Exercise #4051

Tendon Stretch

3 min - Exercise
70 likes
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Description



Muscle Focus: Abdominals.

Objective: Strengthening the abdominals and stretching the Achilles tendons.

Reformer Setup: Start with one medium and one light tension spring. Tension can be made heavier or lighter depending on the resistance desired. The Footbar is up.

Start Position: Start seated on Footbar with hands on the Footbar. Feet are parallel, hip-distance apart on the edge of the carriage. Keeping the arms straight, lower heels towards the springs, push down in Footbar with hands to lift hips up to Pike position. Legs are straight and eyes are looking towards legs to keep flexion in the spine.

Movement: Keeping the arms straight, press the carriage forward keeping the heels pressed underneath the carriage. The pelvis will lower as the carriage presses out and the hips pike up to return the carriage home. Maintain straight arms and legs throughout the exercise. Repeat as desired.
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box

About This Video

Transcript

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To set up the tendon stretch, you start sitting on the foot bar, the spring tension might vary depending on a person's size and ability. So right now we have Christie on a red and a blue, you can make that lighter, lighter will make it more difficult, heavier will also make it more difficult to push out. Lighter is more difficult to pull in, heavier is more difficult to push out. So you just have to find the right spring that works for you. I wouldn't probably go any lighter than a red nor heavier than a red and a blue.

So anywhere in between there. Okay, so Christie, what I'd like you to do is put your hands on the foot bar. We're gonna take the feet just to the edge of the carriage and they're gonna be hip distance apart and we're gonna keep them parallel. Now maybe the most difficult part of the exercise is right now in this setup. so Christie drops her heels down towards the springs.

She pushes into the foot bar with her arms, drops her head down. And comes into her pike position. So this is a really important position, right. We learned it in an easier exercises, but getting that maximum flexion in the spine, she's really using her arms. You need your arms here.

Now, what we'll do is we'll take the pelvis down, the carriage will go forward, she goes, she goes, she goes, she goes, she goes and then she uses her abdominals to come all the way back. The heels, inhaling, so your reaching under the foot bar. I'm not really giving her a little much support. I'm just making sure she feels safe here. So inhale going out, and exhale pulling in and inhale going out.

The most difficult part is right now and that's when you really need to use your arms. Christie, have a seat. So there's two phases in that exercise that first phase where it's just tipping forward and back that I said that is the most difficult part of the exercise and then the second phase which Christie showed so well where the carriage actually moves all the way forward. So what we'll do is show you a little preparatory exercise to get ready for the bigger exercise. So the setup will be the same, the hands go into the foot bar, the head drops down Christie is engaging already as she lifts up and drops her heels.

So what you do in the prep is you just do that tiny little range you go out and back and out just to get yourself used to finding that part of the exercise out and back. So the worst thing that would happen would be if Christie got scared, she would just sit down. Yeah, but she's not. There is no worst case scenario. And then we take it all the way, and all the way back.

And Christie have a seat very nice. The tendon stretch.

Comments

2 people like this.
I love the detail presented in this tutorial. Knowing they can abort the entire mission by simply sitting down, this won't be as scary to some who may have been afraid to try in the past. I also sometimes put the bar in high position (if you have a Balanced Body reformer) which can be super helpful for some bodies.
Lori M agreed!!
It so important to go back to the details for each exercise, please make more  tutorial  like this. i love it ,it's great !!! and i love you Meredith Rogers ! 
Hani Maizlik Hunch that is so sweet !! Thank you!
We are all looking forward to getting back to the filming studio to make more videos and tutorials for everyone!!
1 person likes this.
you guys are the best....love these breakdowns!   Now off to practice the tendon stretch
I love going over and revisiting classic exercises. This is such a great series of videos. Thank you :) 

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