Class #991

Shoulder Stabilizing Flow

45 min - Class
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Erika Quest returns to Pilates Anytime with colleague and PA instructor Portia Page, offering you a rejuvenating and fun Reformer workout. Warm-up on the Reformer with some isometric and proprioception exercises to help prepare you for the rest of class. In the "Foot Work chapter" you'll enjoy some variations on the traditional theme that results in a good amount of leg work. As the class progresses you'll benefit from a well-rounded workout that includes some effective shoulder stabilizing exercises as well as good arm and abdominal work. Welcome Back Erika!
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box, Pilates Pole

About This Video

Mar 06, 2013
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Hi everyone. Welcome to [inaudible] anytime. My name is Erika Quest and I'm here today with Porsche page and thanks for watching this. We're going to go through a nice hopefully rejuvinating reformer workout for you and we're going to start lying supine on the reformer and I'll talk a little bit about the reformer set up in the position as Porsche gets into place. So headrest is down because we're going to actually start sue quite on the reformer with them with a warmup your foot bars down and I have her set up already for her foot work so she has three springs on and that's two red springs and a green spring and we're going to leave that on through the duration of the footwork and you'll see why this may seem a little bit on the light side for some of you for footwork and hopefully that will explain itself as we go through. So feeder about hip distance apart parallel on that reformer platform, the toes may come off a little bit onto the foot bar as well.

Whatever's comfortable for you or your clients leave or length is great. Arms are nice and relaxed. She's in a nice neutral spine position and we're going to start with a wonderful fundamental does it just check in on the system with the pelvic curl. So take an inhale to prepare. Exhale, tip the pubic bone towards the face, tuck the pelvis, peel the spine up. Good. Inhale pausing at the top and exhale. She's gonna roll all the way down.

So we're in a four breath pattern here and this is just an opportunity to really get into the system to just warm up and mobilize the joints here. Inhale, you pause and exhale. You Roll as you do this. Really feel like you're peeling your spine up off of the carriage like it's a sticker. The spinal column is a wave here. You're supposed to be experiencing that undulation. It's a way to ute for you to really check in and make sure if there's any spots that feel a little tight that you want to work on, that you have that information, that you can work on that throughout the session. Inhale, pause, and exhale. Roll all the way down. Good. Last two. Inhale to prepare. At exhale, you roll up.

Good. Inhale, pause, and exhale. Roll all the way down. Fantastic. And last one, inhale and exhale. You. Yeah. Good. Inhale, pause, and exhale, rolling all the way down.

And moving into the second exercise. You're gonna walk your feet right up next to towards one another. And we're going into a modification on this spinal twist supine. So go ahead and extend that right leg out. Long inner thighs are squeezing together.

You're going to start in a nice plantar flexed foot. On an inhale, you're going to tip the leg over to one side, flexing the foot Dorsi flexing. Exhale, pulling the leg back to center. Good. Again, pointing the toe. Inhale, you tip. So as you can see, you're only going to be tipping over to that one side. Exhale, you pull. We're going to do five here. So three more. Inhale, keeping the shoulder girdle anchored and exhale. So you're getting that functional rotation around the Middle Thoracic spine. Exhale initiates that trans versus the dominance to pull back. Good.

And last one here. Flexing that foot and pulling back. Good. So switching legs, of course, what happens on one side needs to happen on the other. So starting plants are flex tier. Inhale to tip, keeping that point of opposition, the left shoulder reaching down. Exhale, you pull setting the tonality of the leg here by pointing and flexing the feet. Really getting a nice long energetic line from here. Last three so that we're even exhale.

You pull last two, focusing on rotation here. Just mobilizing the spine in a different way. And last one, inhale, flexing the foot and exhale. Great. Both feet come down and so that you're not too caught up in the shoulder rest. I want you to slide your shoulders away from the shoulder.

Rise by just about an inch. You're going to take the right leg and lifted into the tabletop position. You're going to grab onto the back of the leg with the hands from here. You're going to extend the left leg out and float it above the foot bar. And I still want the toes pointed here, pulling onto the back of that leg, lifting up into forward flection or a nice forward fold.

You're going to try and hold this height now as you release your arms and reach them forward holding isometrically heating up the core. Inhale, you take the arms open now on sweep them out to the T. Exhale, squeeze those. Nice big pink grapefruits underneath the armpits. Good. Inhale to open and exhale to squeeze. Just two more. Inhale, open. Exhale, squeeze. Trying to keep that nice forward. Flex in here and exhale, squeeze. Holding onto the back of that like coming into a little bit of an act of recovery while we lift and reach that top leg up.

