Class #4985

Loaded Flexion Free Circuit

45 min - Class
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You will feel your abdominals working without loaded flexion in this Reformer workout by Courtney Miller. She was inspired by Tyler, who is in her second trimester, to work on concepts like a flat back hinge to incorporate core work without a traditional abdominal curl. She also includes a lot of upper body work and spinal mobility to give you a great balance in your body.
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box

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Hi, I am here with my friend and fellow instructor, Tyler, and we are going to bring you a loaded flection-free class. So there is gonna be some spinal mobility in it, but we're not gonna be lying on our back doing crunches and abdominal curls or the hundred. This is a great class to do. If there's a reason why you don't want to be doing flection or shouldn't be doing loaded flection, and Tyler's in our second trimester. and it's gonna be a kick workout.

and it's gonna be a kick ass workout. So we're gonna start with our floor sequence, which we will do three times throughout the class. We've got one blue spring on our foot. Bars are down, We've got one blue spring on. Our foot bars are down, although they are set for our footwork settings and we're gonna start facing this way. With the hands towards the center of the carriage.

Step back to like a wide plank position. We'll do one push up narrow elbows. The whole shape of the body goes down, press up. You're gonna reach and top touch opposite ankle to hand leaning back to your heels, getting a nice little stretch and then taking the hands back to the carriage. One push up.

It can be as big or as small as you want, and then down and touch the opposite ankle. So let's keep going here down and up, (breaths heavily) and press back and down and up and press back. You can go at your own tempo, whatever feels right for you, press back. And last time like this, press back and just go ahead and reach down, touch the floor, whatever feels good, and then rebuild your spine. Good, okay.

Come a little bit closer towards your machine and center yourself with the platform. Place one hand on the platform. And one hand on the carriage. Step back, feet are gonna be together, hips tucked. We're gonna take a big step out and a big press out hold.

Think of a star shape and then control the return back in spine staying long, press out and control to come back in, press and tap. Three more, press, elbows just a little bit soft top. Nice head in line with spine, press. And one more. We're gonna stay in here for a set of eight mountain climbers.

Knee comes in and then switch, switch. You can go slow or you can go fast 4, 3, 2, 1 step forward and rise. Cool, we're gonna get into those glutes. What I want you to do is take a seat. You're going to put yourself in a position where the carriage is hitting like your upper thoracic spine, not your neck.

So scooch forward, like a lot. It's like your butt can almost touch the ground. And I actually think that feels really good. Doesn't it? I like my hands behind my head to support my neck.

Start with bilateral feet on the floor. Lift your hips, finding that bridge position and then send the booty down. It almost reminds me of semi circle. Ooh, I would've been in trouble if I forgot the name of that. So you have to really drop low and then lift up.

Let's do a single leg. Tyler, so as you come up, one leg comes up and then down and then another leg comes up. If it doesn't feel good to do a reciprocal pattern, you could stay on one leg and down. Try to keep those hips level, lift and down, lift and down and now lift hold. It doesn't matter what leg you have.

Just hold it up and lower an inch and lift 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3. Keep that breathing, two, switch legs, and lower an inch and lift 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 4, 3, 2, both feet come down. Walk yourself up to your elbows. Walk yourself up to your hands. If there's a better way you wanna get up here, go for it.

We've got 10 tricep dips. Point the elbows back and press up one. Nice flat back, two, sending a tail feathers back, keeping the neck long, get low and lift. Try to keep those shoulders down and back. Resist that up and resist that forward movement.

3, 2, 1, take a seat or rise to standing and shake it off. So that is our flow. And we're gonna do that three times, two more. Let's add a red, get rid of the blue, and then we're gonna go into a standing series in front of our machine. You'll wanna stand as close to your carriage or your platform as you can get.

And then you've got your inside leg on the carriage, outside leg, on the floor. We're in parallel. Let's take our palms to prayer to start, bend the floor knee and push that carriage out and just stay here for a second. We're going for this long neutral diagonal line, close the ribs, lean into it. And then as you come up, go ahead and bend that carriage knee, and then repeat.

We'll do about five of these. So get low and rise to come up, good. Keep going, get low and rise. Keep going, when you go down, there's a sense of width in the hips. It's like your tailbone is lifting up, but the ribs are still staying closed.

