Tone

Hi guys, welcome back. This is the last series in the five classes that I teach at Pilates Republic. We've got Pilates with heart, right, heat, impower, align, renew, and you're we're about to take tone. Tone is a fusion class. We use our reformer and at my studio, I'm able to use sort of a ballet bar add on, but today we're going to use the reformer and the foot bar will be converted to a ballet bar like bar.

But if it's not working for you, I think you should grab like a chair or you can even just stand beside a wall. There's a lot of things that you could use if the setup isn't working for you. You will need a ball though, so make sure you have one of those. I'm going to start with one red and one blue spring on. Let me also say this class is very inline with music.

So I've provided a playlist for you if you want to use it. And if you have your own, you just listened to your music and rock out at your pace. We're going to lie down onto our back and take the ball in between our legs for some bridge work. Make sure your headrest is down before you lift your hips up. Exhale, hips lift, feet-hip distance apart.

Inner Thigh Pulses and Down Up Combo

Bridge - Push Out and In

Inner Thigh Pulses, Down Up, Out and In Combo

Bridge

Roll Up Variation w/ Rotation

Arms Reaching Forward and Up

Chest Lift

Chest Lift w/ Single Leg Lift

Arms Pressing Down w/ Single Leg Extension

Three, two. You might notice one side's easy. One side's wobbly. And one in this class, we do a lot of unilateral movements. So you'll feel it, if there's a stability challenge, take one arm out to the side, the other arm up to the sky, send both legs straight as you pull your arms in and open, exhale.

L Press w/ Legs Extending

Three, two, and one, and take those feet down. Now just take both straps in one hand for a second. Take the ball, scoop down away from their shoulder blocks and put the ball between your ankles. The modification would be ball between the knees instead, inhale, get ready and exhale, we're up. Pumping the arms for the hundred inhaling and exhaling.

Hundred

Good hookup your straps. We have another bridge series. This time, a little different. Take the ball and squeeze it behind one knee and it'll stay there. Believe it or not, it will stay there.

Push Out and In Toe Tap Down and Up

If it feels more intuitive to do it at the same time, you could play with that too. Four, three, two. Last one, one, hold it. Take the ball. Send the leg up.

Ball goes right up over chest. You're going to swing it down. Kick that ball 10 times. Keeping your left knee in line with your foot and kick three, two, one, and roll it down slow. Good, good, good, good inhale to get ready before we do the other side, exhale curl up.

The ball goes between the ankles and we reach. The ball goes between the hands and we reach. Ankles, hands, ankles, hands. You stay lifted in double leg stretch the whole time. Four, three, two, and one and rest.

I always walk around the room when I teach that because usually ball or two goes flying and I just grab it and give it back to you. Okay, here we go. Balls behind the other knee, hips up. Try to keep that carriage close. You lift the leg.

So I push, hip dip, only as low as my hips can stay level, recover and return. Push, dip, lift, pull, push, dip, lift, pull. And if it feels like I was saying intuitive, like natural to go at the same time, you can play with that. So if you have something that feels more natural, I think you should do it. Four, three, two, one.

Grab that ball leg up, arms up, kicking, there's pizazz in these kicks, 10 of them. Hips stay level, hips stay lifted. Five, four, three, two, one, take it down and roll, slowly, to the mat. Good job guys. Trip those legs, one big roll up, gets you there.

Swing the arms around. Let's do some upper body before we get to the bar. So let's have one red spring on for the next flow. So I had a retina blue. Now I have a red only, and I'm actually going to sit on this guy, all right there, and it's comfortable.

And I don't feel any negative stuff in my knees, but if you do, choose a different position, maybe sitting crisscross applesauce or sitting up onto a box. You're going to reach forward, grab your straps. Hold on, don't show up too high, this maybe harder than you think. On an exhale, you're going to pull your arms back, circle forward, to come around. Yeah, a lot of work here, back and around, and around.

