Class #2673

Intermediate Wall Ending

20 min - Class
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Work on simple movements that get to the root of everything in this wall workout with Kathryn Ross-Nash. She teaches an intermediate level "happy ending" for a Reformer or Mat workout. She focuses on opening up your chest while strengthening your arms, legs, and glutes.
What You'll Need: Wall, Towel, Hand Weights

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Hi, I'm Kathy Ross Nash and I'm here for [inaudible]. Anytime today we're doing happy endings. Always leave them with a smile on their face and yours. You always want to pick an ending that coexists with their workout. For instance, if I have somebody and they've done a really stretchy, stretchy workout, I want to give them an ending that's going to gather them so they don't walk outside all over the place. Opposite is true.

If I've had a really strong strengthening and tightening workout, then I'm going to want to give them something that stretches and relaxes the muscles and gets the lactic acid moving through their body so they're balanced. So whenever you are choosing an ending, try to match one to balance out the workout that you've given that day. We're working on the core as I like to call it, or intermediate level wall, happy ending. So neutral. Let's start this way. You're going to turn sideways. You need to take your hand and you're going to place it on the wall and you're going to have it at a 45 degree angle. Okay?

Now in the core level or intermediate level, we work on rotation. So this is part of rotating, right? We are going going to be introducing growing series, right? So what I want you to do is you're going to take this hand and you're going to slide it up the wall on a 45 degree angle, keeping your box square and your tailbone long in this left rib full. And then as you get to your extension, step a little bit closer to the wall and slide it back more shoulder down and step a little closer. That's it. Soft elbow, slide it down. Good.

Now come back and reverse the action, bringing the hand in, bend the elbow, bend the elbow. Good. And drop these ribs in. And again, slide it back, walk it, walk it, walk, walk it like those little spiders. Good step towards the wall and get a deeper stretch. Really focus on pulling this rib back and in. Good. And step a little closer and stretch that shoulder symptoms. I like to do this in the frame of a door and good, keep that box square.

You know, naughty, naughty box. Good and walk back out and then bend the arm and slide it back down. So remember, it's not only about the height of the arm, right? It's about maintaining the length of the spine and the boxes, positions. So don't disturb the box and slide the arm.

That's it. Don't shift the weight, right? So all the way it has to stay in that center line. Draw your legs together to make one column of strength length in that tailbone down. Fill the rib. There you go. Step a little to the right, too deep in the stretch. Don't compromise. Hand down a little lower. There you go. Push. That's it. Good. And then come back and then the elbow and beautiful.

Good. Let's go to the other side. Want you to follow me? And you're going to have your hand here. You're going to walk it. Tell bongos down. You grow taller. Step in a little bit. Fill that left rib. Tailbone goes down. Step in a little bit. Keep that box square. Draw the legs together.

Stretch by squaring the shoulders. Step out, step out, bend the elbow and down and again, crawl it back. Stretching, open the chest, step a little bit, open the chest more, step a little bit, open the chest more, be daring, step a little bit more. Open the chest more and return back with control and good. One more time and stretch that arm back. There you go. Beautiful. And step closer. Suffer for your art at it.

Made sure this rib there and the hips. We want it all. So when I bring this Ribbeck, you bring that left hip back. There you go. And step you keep the left rib hip back. I keep the ribbon place and step good. Don't overdo. Beautiful. And then come back in in [inaudible] and in. Excellent and good. Very good.

Turn with your back against the wall. Okay, so this is a great exercises is the towel stretch for the leg. And this is part of the good morning stretches that I like to do. You take a hot shower, you stretch your shoulders, right? You get your towel, you're going to give yourself a nice little stretch. You're going to take the towel and you're going to bend your knee.

You're going to loop the foot right through. That's it. Now take your foot back so that you're going to be as close to your hip over your, at your heel as you can be. You have a wall behind you. You're not going anywhere. Bend the knee in like the tree. Take the foot underneath. Good and push out and stretch with the towel.