The next time you're down in that squat, hold keep your left leg, bend your right knee. Carriage comes in and kick it out for five nice and four. Awesome and three and two, and one rise up for a little break. You're gonna come right back down, same way. This time reach the arms forward when you kick that carriage out, five, bend it in, four, nice, three, building strength in that lower body.

Two and one come all the way up to standing. Small little change. Your standing foot and your carriage leg are now gonna go into external rotation. Even though you see it in the foot. Remember that turnout comes from way up high in the booty.

Keep your palms and prayer, let's do that squat and press. Kick it out and rise. Usually you can get a bit lower in this position. So work that range of motion. Send the hips back, keep the neck long and rise and let's stay down the next one.

Just kick in that carriage in and out, kick and kick, good, knees point in the same direction of the toes. Isometric cold, take breaks if you need it and then rise to come up, stay in that same position. We're gonna add those arms. Reach them forward when you kick it out, reach, bend it in. Kick it out, five, so strong in the back.

Four, three, that's two and one gorgeous. Rotate your body towards the carriage towards the back, but keep that foot on and square everything off. We're gonna reach our arms out to a T and press the carriage forward. So stand tall in that standing leg, wait into your heels. Now you're gonna lower the heel that's on the carriage down, touching the Springs as you reach out, and then you're gonna lift the heel as you reach out, good.

And then as you bend the knee, bringing those arms through center and then do it again. So you press, heel, lift, close, keep going, press, heel, lift and close, you got it. Give me a few more. When your arms close through center, think about the abdominals doing the same thing. So watch what happens when she closes her arms, there's this wrapping.

And lift and lower. And the wrapping comes from the back to the front. Good, lean back just a little bit more over your heel. Yes, gimme one more. Awesome and rest, but not really 'cause there's more to the flow.

So bring that leg across and then rotate your whole body to face front, cool. Keeping your hands in prayer. At least for the beginning, press out into that lunge, find that diagonal. Pull up through the back knee and rise to come up, press down and rise to come up. Keep on going energy through that back foot.

So you've got energy reaching out through the heel on this leg and then energy reaching down through the heel on this leg. Good, let's add the arms when you go down, reach forward and rise to come up. Gimme five. Awesome four. Pull up through your kneecap on that back leg, three, get ready to hold, two.

Good, you have one more. Nobody ever wants to do that last one. They always stop at two. Hold, leave the arms, just bend the back knee in, out in out. It's not a big bend, just small.

Keep the ankle stable and move from the knee. Bend and kick and bend and kick and three and two and one rise and plant your feet on the floor. Well done, take a wide stance. Hands to prayer, send the hips back. Rise to come up.

Option one, we're doing it here. Option two, rise up to your toes when you come up. Option three, adding a vertical jump, up, up 10 seconds guys. 10, 9, good, 8, 7, 6. Are you jumping?

If you want to now is your time to shine three, two and rise, awesome. Let's do the whole thing facing the other way. So turn, get as close to your carriage as you can. These are our parallel presses. So knees and toes forward.

As you go down, you're sending the hips back and then rise to come up, sending those hips back and up, keep going, feels different on this leg, probably. Left and right leg, never feel the same. Who told us they were supposed to? That's like stuck in my head. Like someone was like, they're supposed to feel the same.

And then they never feel the same. And I always feel like I need to say they don't need to feel the same. So stay down there. Leave your hands close to your body and do your five kicks and parallel. We'll add those arms later.

Just focus on finding that hip knee and heel positioning, powering out through those glutes. And then rise to come up. Take a second, take a breath. Come right back down, reach arms forward. Bend rail elbows when you bend the knee and kick everything long.

And when I say long, I mean reach for the fingertips. Reach for the tailbone, reach for the heel that's pressing wrapping the abdominals. Awesome and rise to come up. The only difference is finding that external rotation, which happens from way up high in the hips. When you're ready, sending the hips back.

And I bet you can get a bit lower now that you're in that turn down, press and return, press and return. Just make sure that neck is staying long. Good, the whole body leaning forward on that diagonal as one unit, let's stay out on the next one. Nothing with the arms, just the leg. Let's go five, nice, four, definitely feeling more weight on your stabilizing leg, two and one, come all the way up.

Inhale, do we need to come right back down, include the arms, reach them forward, bend the elbows and then reach. So as her arms go forward, pulling those shoulders down and back, keeping the neck long, keeping the knees opening towards those baby toes. One more time. Nice and come all the way up, perfect. Turn to face your back.