I think of my long box arms pulling straps when I do this. Three, two, and one, the reverse is even harder. How's that possible? You can always hold a little bit lower, right? To make it lighter.

Three, two, one, and choke up, choke up onto the ropes. Keep your booty on the ball. Lean your chest forward. Pull your elbows up and roll your shoulders down and back, 10 tricep kickbacks. So I want to remind you when do these flows, you are bringing the intensity.

You want to really feel those arms fatigue. I was going to say burn, right? Because when we're at the bar, the legs are going to be doing the exact same thing. The legs are going to be quivering, tired, burning. We want that even amount of torture.

I mean, work in the arms, and we did it, good. Let's turn around. We're going to sit in a similar way facing front now, ball behind the beat and reach back. And if it makes sense for you to not do the ball, to just do it in high kneeling, go for it. So shoulders back, I've got my long loops.

I'm going to reach. I'm going to open, close and bend. Reach, open, close, and bend. And if you're feeling playful, you can add a lift into this mix. I'll show you what I mean.

Hips up, stay up, close it, hips down. Hips up, stay up, close it, and down. That's hard. Hips up, open, close, one more. Hips up, open, close, and take it down.

Let those shoulders rollout. We're going to bring our arms into our hug a tree position. And we're going to keep them here in this hug a tree as we just life and dip the booty. When you lift, there's a tuck that happens. Five, four, three, two, one, wholly quadriceps, arms and glutes, oh my.

all right, let's go to our first little bar flow. So here's how I'm going to use this machine into a ballet bar. I'm going to take the springs off. I'm going to glide the carriage back, hopefully it'll stay. And then I have the option on my Allegro 2 to bump this bar up one more setting.

You may or may not have a higher bar setting. Here we go. Alrighty guys, we're going to be facing towards our bar. Squeeze the ball between your inner thighs. Bring your feet in. I'm standing in the well, lift your heels, bend your knees and find a cleat position.

Now in cleat, you don't actually need the bar. So if you're not using one, you're good. We're just going to dip our heels, down up, down up,. When you lift your heels, big exhale, tighten the belly. When you lift heels, squeeze the ball.

Four, three, two, one, rise up for a little break. I want you to find that fatigue, find that challenge, hold it, and then we'll always take a break. Before we go into the next flow, heals up. Find that cleat again. Now we're going down an inch and up, down, up.

Not all the way up, not all the way down, down and up, heels are high, ball is being squeezed. Five, four, three, two, one, and we're up. You're going to hate this ball by the end of class. You're just gonna never want to see it again, but we're not done yet. So squeeze it, lift those heels.

Bend your knees, stay low, hips tuck under, shoulders stay open. Hips release, release. Think of this as standing abdominal work, scoop, release, scoop, release, exhale, scoop, release. We've got five, four, three, two, one, done. Not really, well let's just put it here for now.

Nice guys, alrighty. Let's open up some of those muscles that now feel tight. Come away from your bar and placed one hand on it. My feet are in external rotation. Really, my hips are in rotation.

My feet. Just follow the line. I use the bar and I take my outside leg up. So I want my hips right over my standing foot. Top hand behind the head, long line with the spine, tap your carriage, lift it. Depending on your height and your bar set up, you might be on your elbow and firm, and lift.

I want my leg to be an extension of my core, right? So I'm definitely feeling those obliques. Four, three. It's easy you're to do with music on. So I hope you're listening to music and then arc it to the front and to the back, inhale, exhale, up and up, up and up, five, four, three, two, one, hold it up, take the arm off.

You're going to thread the needle. Bend both knees. This almost feels like a break because you get to drop that hip, and then rebuild it to come all the way up. And we are doing our thread, the needle and start today. So this is like a great way to feel it in your body.

Inhale down, exhale up. Five, four, three, two, one, done. But not really because we have to the other side. So pivot turn, you're on a turnout. Lean to that bar.