Flexing the feet into a dorsiflexed position, reaching out through the heels. Now again, reaching the arms forward isometrically and we're going to start to add in some proprioception. So inhale, open in the right arm out as you look to the right. Exhale, squeeze down, and then the left arm goes good. Imagine you're really juicing that grapefruit juice down the side of the body. And exhale, we're going to six here to be even. So two more. Inhale, exhale, squeeze. And last one, grabbing onto the back of that top leg, bending the knee back into the tabletop position, drawing the other one back up to meet it and lowering the upper body back down.

So we're going to go ahead and warm up the other side. You're going to go ahead and float the right leg out again, back into a pointed toe. Exhale, pull onto the back of that leg. Curl up into a forward fold, releasing the arms, reaching them forwards towards the feet, and start the arms sweeps for five. Inhale, exhale. Schoolies. Good and for beautiful. Last three.

Good. Last two. Remember that air is nice and thick. Last one here. Good. Stretching that left like up. Flexing the feet. Good. Find that nice height there with the forward flexing. Fluxion reach the arms forward. Inhale, open the arm out to the left and look to the left and to the right. Good for more for six challenging and heating up the core here.

Five good. Four and three. Nice Porsche last two. Beautiful. And last one here, bringing the legs back into the tabletop position. One last time, lowering the upper body down. And now I'm going to lift the foot bar up into the footwork position. So we're going to start on a high bar as a reminder, or excuse me, one down from the high bar. And as a reminder, we're set on two red springs and one green spring.

She's starting in a parallel heel position. Toes are pulling up towards the kneecaps so that you're in a dorsiflexed position. The sequencing for this footwork series is going to be the same in every position except for parallel toes. Spinal column is a neutral here. Hello, Trane pelvis is nice and neutral. Take a nice inhale to prepare. Exhale, go ahead and push old way out. So just send your carriage all the way up to the top. Good. And inhale, draw down. So pretty standard here, really controlling the carriage, finding the co contraction of the quadriceps and the hamstrings with each and every repetition. So there's four. We're going to go to four more full and then we're going to begin to march last three so you can see why we've started on three springs to more weighting each heel equally and last one here. Great. So now she's going to begin to March, placing one leg and table top as she presses away and then switching.

And we're going to do eight marches. So here we go for six more. Retaining that neutral spine, that neutral pelvis position here. Really focusing on the breath. Good. Last two, perfect. And last one here. Great. So that's the first foot position you're going to then dropped down onto your toes, hip distance apart parallel. And we're going to go into a slightly plantar flexed position.

Not a super high heel, a little bit. Yeah, that's great. So ankles are nice and stable here. The only difference in this sequence on the toes parallel is that we're going to add in a couple of calf raises in between. So exhale, send your carriage out. And from here, give me two calf raises, one good. And to bring the carriage back down and then go again. Exhale, push away.

So at the end of these eight you will have done 16 calf raises. Exhale, but focus on mobilization of the ankle, full flection in both directions of the ankle. Again, weighting each foot equally and sending that weight down the big toe and the toe next to it. So that's four. We're halfway through here. Good, Nice Porsche. This is five. Drawing that carriage down like you're dragging it up and down through very thick mud. Imagine that your carriage is out on that beach behind us and there's two feet thick of sand and you're really pushing your carriage up through it and pulling your carriage down through it. Good. Last two. Yes, good. And press and press. Good. And last one here.

Push you away. Good. Two calf raises. She's going to end up here and dry down and now she's going to March for eight. So push away and table talk with that right leg and push away to the other side. Again, when you land that foot down, find that stability of the ankle. So we're halfway there. We're here is for the legs are starting to heat up.

Remember you're doing all of this unilateral work on those three springs, so it starts to get more challenging by this time last too. Okay, good. And last one here, pushing out. Great. So pull the carriage back down. Third position, we're going to make a little slice of apple pie or a little slice of pizza with those feet. So glue the heels together. Find those inner thighs by really pushing into the heels, keeping the ankle stable here, and exhale eight at full extension, squeezing the inner thighs at the top. You can see this really nice firing of the quadricep.

Once you get all the way out and squeeze the adductors. Good. Inhale and exhale you press for more. Last four. Nice and three good. Connecting into the body with the breath. Don't forget about that exhalation to really knit the rib cage together. Good.

And last one here, and from here she's going to start her marching in external rotation. So push away and as you can see the line of the leg is going to follow along and the knee kind of guides. The guide is that it should be following the shoulder girdle here. And exhale. That's four. Yes. And here we go for four more for good. And three legs are nice and warm. Now last, Ooh, beautiful Porsche and last one here. Great.

So last two positions and then you will have gotten all of your unilateral and double leg foot work in. You're going to go heels in the wide stance and then toes in the wide stance, neutral pelvis, neutral spine. As you exhale, push away. And of course her head rest is down right now, but if you want it to lift it up during this period of time, that's completely appropriate. It's what works best for you or your clients. So I'm here for more full and then we'll march for eight. Good. Last two.