And then taking that toe on you want right at that metatarsal line. So you can get a lot of mobility through the ankle. Be mindful not to lean forward into it. Go ahead and take those arms out. Press the carriage out.

Okay, cool. When the heel goes down, the arms go up and then the arms open and then close the arms and make that abdominal contraction happen, out. Heel, lift. Good, keep going, that abdominal contraction's visible. Whether you are with child or not.

You can feel the wrapping and the hugging of the abdominal muscles. The drawing up of the deep abdominal muscles. It's all from the big exhalation. You do not have to do crunches to get a strong core. I feel like we're just bust and miss here.(chuckles) Have you seen this weird side of me yet?

Yes. Sorry. Okay, bringing it down a notch, two more here. Pilates is exciting. (laughing) And then you bring the carriage in, just bring that foot across your body and then pivot. So now you're facing front and then get low and lift up.

Get low, lift up. Think of these movements as power. There's a pause at the bottom boom, and a controlled lift at the top. Yes. Good, strong ankles, strong back leg, squaring off the hips as best as you can driving that right knee forward.

You're gonna keep lunging, but add those arms, ready? Swing 'em forward and swing 'em back. Yep, I think of chest expansion when the arms come back, nice. When the arms lift. So you can get them a bit higher working into those posterior adults, two to go and then get low and stay low and just hold those arms, bend the back knee and kick it.

Yeah. So what Tyler's doing is pulling up through her kneecap every time she straightens it's like push and pull up, getting strong in the thigh. Five, get low if you can four, yeah. Three, Naval in and up ribs close two, yes. And one step those feet together.

We're going right back into that squat series. So wide position with the legs toes turned out, there is that same sensation of that diagonal, that width tail feathers up rise, inhale down, exhale up, tap the booty. Having that football there as a reminder of how low you can go, come up to the toes or come up to a jump. 10 seconds, 10 nice, nine good, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4. We're going into arms next three.

So it's okay to be tired in your legs. Two and one, nice come all the way up and shake it off. So we're gonna cruise over a reformer and kneel onto the carriage facing side. We still have that one red spring on open your knees wide. And I have got my toes hanging off the back.

So do you, so it's kind of comfortable to sit down on your feet and then we're gonna grab the strap that's behind us, which is very confusing. 'Cause we always tell the clients to grab the strap that's in front. But today we're using the one from behind and we're gonna take our form and place it through the short loop, da, da, da, da, and then bring your arms to a goal post position. Try to get those abdominals to work with your arms. We're closing in and opening.

And then exhale pull and open and exhale, pull and open. My rope is kind of turned, you keep going. You do all the work. There we go. Pull three and you can stay low or for the next one.

If you wanted to add a seated squat, you could so keep your arms open, palms are forward, just stay low and practice reaching both arms forward and then bringing them in. So if you wanted to add the seated squat, you would come up when the arms reach forward, tap the booty, up and tap. And even when I come up, I'm back to that same place where I'm thinking diagonal line, shoulders down, pulling my arm as straight as I can pulling my shoulder down, two and one, and then stay low. Take your hands behind your head. Keep your chin away from your chest.

And then just laterally tilt towards the springs and then come back to vertical. Laterally tilt towards and come back to vertical. Nice, little side cinch, little resistance, come all the way up. Tilt, come all the way up and tilt two more times, when I tilt naturally I wanna turn down. I don't know if you feel the same thing.

So I am trying to keep my top shoulder lifted. So it stays level with my bottom, all righty, well done. Go ahead and hook up that strap. Turn to face towards your foot bar. Let's bump it up to our footwork setting, lock it in.

And we're gonna go into a modified and a full long stretch variation. So start on your knees. I'll start with you. And then I'll add some progression opportunities. So press the feet back against the shoulder blocks, heels back against tucking, the hips under push back.

As far as you feel, you should go today in that plank position and then bring forward and then take opposite hand to shoulder, place it down, press back. Hips are tucked guys. So in this long stretch position, your glutes are working. Press, pull, tap, keep going, press, nice, pull and tap. Yep, you got it.

So Tyler's really good at maintaining that sense of wrapping and tightening, be mindful of that. Especially if you are in your second or third trimester, there's a pulling up, there's a wrapping. Think of your left and right sides of your abdominals coming in and together. If you're looking to add more, this exercise can be done up off the knees, press, pull, tap, press, pull, tap, press, pull, tap two more press, pull, tap, press, pull, tap, and then take it all the way down. Feels good?