Beautiful and bend in. Not Everybody's going to look like this. And good stretch out. See her boxes nice and square. And her back is lifting. Now I want you to suffer a little more and stretch that bottom leg. Stretch the bottom lane. Ah, so what we don't realize we do is as you're doing this at my backpack here, as your stretching year, what we do to give in, we bend this leg, right?

I want you to stretch it. So do you see your single leg pole? That's it. Okay. Okay. Do you have a half an inch? You can have a little bit from the wall. Okay. Okay. Stretch that knee. Lift that bottom knee. That's it.

That'll help lift this arch. Now stretch the leg out. Find the wall behind you. Good. Hold it. That's it. That's the length you want on the tree. Find the wall. Good. Bend the knee to your and stretch it out. Lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift. Good.

Hold and bend the knee. Very good and stretch. This is great for that student who likes to sit back in their tree, right? Nice straight tree. Going to the ceiling. Beautiful. You're beautiful. Californian sun and bend the knee and change your legs. Very good. This is a good exercise for you. I know, right?

The simple ones. Everybody wants to do these crazy things. These simple ones get to the root of everything. Other side. [inaudible] [inaudible] good. We're going to stretch this knee. Get this hip down. That's it. Keep this hip. Good. Find that rip. There you go. And stretch out.

Try to keep this hip down a little more good and bend the knee in and get that hip down more. That's it. And good night. Remember my, when I adjusted, pull that right hip into the wall. There you go. And this hip down. That's it. And stretch out and don't over cross that leg. I think I'm going to timber. I got you honey. That's it.

Good. Yes. And Bend in. Okay. And again, stretch that leg out. Reach hip there. Good. That's beautiful. Bend it in. I got you.

I'm a strong woman and bend it in. In and down. Good. So yes. So this is what happens a lot because when we're doing our tree, we're adjusting. We're adjusting, we're adjusting, right? We're bringing that hip. We're sinking on a hip here. You can't, if you have a mirror in front of you and you keep your box square and you are here, you're not going to have, you have all this tactile feedback. Okay, I'm going to straighten that leg. Okay. My box square. Yeah.

So right. So I'm gonna, you know, and then eventually you go [inaudible] and give yourself a nice little stretch. But you really want, this is a great place for you because you can find all this in your back, right. Okay. And it's fabulous for that student who likes to sink back, sink back, sink back that in the baby chair. Lots of fun. Okay, that was really good. Now we have some more suffering for you. Okay. So this happens to be one of my favorite EKG, chest opening exercises.

Let's move a little bit to the right and you're going to stay facing your back. Have your heels against the wall. It looks like nothing, but it's horrible. Open your arms and now press your back. Palms, press hole back there. Press. See how that likes to happen. This hip, this rip air. Oh, beautiful. That's it. Hold, hold, hold, hold. Now switch your hands to the pumps and press those palms straight across.

Nope. This one's here. Here's your tea, right? I dance. That's it. Press crucified on a Beautiful Day. And good. Flip the arms. Ah, good. Now press. Feel your chest open. This is what you want to feel when you're doing the pull straps right at this level util you see how the ribs have to fill and flip and press. Good. Now while you're pressing reach between the middle fingers, there you go. Make space between the shoulder blades. So now you have more space for the rib. One more time. Flip.

Stretch those knees. Now add. Oh yeah, I really liked the bend, their knees, press, press, press and beautiful glide your arms down. So I know, I know your tendency wants to bring their dominant side up, right? So in my house I have all these cuts, all wood and I'm always checking my box. I'll go by a mirror and be like, oh, okay, I have to be straight. So definitely work with Amir because we don't know what straight is, you know, I mean to me this is straight. So like always work with a mirror or a teacher. If you don't have, you know.

So you're going to stand here and all I want you to do this is nice. One is have your heels back there. If you can lengthen your spine up. If you can stand with the feet together and close the legs parallel, that's your goal. Okay? So that there's no space. Lift up and take your hands to the wall, bads it, and press. Now take your fingertips to the wall. Only walk a little forward.

Now this is not a backbend, it is a chest lift. Lift the chest up, that's it. Elbows in. Good. And now walk back and lengthen your backing the hands to the wall again. That's it. Beautiful. And press them there. Good. So this is the beginning of your Swan, right?