Okay, and last one. Great. And then we're marching. So inhale, she's slightly externally rotated here as well as she marches out and as you're doing this, you're going to start to feel a little bit of pressure from side to side through the shoulder girdle. So watch that pup pelvic lumbo stability here. Really stay in tune with the power house and make sure that you're really stabilizing there first before you press away. Good. Nicely done. Last one. Yes. And push away. Last series here and then we're moving on to the abdominal wall. Dropped down onto your toes again. Ankles are nice and stable, waiting through the big toe and the toe next to it you'll exhale again.

Push all the way out for eight and inhale, pull down. So your leg should again be nice and warm by this point in time. But don't lose focus. Still really key into what you're doing. Access the breath, connected into the body, keeping that pelvis nice and stable and neutral. Controlling the uptake in the down. Take of the carriage last too.

Good. And last one here, and from here she marches for her last eight, so eight good and seven. And you can see if she has really great co contraction here at the top. She's not hyperextending those knees out. And good for more. Inhale, exhale, press away for, and three. Beautiful. Last two and last one. And this concludes your footwork chapter. So from here, you're going to move the shoulders away from the shoulder rest by just a little bit so you don't feel caught up. I'm going to change to a red spring and a blue spring, so this is, you could go red and a yellow.

We don't have a yellow on this reformer, but that's perfectly fine. We're going to move back into an abdominal series and we're going to start with a movement that is a good old friend. The a hundred prep with extension, and then we're going to play with some external rotation of the hip and just some proprialceptive challenges. So the setup here, fingers are strewed up to the ceiling. Knees lift up into the tabletop position. If you can access the inner thighs to really connect into the pelvic floor and the lower abdominals rib cages in, you have access to the backs of the arms and then you're ready to begin. So set your client or yourself up for success. And then we'll take an inhale to prepare. Exhale, lift the head, neck and shoulders extends the legs out. Hold here.

The position of the feet. Rotate the hips, rotate the palms of the hands to the thighs. Inhale, bend the knees into frog and take the arms to a y. As you lower the upper body down, Porsche just gave me a bonus. Thank you. So lower the upper body. Inhale, and then exhale, lift. Come back out. Here's where you're going to go into parallel. Palms of the hands down, and then inhale, bend the knees back to starting. Exhale, you lift and reach externally. Rotate lower down. Good. So you can see how she's lowering in between. We're gonna layer this, so you want to kind of get about eight of these out externally. Rotate on.

Inhale. Again. Pelvic state pelvis, pelvis stays, skews me nice and neutral and stable. Let's do three more. Exhale. You lift in or each. I'm trying to end in parallel. We'll see if happens last to exhale. Good. And in here you'll see why. Exhale, lift in reach. Good and hold here. Now we're going to stay lifted in between. So we're getting an isometric Ernest sustained moment. Exhale, lift the head, neck and shoulders. Here's where she's going to stay lifted. Inhale, you open out to the y and bend the knees into frog. Good. Exhale, squeeze down, and then you're going to lower and come back to starting. Good.

Three more like that. Exhale, lift down, reach. Good. Inhale, exhale, squeeze down, and inhale again. Make sure you're really connecting into that forward fold here. Squeeze those oranges under the armpits and inhale, and last one here at tail. Lift on reach, and inhale, stay lifted. Good. Exhale, squeeze, and inhale. Lower final exercise. In this abdominal series, we're going to start in a frog position.

The arms come out back to that. Why? So we're shifting it again for the brain. The legs do not move yet. The only thing that happens is you inhale, prepare. Exhale, lift the head, neck and shoulders squeeze down. We're going to toe dip from the pelvis. Inhale, lower. Exhale. You lift. Good on. Inhale, lower back down.

So that lower lift portion, exhale right here. As she inhales, she rocks her tailbone slightly down. Exhale, she pulls up and inhale you lower. Okay, so everyone's range of motion is different here. It's contingent upon what's going on in your pelvic limbo complex and the stability that you have. The lower down you go, the more challenging of course. And the higher up are the smaller the movement, the easier. Good. Last three. Exhale, feeling that nice raw and roll. Exhale. Good. And inhale. Last two.

Great. Lower and lift. Good, lovely net position. Don't crunch that chin to the chest. And last one. Good. Lower and lift. Great. And come back to your starting position. Great feet. Come down onto the foot bar and gonna take these straps out of horses hands.

We're going to put them down and we're going to actually move on to a hip series on the long box so you can come on off Porsche. I'm going to drop the foot bar down so that it's out of the way and we're going to remove a red spring. So that puts us just on a blue spring. Now and I'm going to lift the headrest and you'll see why in just a moment because once we load the box on, it just allows for a little bit more comfort for the elbow when you're cradling the neck in your hands. So let's have you starting on your left side Porsche, and I'm going to have you with your left elbow down, cradling the left, or crating cradling the head and your left hand. And as you can see, her armpit is put it pretty flush up against the edge of this box. The bottom, he is going to be tucked up towards you. I'm to help her load her foot in. And but before we do that, I want to address the, so you want to keep the hips stacked and I want you to slightly almost reached this hip down so that you're not just thinking into those lower obliques, right? So that you have some connection there.

