Exercise #4027

Up Stretch Series

2 min - Exercise
99 likes
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Description

Muscle Focus: Abdominals and Shoulders.

Objective: Strengthening the abdominals and stabilizing the shoulders.

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

Start Position: Stand on the Reformer with hands on the footbar and feet against the shoulder blocks. Heels should be halfway up the shoulder blocks and the legs are straight. The spine is in a flat back position.

Movement:

Up Stretch 1: Maintaining the spinal position, press the carriage out a few inches and bring back to the stopper. Repeat as desired.

Up Stretch 2: Starting in the same position as Up Stretch 1, pivot around the shoulder joint to press the carriage out taking the body to a Plank position. Pivoting back around the shoulder joint, bring the body back to the start position. Repeat as desired.

Up Stretch 3: Starting with the same motion as Up Stretch 2, bring the body out to a Plank position. Bring the carriage in, maintaining the Plank position to arrive in the Long Stretch. Pike the hips back up to end in the start position. Repeat as desired.
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box

About This Video

Mar 08, 2020
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Transcript

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Okay. This is the stretch series. So Christie, could you please stand up onto the reformer? We have a red and a blue spring on the reformer hooked up. Some people like to do it a little lighter for me, I'm more comfortable just on a red spring. So play with what works best for you. So Chrissy will step her. She'll put her hands on the foot bar and she'll step her feet about halfway up the shoulder blocks. So once she's there, she's going to get into a really flat back.

And what we're looking for here is that from the hands all the way up to the pelvis, she's in a nice straight line or a little rotated. Okay? So the first exercise, the ops stretch one, the goal here is to maintain this spinal orientation and just take the legs back and in and take it the legs back. And as her legs come in, she's drawing her scapula actually off or down her back. And in this relationship it feels kind of like up towards the Polish. She's doing a beautiful job stabilizing.

The next exercise is the up stretch to upstretched shoes. A little trickier because we have to organize around the shoulder joint. So Christie's gonna keep her shoulder joint in my hands as she takes the carriage out and brings her body into a plank. Then she stays with me here. So essentially what's happening is the head's coming up in the pelvis is going down, lift your left hip a little, and then she comes back up.

So she pivots around the shoulder joint, head comes up, hips go down, that's better. And then she pivots around the shoulder joint and to lift up the breath is inhale into plank. Exhale into up stretch. Now for the up stretch three we go back through the ups stretch too. We come forward through the long stretch and then pike back up into the up stretch one. So in order to do the up stretch three, well you have to know the up stretch, what you have to know, the UB stretch two you have to know the long stretch. And then once you know all those things, you already know the op stretch three let's do one more.

OBS stretch too long. Stretch back into the up stretch one. Thank you Christie. Very well done.

Comments

Love this short little tutorials.  They are great!  Thanks.  Keep them coming.
3 people like this.
That was a great tutorial! I have always struggled with the 3rd version. I feel like when I learned it we flexed the thoracic when coming forward, and that is where the struggle came. I like this version so much better!
2 people like this.
Lovely variations.
4 people like this.
Beautiful! I love that you taught this progression on a blue and a red spring with a bit more support, Meredith. Many reformer videos show Upstretch 3 on a red spring which is just fine if it's not the first time you're attempting. So important to learn the progression on a blue and a red and not move on to Upstretch 3 until you're proficient in other variations. Love, love, love that you're doing these great tutorials. 
Lori M 100% agreed!
Connie there are many variations but this is most certainly my personal favorite!
1 person likes this.
Love, love, love this!!!
1 person likes this.
fantastic....love the progression possibilities!
Jennifer me too!

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