This is how you should be doing this one. So it's not in the low back. It's a beautiful chest opening. Good. Bring your fingertips to the wall, step forward, and then lift the chest, elbows in. And don't go into that low back. Lift your chest up more. This goes all the way to there. Good elbows in, in, in. That's really an important part of the back bend and good.

Lengthen up and walk back. Tailbone and place the back of the hands against the wall and press and try to get all of the fingers there. So you want the entire back of the hand on there spreading. Good. Now step away, fingertips touch. Press the palms, press the palms, press the palms and lift the chest.

Just chest and walk back all the way there. And beautiful. Bring the arms down. Okay, we're going to give you a little arm wheats. You're going to have your heels together. So these can be added into your traditional wall that you do in the beginning where you do, you know, arms lowering and lifting with breathing, and you do your little roll down and roll up in your squat. You can always add this in there for a little more spice, especially if you've had a very legato workout and you want to like rev it up a little bit. So you're going to take your feet a little more forward. Good.

Soften those knees again so we can get the length without a tuck. Lent their beautiful length of the tailbone there. You're gonna hold the way. It's just like that. And you're going to inhale sparkle. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, go down. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Don't change the direction everybody wants to always change. You can, but I like to break what's known to now you reverse it and up to three, four, five, six, closer arms, seven, eight, end down right in line with the shoulder. Four, five, six, seven, eight and up to three, four, five, six. We need a new wall and reverse it.

Now down to three so you can play with that by six, seven, eight. Very good. I use this especially if I have somebody who lacks range of motion in the a hundred cause it's that same stimulating circulation and you get them to lift their arm. Cause a lot of times we get hundreds that are like this and they should be six to eight inches to get that blood going. So I like to use this exercise for that. Beautiful. Okay, now you're going to do roll down and you're going to add arts arm circles with the weights. This is beautiful traction for the shoulder. So you're going to let your head drop down. Soft ribs, Nacho, there's that's girl. Keep those knees bend. Very good. Go off, don't do it.

Don't do anything yet. Roll down rolled. Keep those knees bent. Good. Stay right there and try to get the low back a little higher. So that's a beautiful curve. Now as if when China let them drop, let them drop. Stay there and just let it circle like the wind is blowing. Does that feel delicious?

Amazing and reverse. It really opens up the shoulder, gets rid of that stress especially. Oh my goodness. Everybody sits at a desk all day long. They have all this tension. Good. And let the circling end and then you're going to slowly rural up, roll up. And if you don't have weights, you can take two bottles of water and hold them in your fingers and do that as well. Very good.

Let's do that one more time cause it was so delicious. Roll down. Keep that tailbone long. Good. Pull the stomach in. That's it. That's it. Very good. And let Chantal Chantal, no effort. Just let the like, oh beautiful beach breeze comes and makes you circle. That's it.

And then reverse it. Good. And then let the circle stop and your stomach lengthens up. Tailbone down, waist on, ribs on, shoulders on. So much for the deliciousness. Now we suffer. Go back to a parallel position. Take your feet out. We're going to do your squats with the sparkles, joy, top and bottom. Suffer.

Pull this stomach in, slide all the way down. And inhale, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and down. Two three, four, five, six, seven, eight and up to four, five, six, seven, eight and down to four, five, six, seven, eight and up. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight and down. Three, four, five, six, reverse and bend down, down, down, down. Good. Feel the burn yet up, up, up, up, up, up and down, down, down, down. Press yourself up and burn sludge. When my son used to do his seven minutes squats, which I make all the football players do, he goes, first it turns to ice. Then it burns and then it goes numb. Mike. Yes, this is true. Okay, ready? We're going to do arms lowering and lifting with our squats.

Lower down, lift the arms to the wall. Hold, press the stomach in and [inaudible] up the wall. Inhale as you go down. Beautiful. Exhale as you press up. Good. Inhale as you go down. Great to get those legs nice and strong. Ready to go skiing and press all the way up.

I know you do that a lot here. Water-Skiing and press all the way up. Lift Jersey's not known for any skiing and press all the way back. Doesn't that feel so good? Amazing. I'm going to take the weights from you. Yeah. I noticed that your legs were a little bit wider.