Now taking this front strap, we're going to go ahead and load the top foot in and we're going to start with a bent knee press. So you're gonna lift this knee up and the strap should be just in front of the knee cap here. I like to cue out of the heels. So I'm going to pull the toes up towards, towards the knees. And on an exhale she's going to push out. Good and inhale, pull in.

And what I want to see here is that she comes out to a nice neutral hip position. Yes. And inhale bend. Great. Exhale you press, we're going to go for about eight. So here's for pushing away. Blue Spring is really challenging. So if you have a yellow or you wanted to lighten it, you absolutely could. But be mindful that when you do that, you're gonna risk the movement to the carriage moving faster. Thus the ricochet.

So just know that if you're going to lighten your spring load and last one. So we're going to come out to eight. I think that they, at least I hope so. And then from here we're going to go into a straight leg. So inhale drawing leg forward. Now pointing the toe. Exhale, pressing back just to that sweet spot where we stopped before. On the ending of that bent knee press and again, six to eight here is great.

Inhale forward and exhale press. And so you can see how she, she's really controlling the carriage nicely. It's a great job here to just tactically cue if you're instructing here to keep your hand on the hip so that they're not rolling it backwards or forwards. Good. I think that was five. Yes, last three. So inhale forward and exhale, press back. We're going to then go into a forward bicycle. Good.

Accessing the hamstring here. Of course the glute Max. And last one. Great. From here she's going to bend her knee and take this out into a forward bicycle. Inhale and exhale, press great. So the hip should not be rolling back as mentioned.

Nice and stable here through these interior obliques. Good neck is nice and safe and cradled in that bottom hand. Good. And did you reach this is for yes, Porsche and we're going to go to eight on these as well. So the eight of the magic number, super last two. Exhale, press. Yeah, and last one. And then the final exercise in this series is an internal rotation.

So she's going to bend this knee, tip it into wards the bottom, and you can see where the rope just went. Okay. Exhale. She pushes out and up. Inhale to tap and exhale to press. Good, and you reach great. So queuing out of that heel again, really reaching up and out. Super last for and reached. So by this time her abductors and her gluteal should be feeling pretty darn warm. Last two. Great. And last one. And then, yeah, you've successfully done one side of the gluteals, but we're going to move into a bit of arms here before we move on for efficiency sake.

So she's going to take the loop into her right hand and we're going to start. Well, it's just a nice sweep of the arms, so reaching the fingertips forward. Exhale, pressing straight down. The thumb comes to the hip. Good. Inhale, and exhale. We're going to go to just six of these because we're going to add in circles and we also have more arms planned a little bit later. So here's four Nice Porsche last two.

Again, connecting upwards through these interior obliques, keeping that nice stack of the hip holds here. You're going to lift the arm up, reach it forward, and exhale, press. Now again, you're on a blue spring, so you want to make sure you're really controlling the carriage. It should be a nice amount of weight for you to make it through all of these repetitions, risks, there's nice and strong. Good, and last one. Perfect. And then from here you're going to reverse. So sweeping through, lifting up out of those fingertips and pressing down, getting some nice shoulder mobilization going here, just warming up the arms and giving the glutes a minute or two to break. Good. Last three and to, and last one. Fantastic. So of course, lather, rinse, repeat, right? What happens on one side needs to happen on the other side.

So let's go ahead and flip you over. You're going to be now lying on your right side and we're going to go through all of those exercises. So four for the gluteal, then three for the arms. Okay. So make sure that your set up is, um, is for success. Of course to start and then we're going to load that top foot in for a bent knee press. So hips are stacked. Interior obliques are pulling up. Can you see my hand? Hello? Okay. Inhale to prepare. Exhale, push away. Good.

We go to eight on these and seven good. Last six, controlling in both directions and five. Great. And that front arm is really just there for support. Super three and too. The Sun's coming out for us. It's beautiful. Last one into the straight leg sweep. So inhale, sweep the leg forward and exhale, utilizing the hamstring, pressing back and finding that glute Max.

At the very end of that repetition don't go any further than neutral because the lumbar spine is going to risk to come into play and we're not using our lower back muscles here. We're using our glutes and our hamstrings and exhale, press good for more. Inhale and exhale for four. Nice. Last three, get ready for forward bicycle. Good. Last two and one from here. You Bend your knee. Good. Reach that leg forward and exhale.

Press back. Great Bending and reaching and pressing. Good. If you had time or you wanted to add in reverse bicycle, you can absolutely do that. I just don't have that planned in this workout. Good. And exhale last for reach through the big toe.