Take the outside leg up. Your standing foot can be, you're standing hip should be externally rotated, right? So find what feels good for you. Maybe elbows down, top, lift. Even though I'm using the bar for my stability, I'm not really leaning into it.

You know, I'm trying to stay light. I'm trying to use my core, my postural muscles, my powerhouse, my standing hip to keep me lifted, and swinging to the front and back, front and back. The magic is in the arc. Up, up, up, up. Four, three, two, one, take it up.

Take it down. There's your little break. Exhale, big kicks, inhale, exhale. When you kick that leg, you're kicking it slightly behind you. Inhale and exhale.

Big finish, four, three, two, and one. Yes, we're going to be in here a lot more today, but come on out for now. I'm going to put my bar back down to the setting it was in and I'm going to add my red spring back on, I got my red on. Cool, alrighty. We talked about going into that star and thread the needle.

We're going to get there in a second, but first let's come into a plank. So drop down to the elbows and forearms, elbows open wide, push out with one leg and set it up. Pull up, take both legs back. First things first, elbows slide. So I'm trying to tuck my tail feathers under, trying to lift my belly button up.

I don't want my shoulders to pinch together. So I'm trying to push my sternum up, five, four, three, two, one. Bring it in. Okay guys, before we do the other side, mermaid your leg. The other side of the rep, you got more to do, take it over, lift it up.

Take it over, lift it up. Mermaid pushups. So take it over, hold. Rotate, face your bar. Take both hands on.

Widen your hands. Try to square off your shoulders. Inhale, bend exhale. When I straightened my arms, I pull my belly in and up, bend and extend. Five, four, three.

Elbows, just a little wide here, two, one. Swan, three times, one, push it back. Two, and three. Come back through the position you started in and take it up and over, back into our planks. Round two, a little different, palms and prayer again, elbows wide, push out.

You got options for this one. We're going to do a pike. So option one, feet stay low. Option two, feet come up. So, pikes, you've heard me say it.

It is about how you get into that lift position and you round and you scoop, and you exhale to get there. Five, four, three, two, one. Take a knee down. We're going to add something to that believe it or not. But before we do come into your mermaid sit and hand onto the bar and push out.

Ooh, it feels good. And come on up, and then let's push out and go into our pushups. Take a wide stance. Try to score off those shoulders belly in and up and push. We did five, pushing evenly into both arms.

Neck is long, adding that lift, swan, and pushing through, one, two, three. And then pushing out, bringing the arm forward, coming back through and coming up. All right, guys, back into that pike position. Little bit different, little bit harder. Elbows wide, push out, find it.

Walk the feet up, maybe right? You got options. Lift, hold, one leg up. Take it down as you push out. Now you don't have to do that leg lift to get the benefit of the exercise.

It just kind of keeps you there a little bit longer, exhale, and take it down one more And take it down. Nice guys. We're going to be going back to the bar in a second, but before we do, we're going to find a second position cleat here. I've been referring to it as a straddle squat, but it really is a second position cleat. Let's go ahead and grab our straps.

Make an X, find that hover with the booty and let's start with flat feet. Pull, hold. Pull, hold. Okay, this might be working good for you so you don't need to change anything. But if you want to, you can lift the heels when the elbows pull back.

It's a lot of stability challenge, inhale down, exhale, lift, stay low. Five, four, three, two, one, make sure that mat is under you before you sit down. Okay, that's great guys. Let's use our ballet bar again. So swing a leg over and we're going to ditch the spring.

We're going to roll him home, see ya. And let's pull this back up so that we've got the support for when we need it. Okay, cool. One foot in the well and one foot on the outside of the frame. So as I stand here and I'm in sort of what I would call a scissor split or lunge position, I have my calf muscle pressing on the inside of the frame.

I have the Allegro 2, so the frame has it, this design, right? But your calf might not. I just want you to know that you can kind of use the machine to help feel the back of the knee engage. All right, hand behind the head, inhale, drop. So if the machine's in your way, you're going to have to adjust exhale, lift, inhale, drop, then exhale lift, down and up, inhale down, exhale up, cool.