Let's do the kneeling arms facing the other way. So we're in this wide position, sitting hips down, grab the strap that's from behind. Place your elbow through, make that goal post shape and then exhale come through center and open, keep going. I just love these kinds of open and close exercises because that visual of that coming in of the arms is so similar to the coming in of the abdominals. And lately they have been talking a lot about this concept of the left and right sides coming in, right?

So you can really feel it here. Squeeze shoulders are down and back. Remember those shoulder blades are very flat bones. So try to keep them very flat on your back. One more time.

Cool and then go for that forward reach. You can add the seated squat or not. So the forward reach staying low or lifting and lowering. And I am sort of leaning just a little forward. Keeping my ribs closed and down.

Just tap in the booty, no tension in the upper body at all, getting ready to carry a lot of really baby stuff designed and made by men carried around by women. Three, a car seat doesn't need to be 37 pounds. Two, one, stay low. Take the hands behind the head and this is our side cinch. And come up, side cinch, and come up.

Remember when you go down, there's a lift, right? When you do lateral flexion, you go up and over to get there. There's work to pull and there's work to return 3, 2, 1, and hook it up, good. We're gonna go back into that long stretch combo. Your choice to modify or not, we'll start together.

So feet against those shoulder blocks, the hips are low and scooped under in this exercise, press. As you come up, it's a load transfer. So you've got four points connected to the mat, knees and hands, three points or to the reformer. If you're up little bit quicker with that up and tap. Push.

Pull. Push. Pull. I'm trying not to wiggle too much, side to side. 3, 2, 1.

That's fun. And I can really feel the stability challenge in my back. Come on off. We've got that floor/circuit series, bump your foot bar down and one blue and stand back. We we can go this side, let's go this side.

So they get a different point of view. (laughs) So hands are onto the mat. Step back. We're pretty wide in our stance and then narrow elbow pushups down. I'm leaning back. Remember this could be a quick or slow movement.

You could add more dynamic, sort of jumping right with those arms and upper body. Getting the heart rate up a little, two more, one more. Reach down, take a stretch, soft knees rebuild. Here's where we're using the platform and the carriage, step back. So now you're in that narrow stance.

Big step out, big step in, keep going, big step out, big step in. Think of staying square. So your shoulders are pointing to the floor. So your hip bones find that wrap, scoop and lift, nice. The wider your hands are when you start, the more challenging it is.

If you were to walk this hand in a little bit, you would have even more support from the machine. So the way that you're doing it is even more challenging. Chest bone pushes up, right? So careful those ribs dropping in the shoulder blades connecting. Keep it in, go for your mountain climbers in and in.

Yeah. Stepping. When I do mountain climbers in my head, I think of three speeds. A walk, a jog, and a run. So you can choose what's better for you.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1, rise up. Good, shake it off, rebuild, turn around. So from this direction, you'll be able to see where the carriage is hitting us. Come forward. We're quite low.

So I'm like right at the lower border of my scapula, hands behind the head supporting the neck, parallel yet wide stance, drop the booty, lift, squeeze, lift, squeeze. So there's not a lot of movement happening in the shoulders and head, keep on going. You're trying to find that posterior tuck just like you would in any bridge, right? Three, we're gonna add that march in a second. Two, optional of course and one, so go down.

When you rise up, one leg comes to table toe ball heel. Other leg comes to table. The work is in the glutes and hamstrings to do the lift. The traction in the thoracic spine is like the reward. Four, nice, hips are staying level.

Ribs are staying closed. Three, get ready to hold at the top, two. It doesn't matter which leg is that, just hold, good. And you're just going down an inch and up the focus is the up 10, 9, 8, 7. If you wanted to extend this leg height to the sky, you could certainly don't have to.

And then switch sides. 10 presses up 10, 9, 8, 7. We've got our triceps coming up. 4, 3, 2, 1. I tend to come up to my elbows first and then up onto my hand.

Second set the feet and down and up we go, 10, 9, 8, 7 neck long, 6, 5, good 4, 3, 2, and come on up and shake it off, nice. We're gonna grab our boxes for our next reformer flow feels, feels good? I have something else that we can add into the bridging. Remind me that on that last flow, if you wanna do it. So we've got our long boxes on, grab your ropes and on our leg or twos, replacing our box in front of their shoulder blocks.