Press back, finding the hamstring and the gluteal. Last three good. And two final one coming up is internal rotation. Remember? And then we switch out to the arm again. Good. So here she goes. She's going to tip her knee into that bottom knee.

Dorsal flex the foot and exhale, reach out of that heel. Good. Inhale. Trying to think again about that energetic line of the leg. Really reaching out long through that heel, creating a much more long, much longer rather energetic line than a physical line of the body. Good. Three more. Inhale. Exhale, reach. Good. Last two and press and last one here.

Perfect. And then we're going to switch out to the arms. So three exercises with the arms or we're gonna switch to a series of six. So reaching those fingers forward towards the water or the wall. Exhale, pressing straight down to the hips and inhale forward. Again, you can see the wrist is nice and strong here. We don't want to see any breaking of the wrists and just finding the back of the arm and mobilizing the shoulder at the same time. Last two and last one, and we're going to go into a forward circle from here. So up in over. Good Portia, and you can see she's not losing full tension in the spring, which is awesome because she's really having a use her stabilizing muscles, which is exactly what we want. Good. Last two in this direction and last one. And then of course we got a reverse. So pulling forward, lifting up and over and squeezing down underneath the armpit, finding the Latinx, numbness, and the serratus here. Good. There's three.

So last three, connect with those interior obliques. I know I sound like a broken record, but last two. Perfect. And last one. Fantastic. Okay, great. So we're going to go ahead and release the strap and remove the box. So we're gonna drop the head rest because we're moving into some spinal articulation. So we want to find that lovely, neutral spine again because we're going to be ruling and I'm going to go back to two red springs and a blue spring.

We're going to come back to that mid bar and we're going to start with the bottom lift just to get the spinal column lubricated again. Re warmed up. Even though you're nice and warm now it's always good to just do a few of the fundamentals and check back in on your system. So what you did earlier in your warm up, you're going to do now with the toes up on the foot bar and minimizing the movement to the carriage. So take an inhale to prepare. Exhale, tip the pubic bone. Smash that imaginary group with the lower back and roll up. Good. Inhale, pause at the top. Exhale, you roll. Oh, all the way down. Good. Last two. These again, rolling up kneecaps are flashlight. They should be shining forward right now.

Inhale and exhale. You roll. Beautiful. She's gonna stay lifted or you're going to stay lifted on this last one. So hold and stay lifted. Now, here's where we're going to play with the hip stuff. So push out in parallel on an exhale. Stay here externally. Rotate the hips, pulled through the heels together and pulled down on an inhale. Back to parallel. Push you away. Good.

And pull in an external rotation. Three more. You're going to do five total. Good. Last two, opening the hips and last one. Fan in the hips. Open here. Good. Back to parallel. Hold it, Portia. Inhale. Exhale, roll all the way down. Give yourself a little bit of arrest before we move the other direction. Inhale and exhale, come all the way back up.

And now instead of starting in parallel, you're going to wrap the heels together. Push away an external rotation, come back to parallel and pull good. Four more. And again, really controlling that carriage. Remember you're a set of top two feet thick of mud. Nice. Last two. Yeah, and last one, pushing away, pulling all the way down. Inhaling here at the top and exhale. Rolling all the way down. Lovely job. Great.

So moving on, we're going to open up the hips a little bit into a quick side lunge or stretch before we move into full body integration. So come on up to standing. We're going to move onto just one red springs. You could use a green spring here as well if you'd like. We're going to drop the foot bar all the way down, which gives us a little sliver of platform. So Portia, come on over here. I'm going to have her mouth from behind.

So the best way to get into this safely is to put one foot on your platform. Go ahead and reach forward and put your hands down here just to stabilize the carriage and the side rails and then the foot's going to go about center of the carriage. You can totally play with the angle of this. And how much length do you want through the inner thigh from here, taking the palms of the hands into a prayer position. This shouldn't be too heavy duty on the adductors right now and you're going to bend just the platform leg and send the carriage out slightly. Taking a nice stretch through the inner thigh and she should be in a nice neutral spine here.

So the sit bones are slightly tipped backwards towards me right now. Then keeping the left leg stable, she's going to exhale, push through that right foot. Inhale, exhale, push. Good. Similar to skating but different. She's keeping a lovely length through that inner thigh. This is for, let's do eight. Okay, so four more pushing out for good and the glider, the carriage stays consistent on the way out and on the way in last too. Good. And last one, good carriage comes all the way back into the stopper.