It might take you a few different variations to find what works best for you here. Five, four, three, two, one. Pivot to face your bar. You can take one hand on the bar of the opposite hand of the head. ow I'm going to second.

Now my second position cleat is not that low. Even here, the frame's not touching me. So it's actually for me a reminder to try to get a little bit lower. exhale, lift and squeeze. Down up, down, up.

Inhale lower, exhale lift. Down and up. When I lift, there's a squeeze that has to happen. My inner thighs are like squeezing towards each other. Four, three, two, and one.

And I'm going to add a little toe tap with my outside leg. So down up, I'm kind of pushing into the floor, inhale down, exhale up. Cleat, tone down, down and up you go. If you're listening to music, you can go to that rhythm. Five, four, three, two, one, second position.

I'm going to take my outside hand to the bar. The other hand up, I'll pivot back into my lunge. My heart's hounding. This is such hard work. Lots of cardio, yeah.

Get low into your lunge and into your second. So I pivot and cleat, pivot, cleat. pivot, cleat. Five, four, three, two, one, done. Come on in, take a second.

Stretch your quads. So grab the foot, breathe it out. (exhales loudly) Switch sides, shoulders relax. What do you think, guys? It's fun to take what we learn on the reformer and stand up and do it, okay.

So now here I am, one foot's inside, then well's one foot outside the frame and I'm going to pivot and I kind of have to adjust it so that when my legs are straight, my calf lightly touches the frame and hand on my hip. I'm going to drop down. I have to make sure I'm able to clear that. Lift, small little adjustments, guys. You gotta make them, inhale down, exhale up.

I like it though. Cause when you set it up and it's just right, the machine supports your alignment. Five, four, three, two, and one, pivot. You're an external rotation. You go straight down like you're sliding a wall.

You squeeze your inner thighs externally rotate from the hips down up, down up. If you can touch the frame, that's amazing. I can't quite get my cleat that low, five, four, three, two, one into the tendon. And you can see my legs straight, my toes pointed. I'm pushing energy down into the earth, down and up, down and up, down and up.

Both legs are straight when I'm up, both knees are bent when I'm down, five, four, three, two, one, I'm down, alright. I can't hold it. I have to stay up for a second. Now let's go into our twist. So I have the outside hand on, the other arm up.

There's my cleat guys. There's my pivot and my lunge. Down, down, down, down. Try to stay kind of light on the feet. Five, four, three, two, one.

That's so awesome. All right, big stretch. I was going to say that was so hard, but putting out positive, putting it out, getting it back. Okay, so we're ready. If you can put this guy back to where he was and bring them on in.

Okay, I'm going to put one blue and we're going to get back into working those glutes. You will need your ball. So have it close by. Scooch towards the edge of the mat. Place the ball under your ribs.

It's not really helping you a whole lot. It's just reminding you to stay lifted. Take your top foot into the long loop and place your leg long, towards the boat bar. Top hand can go to the hip, to the head. Some people like to hold on, inhale as you swing the leg forward, exhale, swing it back, pulling the belly in and up.

Shoulders stacked right over that bottom elbow. Big stretch, inhale swing. Exhale pull. Four. Three.

Two. One. I so badly wanted to just go into a series of circles, but my leg is shaking so I just needed that break. When there's a fire, you gotta put it out. Okay, now we'll circle up and around.

Five, four, three, two. I'm staring at my leg. Like I'm willing it to circle, one, reverse, up and around. One, two, three, four. Five. We did it.

Yep, let's get rid of that, okay. Before we do the other side, cause I'm not ready to do it again yet. Let's hold both straps, hold the ball and set facing back. And you need to have quite a lot of space back here and then place the ball behind you. Like we did in the beginning.