We still have that one red spring on, do we? No, we don't, we need a red. One red, now we have one red spring on, take a seat on the box facing back. Sit a little bit more towards the back of the box. They want you to have a lot of room for movement in your arms.

We're starting with bicep curls in a vertical spine. So sit real tall, lift those elbows, nice and high and curl in. Good, don't underestimate the challenge here, guys. Exhale, curl in. If you're keeping those elbows high and you're working hard to keep that spine long and straight, you are really challenged here.

The sensation is that my sit bones are pressing down wide and back, four, no tension in the neck. Three. Nice breathing, good, two. Now keep a 90 degree bend, pause. Turn your palms in towards each other.

Drop the elbows an inch. And we're gonna pulse that for ten, one, two. I immediately regret saying 10 and I should have said 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Take a moment, take a break, ooh, wait. So this is a reciprocal motion.

It trains your back. It strengthens the deep muscle in your back. One arm presses back, one arm does a curl, but that elbow's nice and high stretch and switch. Try not to twist and don't lean back and do your best to keep an even amount of tension in both straps at all times. So this isn't just a chest expansion press, it's even tension, I've divided the weight 50%, 4, 3, 2, and one.

Bring your arms back to that 90 position we were in and open and close, open and close. Open, close, four. That's hard when the straps are in your hands, three versus the elbows. Two, one, and relax, go ahead and cross your straps. Make an X in front of you.

And what we're doing is we're holding where the loop itself connects to the rope. There's like a little loop there and we're taking our two piece fingers through and holding on. Now you could choose another grip, like just holding onto the ropes, whatever feels natural and intuitive. We're going to do a single arm row on each side. So let's do the left first.

So we look like we've rehearsed this and then the right, good. Now we're gonna do a double and they're gonna kick our arms out to the side, boom. And then the left first. Good. And the right.

I feel like my weirdness is just coming in waves. Boom. The left, the right. And you said you wanted to do arms, right? She said arms and double, two more left, right.

Double, one more. My arms are shaking, left, right. And double. Awesome, okay, you're gonna hook up your straps. We're gonna show you two different variations here.

I'll start with you. So let's take a wider stance with our legs and if there's something else that's comfort by all means do it. But this would be an excellent prenatal choice right here. Leaning forward again. Wide sit bones, tail feathers back.

We're gonna go hands behind the head, lean and lift. Good, lean and lift, keep going. Tyler's gonna take you through some additional variations. I'll kind of cue you when to dive in. If you wanna do a prone exercise, then you can come onto your stomach and meet me here.

And I'm doing my arms pulling straps, can you? Yeah, there you go. She doesn't even need me. So I'm dropping down, finding my lift and lower lift, you got it. And you got swimming too.

She's like I know, lift. So basically we're working on our back core, just a couple of girls hanging out, working on our back core. I'm gonna stay up and I'm gonna do some triceps. Keeping my elbows squeezed in, ribs up, good. 4, 3, 2, and one.

And we can all rest and recover. Come off the box. I love that series, pregnant or not. I feel like there's so much power in that flat back hinge. I did that series in my Pilates with heart mat class.

It was renew. We were kind of squatting on the ball and doing a lot of that series, it's awesome. So now we're gonna come around to, we're gonna leave that box and come around to the front, facing the box, separate your feet, hips, width, but stay parallel. Bend the knees and we're gonna lean forward. Flat back hinge.

We should name the class flat back hinge, place your hands on the box pressing out and in, out and in, now you don't have to, but if you wanna add some more dynamic elements, your workout today, you can add a jump and catch, jump and catch, jump and catch. Building strong arms, building bone density, good. Shoulders are stable. It's a great way to challenge and strengthen her core. She has to anticipate that catch and what she does when she anticipates catching that box is pulls in and up.

Wraps those abdominals, 4, 3, 2, and one. Keep your hands on in your arms straight. Let's do some cat cows here. So round your back, bringing the carriage all the way in the hips over the heels and exaggerate that scoop. We're inflection.

That's okay, we're not low deflection. This is like the, put your pants on spine position and then lengthen, look up. Wait till your heels drop the chest as low as you can push that box forward. And then back into that scoop, lift the sit bones and scoop, keep going, press. I'm gonna have you hold the next one.

So when I say lift the sit bones, imagine there were two stickers here. Her hips are going up. Yeah, the stickers are going up, good. And then round to come in. Good, three more, round and lengthen, scoop and lift, two.

