, split, and then land, split.

So you don't wanna make it too big. So again, you don't wanna miss the board. So let's go where you can control it. And four, three, two, last one and rest. Line your back.

We're gonna stretch out that hip before we do the other side. So you're gonna cross that foot over the leg that was just jumping and then pull the leg into your chest. Oh, should feel nice. Just breathe into that stretch. It'll take a second before it releases.

This is a nice chance to catch your breath too. One more deep breath in and exhale. And then we'll switch sides. Again, your hips are toward the back of your mat. Your bottom leg is just tucked under out of the way.

Your top leg is parallel and toward the front. And then make sure your hips and shoulders are stacked with the space underneath your waist. Take a deep inhale here at the bottom. Exhale as you jump and land, jump and land. So as you're jumping, you're stretching that leg, pointing the toes, getting as much length as you can, and then rolling through the foot.

We have two more and then we go straight into that turnout position. So you're gonna turn out from the hip, land, turn out, good, making sure the knees are over the toes, still staying stacked, keeping the space under your waist. We have two more. I'm gonna go back to parallel and then do the leg lift. So parallel, lift the leg up and lower down, lift and lower.

Again, not too high so you don't miss the board. And so you don't turn out that leg. You wanna keep it parallel. We have two more, and rest, good. Go ahead and hit that hip if you need to.

We're gonna switch legs jumping, but stay on the side. So the top leg is gonna reach out over the jump board, keep it nice and long and parallel. The bottom leg is gonna jump, and then try not to rest it on the board. You wanna keep it lifted up and you're gonna jump, and in. Again, the first couple feel a little bit weird, but then once you get going, it starts to feel more natural.

Keep reaching that top leg out. You'll feel the hip working. We have four more. Three, two, now we're go into our split. Bottom leg goes forward, top leg goes back and land, sweat and land, good.

Okay, try to get both legs moving at the same time. One side's gonna feel a little bit more coordinated. This is my uncoordinated side. We have two more and then rest. Go ahead and lie on your back.

We'll stretch out that other side. Cross your foot over your opposite knee, and then pull that leg into your chest. If you want a little bit more, you can use this hand to push that knee out to the side as well. Just to get a little bit of a deeper stretch. Breathe, catch your breath, and then come on up.

We're gonna finish off with a little bit of scooter. So I'm gonna stay on the same red spring. You can change it if you need to. You can go heavier, you can go lighter. I'm gonna have my standing leg on the floor just about halfway up the carriage.

Pretty much, so it's in line with the foot that, or the leg that's on the carriage. I'm gonna bring the other foot against the shoulder rest, and then bend that standing leg slightly. You're gonna push this leg all the way back, and then come all the way into the stopper. Push it back and in, so I'm trying to keep my back flat, my hip square. Good, we have four more like this.

Should be a nice smooth movement, oops. Last one, good. Now keep your legs there. You're gonna bring your hands onto your hips, and we'll test your balance while you do it. So you still have this flat back, you are gonna push out and in.

So you may notice without the hands, you might not go as far back, and that's okay. Just go where you can. Still maintaining the square hips. And three, two, last one, good. Bring that knee down onto the carriage.

You're gonna bring the standing leg forward, and then tuck the hips under into a lunge. This part should feel nice, and then slowly come back in. You are gonna bring your foot a little bit further forward. Come on to this heel, keep the legs straight, and then push back into a little bit of a split. So you'll get a little bit more into that hamstring.

Try to keep the shoulders down. Chest is open, and then bring the toes down. Come all the way in and we'll switch sides. So walk over to the other side. So again, we're starting with the standing leg about halfway up the carriage.

The other foot's right against the shoulder rest with the knee up, the flat back and square hips, so you're just gonna push it leg all the way back and in. So you're thinking using your gluten hamstrings to push back. And of course your abdominals are engaged to help control it back in. Four more. Three.

Sometimes it's nicer with a board cuz you don't have to go as low as the foot bar. Last one. Good. Now we're gonna bend the standing leg a little bit more, hands on your hips, keep the hips square and then just push it back, and in. Again, you might not go as far back and that's okay.

Just go where you can. Just a little bit more for the balance, and less for the how far back your leg goes. Last two, and last one, bring the knee down, hands back on the jump board , and bring your standing leg forward. Tuck your hips under and push back into your lunge, stretch out your hip flexor. Just breathe into that stretch.

Should feel nice after the jumping too. Just take a breath, slowly come in. You can bring that standing leg even further forward. Flex that foot so you're on your heel. Keep the legs straight and then push back again.

Really try to ground yourself into that heel, so your foot doesn't keep sliding forward. You wanna really feel that secure, and bring your toes back down. You can bend your leg to come all the way in. Come on up. Just roll your shoulders out, and thank you for taking my class today.

I'll see you tomorrow for day two.