She stands back up. Safe Way to get out of this is to reach down, stabilize that carriage in the rail, step off backwards and then we'll have her come to the other side and we'll step back on. So as you guys know, probably you know mounting standing work, you just want to be really, really careful with your safety precautions. So, so that might boom, my behind is not facing you. I'll just cue Porsche from here. So prayer position and you're going to go ahead and think into that left leg to start opening up that right hip. As you can see, nice neutral spine sitting bones are tipping slightly backwards and then she's just going to start to straighten out that left leg eight times good and seven beautiful, keeping this nice long diagonal line. Good. Nice. Last four Portia, super four and three little dynamic movement through that left leg two and last one here. Great carriage comes all the way back in. Standing it back up and safely dismounting. So from here, foot bar comes back up.

We're going to go back to that middle setting and we're going to swap the red spring for our green spring. Moving into some standing up stretch. You're planking work. So we're going to do a little bit of a variation here. I'm going to put my foot on the carriage just to hold it steady. She's going to come in and stand and to start just it's nice to get a nice set up of something that feels good and familiar.

So most of the weight is down back on her toes right now. Shoulder, girdles nice and stable. And then from here, I want her to weight transfer over to her rights at a toes, crossing the left ankle, back behind the right leg. We're going to hold this lovely position, just the subtle trajectory difference here. So you're going to pick up different muscular structure as she does a few up stretches. So from here she's going to come out into plank, rotating around the shoulder girdle and the hips. Inhale here. Exhale, pulling back up with the abdominal wall. Now I know you see my foot here. I'm helping her a little, but not much. This is more for a safety thing for me, just the way that I like to cue my students or my clients. So there's three. Now here's where we get a little bit fancy.

So she's going to come out lifting the top leg. She's going to exhale, bend the knee and drop it under and reach. Good. She's going to come around and on an even hold. That's an inhale and exhale back up. So let's discuss the breath. Inhale here, up. You come, exhale to there. Inhale around and exhale to pull. Good. One more. Inhale. So we'll go three and three because guess what? We have the other side.

And exhale, you pull, taking a little break for your client or your student or yourself if you need it while you reset and switch yourself over to the other side. Try not to crank down on your risks here. Remember you want to translate that load out through the fingertips if you can. So three and three. Here we go. Let's commit. Inhale, you come out and exhale you deep. And then pull in. Good. Last two. Rotating around the shoulder, girl and the hips. Exhale, you pull.

Beautiful. Last one. Good. Porsha and exhale. Great. So you're in charge. Now you're going to come and do your fancy part. So inhale, you come around, lift that like exhale underneath each good all the way back around. Inhale. Exhale, draws you in. Good. Inhale shoulder. Girdles nice and stable, and you reach good. Inhale and exhale, pull. Beautiful.

Last one. Draw the lats down the back. Good. And you reach good all the way up and over. And exhale. Good job. Take a break. Beautiful. So full body integration, very challenging work. And now we're going to move into some additional artwork.

So for this we need the dowel and I'm actually eventually going to need the foot bar drops. So while I'm here I'm going to pull it down and we're going to switch out to a red spring. Now this is going to be a pretension type of a circumstance because she's going to start kneeling and this is a little bit of a precarious position to get into yourself or with your clients. So let's just discuss the best way the knees are going to be up against the shoulder rests. So you're going to turn and face the risers. We're going to lift straps up and I'm going to have her hold on to them and pull them back behind her so you can stay seated or you can stay lifted.

If you have somebody who feels stable enough, they can rise up onto their knees right away. I am then going to help slide the dowel in behind the lower back. Good. And we want about six inches on either side of the dowel. From here. She's going to take her heels at the hands and rise all the way up onto the knees and press slightly into the heels of the hands.

But that that will should be up against the Tush. So as you can see, we have a little bit of tension already in the spring. So let's set up, you're going to lift up through that mid thoracic spine here, slightly tuck the pelvis just ever so slightly to open up the pelvic floor and the so as pointed tip opposition here. Fingers reach down to the floor. Okay, so she already has, as you can see, a beautiful arm recruitment with the lats, the serratus and the tricep. And then from here you're going to inhale, prepare, and exhale, push equal weight through the heels of the hands, pressing that dowel back. Good inhale, tap the Tush and exhale. Go again. And we do 85 of these. I'm just kidding. Would you like 10 and exhale, just laugh. You're engaging your core. Just that much more. Good. So five more. Again, she's reaching down while her spinal column is lifting in vertical polarity.

Good. What about 10 where are we at? Last one. Here we go. Exhale, press. Good. So we're going to safely turn her around so it's best to take the dowel and bring it up into the lower back. And I like to hold onto the dowel here while she just safely seats back on her, on her heels and turns around and faces the other direction. You're going to be up on your knees with the soles of the feet up against the shoulder rest. It's okay. Yeah. So once she's here and her feet are up against the shoulder, as she's nice and stable, she can grab back onto the outside of the dowel.