We've got a single arm and single leg press coming up, just to prepare yourself. And then one more, one. And you might wanna hold that just a little extra shoulders pulling down, sit bones, coming up, wrapping those abdominals, round your spine and bring the carriage all the way in. Come all the way up to standing. Kind of shake it off.

So for your single leg version, you'll wanna start with your feet together. It'll make more sense when we go into single leg, place your hands on the box and then press the box out in the chest down. Good, choose a leg and extend it back. Good, as you bend your elbows in the box comes in, tap the leg down to the ground. And then as your arms press out the leg lifts and keep going.

It reminds me of a four point kneeling exercise. Four point kneeling is like magic. When it comes to strengthening the back body core, you can probably soften this knee a little bit more if you want. If you're feeling super wobbly, soften your knee on your standing leg, get into the glute. Two more.

I feel bad that I'm making the pregnant woman do the work and then switch leg. So push the arms forward, extend the leg back. Good and bend the elbows, when the elbows bend, the leg goes down and then it's like everything reaches out at the same time. Cool, let me remind you that just because we're not doing abdominal curls, it doesn't mean we're not working the core, quite the opposite. This right here is a core exercise.

Glutes are part of the core. We've got those lats abdominals wrapping, deep abdominals drawing in and up four, nice, three, two, loving that neutral long spine. Bring the feet down, rebuild your spine, come all the way up. Perfect, let's flip that box to a short box position. And this might be a more traditional way that you're used to working abdominals, planking.

We still have our red spring on, although you could go to a blue and it would be harder if you did, knee onto the carriage facing back, and we're gonna take our elbows and forms down and we are gonna do two different variations so you can pick and choose what's better for you. Let's all start together though. So elbows and forms down arms like a number 11, curl your toes on the wooden platform. I kind of like my toes to the front edge. Yeah, you can do what works best for you.

But my toe doesn't have to bend so much there. And then we're gonna come to a hover hold. And so chest bones pressing up, you're actually thinking protraction, abdominals, pulling up, don't tuck the tail and this variation. Leave those tail feathers lifted and pull the abs in and then take the knees back down, good. And then do it again.

Hover hold and down. Tyler, you keep doing a hover hold. I'm gonna lift. Press, pull, rest, lift, press, pull, rest, lift, press, pull, down two more, shoulders right over those elbows. Really working to stabilize my spine and down.

Take a break, good. So think of it this way, your abdominals can work to move your spine flexion, extension rotation, et cetera. Your abdominals work can work to hold the shape of your spine. So in this series, we're using our abdominals asymmetrically to just kinda hold the shape. So your hover is gonna stay and last longer.

So come down onto your forearms and find your hover. And then in your hover retract, scapula, protract, you can do two or three and then take your knees down and take a break. Awesome, yep. Keep going. And Tyler's not coing she's in her second trimester.

She's able to pull abdominals in and up. If you felt that abdominals were not getting pulled in and up, you could do protraction and retraction with your knees down. I'm gonna add something more. So as I press out, I'm doing a single knee tuck and we're going for five, four, and I'm staying protracted. I'm trying to press my chest up three, two, and one.

And rest. Five seems like a lot more when you're actually counting. Come on off to one side, let's put our boxes back. We have our floor flow again. How you feeling?

Amazing. She feels amazing, she says. And I'm gonna show you that, that extra little something, something, okay. Let's face this way and one blue on and we'll do our push up and press. So wide stance, down, press.

You pick the tempo, flat back hinge and press. 4, 3, 2, 1. Step it on over, narrow stance, big step out and in. And we're working stability. Chest up, hips level, head up.

You pick the tempo. Five, four. Elbow's just a little soft. 3, 2, 1. Mountain climbers, walk, jog, or a run.

4, 3, 2, 1, take it around. Take a seat, almost that will hover our position. So let's do our bilateral. We'll do our march, but then I'll show you something else we can do instead of the pulses. So down and up for, five.

Tuck and squeeze. All righty, so add your march, one leg comes up and up, a reciprocal pattern like this, where you're lifting one leg and then the other is great for training the core in your back. That's what's keeping everything level. The next time you lift a leg, hold it up. Doesn't matter which leg.

So drop your hips down a little and extend the leg long and low. And then pull it up towards you when you lift, good, down and up, pull, lower, pull, lower 4, 3, 2, 1 switch sides. That's hard, huh? So I'm like pull it in down and out. So the leg extends when you drop the knee comes in when you lift.