Hips [inaudible] so the, so the center of the hip, I go right from here. This is where my hipbone is, so if you look, it's pretty much in alignment. Oh, I see. Okay. Right. I was looking at your feet a little bit. Yeah. I have very wide feet, so you know Italian stumping grapes, so I always look at my hip and my knee and the center of my line. Okay. Okay, so you're, you're, you're tiny. Like I would even bring you in a tie. That's it.

This is look at your pelvic, right. This is, there you go. You see? Now you can draw midline. Yes. And press up. I'll keep my fingers, keep my fingers, keep my fingers. That's it. Okay, very good. Walk back. Press against here. Now we come to my favorite part. This is a virus that I see in pilates. Everybody goes to lift their heels and they push into their pelvis and they shift. Okay.

You want to be able to lift without shifting because that activates your bottom. You very rarely, I never say never. Well, I just did say squeeze. I prefer to have the action make the muscles fire. That should be firing. If you're not in alignment and you're squeezing a muscle that's you're doing damage. Yeah. You know, so I like to give all the constraints that Joe [inaudible] gave us within the method and get the muscles to fire that need to fire.

So this is one little fun exercise that I call lift, not shift. So once again, just like in everything else, we're going to be shoulders over, hips, hips over heels. The arms are going to make a natural constraint. You're going to lift your heels and keep your arm Straw and keep your arms straight. You see what works? [inaudible] elbows bent. So you're here. No, I don't want them to. You are here. You press and lift. You press and lift.

So what am I doing right? I'm lengthening. So you want that stretch, those arms come back down. Lift. Don't shift. Lift. Yes. Yes. That's it. Looking at your little tushy working and leave your head on the ceiling and go back down. Yes. This is great to do with a tower as well. And the top springs. Yeah, you see, I don't have to tell you what to work.

It works and lift. Don't lift, don't shift. We shift so much and we really don't want to keep the shoulders up. Take your feet a little closer, a little closer to the lawyer. Ready to now. Now this is much like, you know when you're on the reformer and you're doing rowing and you lift and you don't move the carriage. That's the same feeling. So the shoulder blades have to draw down to make the space.

The spine has to get longer for the lift. Stretch your elbows. Come back down and do it with straight arms. Don't let those elbows bend. Lift, lift. Yes, lift. I got you. And lower your heels down, down, down. So opposition press happening to go to T. Oh, here we go. Breath. That's it. You feel that? Yes. Look at how much that's working and down. But this also goes, this is why there's so many hip issues. Everybody's pressing forward.

So that joint of the hip pushes into the front and then everything. Then we go into our low backs and so we end up like this and going, I don't know what's wrong. I do. Polonius no. So you want to really be here. Shoulders over, hips. Pull that stomach and shoulders are going to draw down back and together. And you lift. Shoulders. Draw down, back together. Lift.

Yes. Like your mermaid, right. Draw down, back together. Lift. That's it. Good, good. And come down. Excellent. I want to lift. Not Shift. That was beautiful. Thank you. Awesome. Something clicked. Good. Excellent.

Comments

1 person likes this.
This is a very useful combination for practitioners as well as teachers to emulate in class. I taught a mat class of millennials and thought I would try this before class. They liked it and felt it helped open them. Many were tight in shoulders and hamstrings. I bookended the leg lift to see the difference in leg straightness and overall posture, after the class...all were improved. Thank you so much, great piece.
1 person likes this.
Thank you.....love the 'lift, don't shift'!!!
1 person likes this.
thank you for the work simple bat many many intense.
1 person likes this.
Thank you!!! AMAZING ??
1 person likes this.
"Lift not shift"--excellent!
1 person likes this.
love it!!! woderful!!
2 people like this.
I appreciated the explanations. It helps to feel the move and the rationale behind exercices. The "lift not shift" is a revelation!
Thank you!
1 person likes this.
wow! love it . Thank you !
1 person likes this.
This wall series is brilliant!!
A true work, thanks for sharing. ✨
Always learn so much from you thank you
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