Not right up against your pants back a little bit so that it's your shoulders, it's better on it. Okay, I like to use the small loops. Alrighty guys. So same as before we're using the ball as a reminder to deepen our scoop, but we're not completely collapsed on it. Open and close, up, open, close.

So when you open your arms, the carriage stays pretty still and close. Three, two, one, reverse. So I go out, keep it pretty stable and bring it down. Out, up, down. Two more.

Let's take a back bend. Alrighty guys. So bending backwards, grab ahold of those straps. If you don't have the short loops, switch to them now, you go over. You got to just relax.

Can't hang on to anything here. You just got to let it go. Tuck your chin and come back through. And if the ball doesn't feel really good, and really supportive, it's not in the right spot. So move it cause it's supposed to support your shape.

Support your spine. Three, two, one. And hold both straps. Grab the ball, you're up. Let's do the other side.

We got this, we've had enough of a break. We can do it. Scooch. I just like saying the word scootch. It's very technical.

Okay. So the top foot is going to go into the loop And you're lifted away from the ball and hand or hold on, whatever works for you. Big stretch forward, sweep back. As my leg reaches forward to the wall behind me, my hip reaches back towards you. Inhale and exhale, swing and pull, inhale and exhale.

Four more. Trying to maximize movement at my hip while keeping my back pretty stable. Forward and back, bend it in. Patty, pat, pat, wasn't so bad on this side. Cause we've got a break, but I still want to take a little rest there.

Okay, five circles, ready? One, they're big, they're slow. They're painful two, three, four, five. Reverse. One, two, three, four, five.

Yay, yay, yay! Pat it out. Well done guys. Come on off to one side. Bring that ball with you. Let's change to a red, one red.

How are you doing? We're going to stand on the machine. Hold on first. Walk your feet back. Take a nice little stretch.

(exhales heavily) Okay, turn your toes to one side, walk. I'm walking my left hand to the center, reaching under. So here's the beginning of my thread the needle. I unravel, east centric abdominals, press the carriage out. I'm up, how's that shoulder, down and back?

And then exhale. Head initiates just like all of our other pikes we've done hips up. Reach for the wall behind you. And then do it again, inhale, and exhale, and inhale and twist. Shift your hips back when your carriage comes in, shift your booty back.

Three, two, one, good. Are we feeling our best? Everyone's looks a little different. Walk your heels up and back, hands onto the bar. Swing right leg up.

I'm trying to open my hip and square off my shoulders. Sometimes bending the knee allows me to open the hip a little bit more. Inhale push, exhale pull, trying to score off my shoulders. Just like I did it in the mermaid exercise. Leaning back, using my belly to pull the carriage in.

Four, three, two, one. I'm not going to lie, I'm glad that one's over. Turn, hand to the center and then thread under. So scoop it up, reach and then don't move the shoulders. So there's not a forward lean here.

Instead, use the abdominals to push the carriage out. There's your star. And then exhale. Bring the hips up in the arm under, inhale and exhale and inhale. You work more muscles when you smile.

I feel like that's me being passive aggressive. Sorry about that, exhale twist. Inhale. Three, two. And one.

Okay, let's see what we got. Lift your heels. Lean back. So at the end of this flow, your arms shouldn't be, your wrist and arm shouldn't be overly fatigued, and then left leg comes up. So the hips are rolling open.

Shoulders are square, inhale, exhale. So I feel a lot of left glute work in here. I try to lift my left knee higher as the carriage comes in. Five, four, three, two, one, then, that part. Okay, cool, back to our bar.

So see you later, carriage. Welcome back, ballet bar. Let's grab that ball. Come back into your well area. Squeeze the ball between the inner thighs.

We've been here before. Now, my bar is fixed. It's not going to move, I can lean back on it. If yours is not fixed, you're going to have to fix up mouse to use. Cause I'm going to be leaning back.

I'm going to step right in towards the bar. So my toes are underneath the bar. Overhand grip, sit low. I'm in a wall squat. So guys, you could just have your back against a wall and no ballet bar and you can still join me.