4, 3, 2, 1 up to the elbows, we go, up to the hands. We've mastered that transition. Triceps 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5 4 3, 2, 1, take a seat, shake it off. Cool, we're already on a blue. So we're good.

Straddle the machine facing back. Grab your left strap long loop and put it around the arch of your foot and stand on it. You could do this seated, you don't have to hover, but if you're gonna hover, then really hover, like just eat hover. That's a hover hands behind your head. Lateral stretch and reach, we'll do four instruction.

One, two, stay low, three, one more each direction. Good, place your hands on the shoulder blocks. Take the leg that doesn't have the strap neon. And you'll want that knee to be a little bit closer to the shoulder block side on your strap leg. Could I have said that in a more confusing way?

Slightly not in center. A little bit more off center. You'll see why. Take your hands onto the headrest and then sweep your strap, leg up. Do you ever use the shoulder blocks and rest your elbows on them?

Or is that just me who cheats? (indistinct chattering) I'm showing her the ways of the cheater. So you don't have to use the shoulder blocks, but if you feel wobbly, you could keep a lot of distance between your left hip and your left shoulder. And if you want to add a single arm lift, you can lift the arm when the leg comes up. Ooh, that's hard.

Again, back body core. How many more are we gonna do? She said that's the last one. No wonder we're such great friends. Come back to a straddle, take a seat.

You can hook that strap up, see ya and then put the other one on. So you don't have to. But if you're going to come up to that hover, keep those hips low. We're going for a wit and opening. Let's bend to the right first this time, here we go.

One, two, chest is open. Remember to kind look up a little bit, get that lift three, four. Nice, and then the knee comes up. I just find if the knees right in the middle, you tend to lean a little bit too much in your hip. So I bring my knee.

So it's going to be directly underneath my pubic bone, sweep the leg. Lots of length in that right side body. Sweep it down and sweep it up. Even though you might know you're gonna add that arm. Lift.

Just kind of get into your groove first. And if you're gonna add it, go for it now. Ooh, that's my harder side. Slow and steady. Inhale down.

Exhale up. Three more. Two, one. Come back to that straddle sit, hook up your strap. Almost there.

Bring your right leg back over to meet your left. You have two options. One is to take a stretch 'cause you earned it and breathe. Widen the hips. Relax.

The other is to add a seated squat where you use a little momentum, wait towards your toes. You rise to standing and you have to be committed to sitting down, you can't hover. You just gotta go, five. Good, four. Guess what?

There's that diagonal lean. That neutral diagonal that we've seen the whole class coming in. Two, one, good, switch legs. I've been informed that this is much harder if your legs are longer. Sorry about that, not my problem. (laughing) Inhale down.

Exhale up. You could put a block under you. I think we have pretty long legs, don't we? When you wear the seven eighths, the seven eighth length. It's like the perfect length, right?

So I guess we don't have that log of legs. Two more, one more. And we're up. We did it. Good.

That was a good one, that's hard. So moral of the story, you don't have to do a bunch of crunches to strengthen your core. We got a lot of core work in, booty arms. It was awesome. So try this workout if you wanna do something different, if you don't wanna do loaded flexion, like your hands and straps, if you hate doing the hundred, if you're with child, post child, anybody, it's a great workout to do.

See you next time, bye. Bye.

Comments

Loved this class! No back strain at all which I tend to experience because of scoliosis. Also loved the happy goofiness 🤩
Great Class. I hate doing the hundred….and I also love using the reformer to workout…so I appreciate all these workouts and how fast paced they are. So Jealous of Tyler for being able to train with you while pregnant. I did your prenatal reformer series for 2-3 years AFTER my third baby and totally credit it for why I feel stronger AFTER three kids than I did before. It kept all the things tight that needed to tighten :)
Loved this class!
Loved this class! Love your humor and fun!! Great sweat!
LOVED this one Courtney - so many great cues and variations to take away and use with clients.  The class is challenging but very accessible - love the back body work throughout class - we all need it so much!  Thank you.
Hi Courtney! Loving all these circuit classes - they are really making a difference after Covid/move/baby... etc.
Makes me miss your studio in Encinitas!
I love the planks with the hover on the short box 
Another butt kicker Courtney! 🥵 Keep them coming!
As always, this was super fun! Thanks Courtney!
Amazing as always !
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