And let me preface this by saying it's completely appropriate to get rid of the dowel turnaround and reset yourself when she's ready. Or once you're ready, you're going to lift that dowel up to the chest. Now watch this. Okay. We definitely don't want that. We want that really nice connection with the lats. So again, I like to use that cue of putting a grapefruit or holding a an orange underneath your arm pits here so that you're not into the upper traps. From here, Dow is going to come a little bit higher and you want to watch the pitching forward of the body. We don't want to see that into the peck tore and the front of the deltoid here. Exhale, equal weight through both hands. Good, and we're going to try and get to 10 here as well. Great. Inhale.

Exhale. Really initiating here, still with the powerhouse and pushing away your movers or your pictorials. Good. Nice. Last five. Good. Last four. So no tension in the neck. Last three. Beautiful. Equally weighting each hand. Two and one third exercise in this series, you're going to bend your elbows, pull it back into the chest, sit the Tush back onto your heels. If this was too challenging, you could have your clients sit on a small box or straddle a small box.

We're going into salute. Bring the hands into the center of the dowel. You could also do this all the way up on the knees, but I'm going to show you a variation seated back. So the hands come to the forehead, elbow split sights slightly wide, still connected downwards through the lats, and she's going to hinge forward with a nice flat back. Okay, on this angle now the ropes are out of the way of her shoulder. She's going to exhale, push away, or you're going to exhale, push away. Good for 10 and you press.

So just a little bit of a trajectory or angle for the muscular structure on your um, triceps here. Inhale and exhale. And Portia is doing great. You want this body to see nice and stable. Last five, good. Four, three, perfect. Two and last one. Taking the dowel down into the belly. We're going to safely get out of it and you just want to take it out. Let the carriage float back to the stop or nice and easy. Still using the Dalla.

But we're going to be seated facing the risers. Now I'm going to add on a little bit of weight, and this is some rowing and some rotation, but we're going to pull in the posterior abdominal wall here. So you want your Tush or your bottom slightly forward of the Springbox and along the cared. So you have a bit of a surface area to work with. You're gonna thread the dowel back into the loops. And again, about six inches on either side is great so that you're even, and you're going to grab onto the outside of the dowel. Good shoulders are nice and low here. And to get into this, I want you to tip your pubic bone towards your face.

Roll off the sitting bones. Don't slouch. However, a collapse in on the spine. Find your sweet spot. Access the posterior abdominal wall, and then exhale, bend the elbows into the chest. Good. Inhale forward and exhale to bend. If you can squeeze those inner thighs, meaning if your legs are not crossed, one over at one another and watch again the parallel to the floor, come slightly below so that you're not grabbing those upper traps last too. Good. And last one. Good. Come all the way up to sitting.

She makes this look beautiful and easy, but it's very challenging. You could sequence this straight into the next exercise if you would like, or you can take a break. So you're going to exhale, tuck the pelvis, roll back off the sitting bones again. And now we're going to go into a bit of rotation. So tip that paddle down to the right and exhale, Rowe good, keeping the hips, squares facing forward, back to center, and then exhale to the other side. So you're alternating.

Now picking up a little bit of rotation and of course in different striations through the obliques. Inhale forward. Exhale, tip, end, pull. Good. And this is where you imagine you're in Hawaii and you're on a lovely canoe and you're about ready to pick up your Margarita. That's on the Wa, the island in front of you, right? So that's about four. Let's make sure that were even, this is five course. You can do five more. Inhale and exhale. You pull for five good and four. And I'm looking here because I don't see any movement of the feet.

And that's great. That tells me that the hips are staying square. Good. Last two and last one. Perfect. Come all the way back up to sitting. Final exercise in this series. Grab underhand on the inside of those ropes. We want to look for that relationship right from wrist to elbow to shoulder girdle. So that's what you're looking for. We're going into the biceps.

So again, rocking back off your sitting bones rolling backwards. You're going to feel this less than the posterior wall. From here, elbows are floating up nicely off the rib cage so that she has to stabilize and then exhale, hinge good. And then inhale, lengthening the long head of the BICEP. Good. Exhale and inhale a reminder. We're on a red and a blue. You can adjust that according to what you need. Keep the risks nice and strong so you don't want to see any of this. Remember, we want to strengthen the muscles in our risks too. Good. Last four.

Excellent. Last 30 and two more. Last one here. Good job. So that's our arm work sequence. With the dowel. We have two more exercises to go and one of them is rotation and one of them is back extension. So I'm gonna put the towel down here and I'm going to go into a kneeling sequence with Porsche. And why don't you come on over this side, Portia and mount. And she's going to be kneeling facing you guys with her knees. Hip distance apart, right at the front edge of that carriage.

A little bit of unilateral rotation. So we're all familiar probably with side twist, um, side with kneeling. This is going to be similar but a little bit more open chain. So she's going to hold the arms out and keep this shape. On an exhale. She's going to spiral up out of the top of the crown of the head, I'm twist.