We're going to go down an inch, up an inch. So nice neutral spine, shoulders right over ears. Tummies tide, squeezing the ball. Five, four, three, two, one, and you're up. Yeah, underhand grip this time.

Squeeze the ball. Lean back. Round back, look at the ball, down an inch and up. Pull the belly back. Shoulders away from the years.

Five, four, three, two, one. Woo, You don't have to do a lot of those for them to be effective. Overhand grip again, lean it back. This time you're going to rock forward a little fully extend. When you pull, give that ball a bit of a squeeze, Why not, right?

Forward. Forward. Five, four, three, two. And you're up. I feel like I never quite finished that last repetition.

I count it, I don't really do it. Facing towards your bar, feet under your hips. Hands go on, one foot goes back. You could be here. You could be here.

You could just have your hands out against a wall or you could be balancing guys. I'm telling you there's so many options here. So do you make it your own. Standing knees soft, back legs pulsing up. Hold those ribs up.

We're almost done. Stay with me, five, four, three, two, one. Take it out. Take it back. Take it out.

Take it back. Standing knee, bend. Standing hip is working so hard. Five, four, three, two, one. I want you to send opposite arm to like long.

Bring it in. Long, in. Use the belly, scoop. Five, four, three, two, one. Woo! Whatever you need to do to stretch, do it.

I feel it on my back in a good way. Cause it's working, other side. Bend, feet under hips, opposite leg back. This seems to be working well for me on the forms down and up. I feel like we think we're straightening our back leg.

It's like, but then we're really not. So try to over straighten the back leg and then keep your standing leg bent. Neck long, four, three, two, out, back. Back, belly in, belly up. My personal challenge when I do two sides like this, even though I know I'm going to be a little bit tired when I go into that second side, I try to make it better.

It's like a little mind game. I can do it better on this side, ready? Opposite arm and out, out and out. Five, four, three, two, one, done. Remember I can lean off my bar.

It's secure, you know, lean back, sit low, maybe, stretch out. If there's a different kind of stretch that works for you, go ahead and take it. All right guys, last thing we're going to do, feet and straps, what? What a great way to finish, except. Just when you thought the hard stuff is done, we're going to use the ball.

So come on over here. You may have come up with a better way to get in. This is how I do it, I hold the ball with one hand and then I put my foot in. Then I switched the ball to the other hand and I put my foot in, and then the ball's going to go between the heels, whoa! Okay, pushing all the way out. You're trying to keep the legs moving in synergy.

So if that fall wiggles a lot, like I'm demonstrating for you here. Then you're probably pushing more with one leg than the other. So try to push evenly and push through the midline. I'm really trying. My knees are opening a little wider than the shoulder blocks, tailbone staying anchored.

Four. When I push my legs straight, I'm squeezing my thighs, my kneecaps up, two. One, a little adjustment, more between the ankles now. Send the legs long, okay. This is a circle motion, but it's not an out circle.

So you go up, down. Straps right over the knees, out. Using the booty to press up, down, out. Up, down, out. One more, reverse in.

So the machine helps me find that tabletop, up, not a whole lot of movement in the machine and then down, in and up, down. And up, two more. One more. Let's ditch that ball and circle it out. You guys, that was awesome.

I feel like our tone class is kind of like a Pilates Party. The music's going, everyone's kind of moving a little bit at their own rhythm. It's just a groovy class. I hope you guys enjoyed it. It's a playful class, down, in, around.

Four. Three. Two and one. Slide your feet up and let's finish with a roll up, arms up to the sky, take a deep breath in. Exhale, up you go.

Well done guys. So we did it. Our five class series. Amazing job. Hey, let's do it again.

The idea with my five class styles is that you can do a class five days a week, and you can just keep going. You're not going to overtrain. You're not going to get bored and you are going to work your body, head to toe. I'll see you guys next time, bye.