And then from here she's going to perform a little butterfly with the arms to get back. Yup. And exhale. Go again. Rotating around the spine. So are the arms involved here? Yes, but this is really more about the waistline. Good. And inhale up and through. That was three. So let's go for six. Good. And last two. Good, or sorry, less three. Sorry the here's last two.

Let me correct my count and last one, twisting and up and over. Beautiful. Then of course, lather, rinse, repeat. So we're going to do the other side before we move onto back extension and finish out your workout. So swiveling around and now the right arm picks up the strap. And again, we're on a blue spring, so nice big beach ball shape here, right? I love hug a tree, but it's really not a tree. Okay.

It's like more like a beach ball. Exhale, twist and you lift and rotate. It's all right. Exhale, you twist and then just a little butterfly around with those arms. Good. And exhale. Good. Dropping and rotate. Good. Last three. Nice. Last too. Good, Nice and upright through the posture. Remember, spiraling up and out of that spinal column. Great job. Super Nice.

Excellent. So let's go ahead and take this strap off. One last time. We're going to put the box on. So come on up to standing Porsche and we're going to finish with a bit of back extension. This is actually in that work exercise and it's called a double leg kicks. So from here, chest is going to be hanging slightly forward to the box.

You want to be right there on probably the two bottom ribs, maybe the xiphoid process region, the square you out just a tiny bit. Good. So let's talk about the legs first. We're going to start in a bent knee. The hamstrings and the gluteal should be slightly engaged, but not so much that we're impinging on the lower back. Okay, so from here, slight tip of the pubic bone into the box to really support the spine and get the abdominal wall engaged and she's going to be looking towards the camera to start from here. On an exhale, she's going to lift the quads up a little and pump the legs three times. Inhale, pulling those arms, stretching out the legs and coming into back. Extension n yes, sad. Exhale, looking to the other side, pumping three times and inhale, you lengthen. Good.

Exhale, bend those knees, pump, pump, pump, and inhale. Depending on somebody's hip, flex flexibility, you may see more lifted. The quads are more lifted your quads and that's fine, but do what works best for you. This is not about a lower back workout. This is really about accessing the total spinal column and getting extension all the way through. Good. Last two. Exhale, kick, kick, kick, and inhale, lift. Nice. Last one, tick, tick, kick, and inhale, lift. Beautiful Porsche. Bring my carriage back to the stopper.

I'm going to have you slide on off and we're just going to do a nice finish to the sequence, so come on back around and face me. So just think about where you started and think about where you are now. Feet are about hip distance apart. Parallel, you're going to let your wings take flight. Take a nice inhale, lift up through the spine. Begin to pour yourself downwards as you trickle through your fingertips, wrapping your body around an imaginary stability ball and then just letting the shoulders go as you roll down feeling the spinal column Nice and Syrupy here. It's not about how far down you go, it's about how what your body will allow.

Inhale here at the bottom. Exhale, pick the abdominal wall up into the spine, use those adds as a blanket of support for your spinal [inaudible]. Call him and restock each and every vertebra one at a time with more length in between the next, lift the arms up above the head. Good. Flex the wrist and sprout. Open towards the ceiling slightly. Yeah, and you're all done.

Comments

3 people like this.
Love this workout Erika! Especially the double leg kick on long box...great cueing
Thank you Giovanna! It was a fun one to film AND to have Portia with me was an extra treat.
3 people like this.
This will now be one of my favorite workouts! Thank you for being so clear on spring tension and body position! I think I will be feeling this one tomorrow!!
1 person likes this.
LOVE this. Can't wait to try it all. Wonderful class and so well cued. Thanks for this!
1 person likes this.
Wonderful cuing Erika. Thanks so much.
Thank you!!! I have been teaching in West Vancouver, B.C. Canada for 7 years and really enjoyed the fresh ideas in this work out. I have the same reformer in my home studio and found it very easy to follow with your cues.
Can't wait to get onto my machine. Bye.
Where did you film this...it looks like our coast here but sunnier and warmer.
1 person likes this.
Gabrielle~ All of our classes are filmed at our studio, The Studio at Padaro Beach, which is in Carpinteria, California, just south of Santa Barbara. Actually some of Amy Havens are filmed at her studio in Santa Barbara.
1 person likes this.
Wonderful job, my friend. Especially liked the proprioception work at the beginning, the rowing series with the dowel, and the double leg kicks. Thanks!
1 person likes this.
Erika, what a fun class. I've never watched you teach before and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Cueing and body positioning were awesome. I'm a stickler for form as well.
Hi all! Thank you so very much for your kind words. I consider it such an honor and pleasure to teach for Pilates Anytime and try to infuse my true teaching style and personality with every workout. Your comments and feedback mean so very much and help me (and other PA teachers) refine and deliver what YOU (WE, because I'm a member too and watch all the time) want. Much love, Erika
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