Athletic Reformer Workout

Hi, everybody, this is Maria Leone, and we're shooting today from Bodyline in Beverly Hills. We're gonna do a very advanced athletic workout today, and this is Nikki. She's gonna be doing the more challenging versions of these exercises, and I am going to do the ones that are a little simpler. We're gonna start with footwork. Three reds and a blue or yellow to begin with.

Come on to your backs. I have my headrest up, but that's a personal decision. Let's start with the feet wide on the bar. The feet are flex. Pull the abdominals in and up, and let's start moving, pressing out, and pulling in.

And we're gonna be moving briskly through this footwork. You all know this. Keep pulling those heels towards the midline of the body. Each time you come in, see if you can increase your connection to the legs. Halfway down and taking little pulses here, keeping the sacrum heavy, pulling the belly button in and up.

No tension in the face or the shoulders. Press all the way out. Come all the way in. Bring the feet into first position, heels are up, wrap the legs, and pull out and in. And two, really sealing those inner thighs for me, constantly wrapping the legs, and constantly looking for length in the spine. Control the way in. Last time here.

Come to the halfway mark, pause, and then from the sit bones, little presses up. So we're really biasing the work towards the glute and the hamstring. Trying to keep it out of the knee. You're still gonna feel those quads though. For three and two, press out all the way wrap, wrap, wrap, wrap, come all the way in, heels parallel on the bar, and let's begin pressing out and in.

Some of you will take one leg to table top and do a single leg here. Keep moving from the back of the leg and then changing legs if you have one leg up. It's a little heavy for that single leg. So make sure you're really using the back of the leg to help. Last time here, come on in.

Sit yourself up. We're gonna do our first spring change. Let's go down to a heavy and a medium spring, and we're gonna go to a bridging series. Onto your back and the headrest goes down. Keeping the carriage still, tuck and bridge your hips up, and bridge yourself down. Carriage doesn't move.

Another like that. Tuck and bridge up, and peel down. Come up to the top and stay here. Press the carriage out any amount and pull all the way in, opening the hips, back out, two, dragging the heels to the sit bones. Last time, three, come in and pause. Some of you will take one leg up to the ceiling.

That's not me. We're gonna roll down. You're gonna roll up and pause. Push the carriage out. Pull the carriage in tight. Peel down, two, right through the center of the spine. Tuck and peel up, press the carriage out any amount, pull in, sandwich, peel down, peel up.

Press the carriage out, pull in and sandwich. Stay here, that leg goes down, change legs, and peel down, and peel up. Press the carriage out, pull the carriage in, back down, two, and up, out, connecting to the breath, in, back down, three, and up. Press the carriage out, pull in, pause, put the foot down. Peel yourself slowly down through your spine.

Grab hold of your handles. Hands to the ceiling. Bring your legs to tabletop. Take a breath in here. Exhale, come to a perfect a hundred. Hold it the best one you got, sandwich those legs, come slowly back down. Back up, two, and pause, and lower down.

Back up, three, many hundred here, breathing in two, three, four, five, out two, three, four, five. We haven't done hundreds here in like two years. Out two, three, four, five. Last time, knees in, lower down. Something new. Keep your legs at tabletop.

Lift the head and shoulders up. Pause. Pull the left knee into your chest. Right leg goes under the bar, and now push the bar away as much as you can. Try to pull the foot bar right off the machine. Flatten the lower back to the mat, lift a little higher, lower everything down.

Inhale here. Exhale. Upper body comes up. Change the legs. Option here to keep the head and shoulders down. Push the foot bar away, lower back pushes to the mat. Shoulders stay out of the ears and lower down.

Inhale, exhale to lift. Back to the first side. Push that foot bar away. Resist the temptation to use the shoulders, and lower down. Inhale here, exhale, back up. The other leg goes under.

Drive the knee in deep to you. Keep pushing that foot bar away, and lower down. Moving on, inhale here, exhale, lift up. Take the first leg under the bar. I think it's the right leg.

Take the left leg to the ceiling and pause. From here, that top leg circles round and up. You're still pushing the foot bar away. Option to have the head and shoulders down. Last time here and lower everything down.

Inhale here. Exhale, lift up. The other leg goes under the bar. Push the bar away, extend the top leg up, and circle the leg around and up any direction. Keep pushing the foot bar away. Fight for stability. (exhales) One more, shoulders out of the ears, and lower everything down.

We're going to roll over. Take your legs to the ceiling. Take your hands by your side. Take a breath in and exhale up and over. Hold it there. Open the legs. Flex the feet. Peel slowly down.

Circle the legs down and over the foot bar, take the arms up. The arms go down, exhale up and over. Open the legs. Flex the feet. Peel down. Keep lengthening through the arms. Circle the legs down and together. Float the arms up.

Inhale, exhale over. Open the legs. Peel down right through the center of the spine. Complete the circle. Arms up. Last time, arms down, up and over folding from the waist. Open the legs, peel down.

Circle the legs together. Knees come in. Arms come on, out. Moving on, sit yourself up. Let's go to just one red spring. We're gonna put the foot bar down.

Turn and face the back of your machine. Scoot yourself forward and take, let's say the right loop over the right knee. Now, when you lay down, I want you to set yourself up with your shoulder blade slightly off the mat. Right leg to table top, hands behind the head. Starting with a simple oblique.

Reaching left elbow to right knee and then coming back to center. So the knee draws in, the leg moves away, but you do not lose your connection. So this is the basic exercise, which I will continue to. Twist and pause. Some of you take the other leg out and come into proper crisscross.

So we twist and we twist. We twist and we twist. Really keep the tension as that leg moves away from me, please. Do not ride that carriage. Last time, knees into your chest, rock yourself up.

The foot with the loop goes on the headrest, the other leg tucks in, and then turn your torso a bit. Sit up nice and tall. We're going into a modified wild thing. Step into your feet and just lift yourself up. Anything that feels good here works for me, and come down.

And again, really push through the hips. I'm trying to get a reverse in that hip socket and a reverse in your spine and lower down. One more like that. Lift straight up and lower down. Now, continue to turn to your left and arrive facing the front of your machine.

Hopefully you didn't get all tangled up. That knee goes to the side and the knee stays bent. From here, drive the knee into the shoulder and back and in and back. Option to take your left hand off and perform this in a balance. Option to pull the knee in, straighten the leg, and take it back.

So any of those things work, and you're just gonna work at whatever works for you today. Last time, and then come down into child's pose. Take a breath into the backside of the body. Bring your hands back. We're gonna step back off of here. Kind of a new dismount.

Take that loop off, and we're gonna set up for your other side. So come on down, the loop goes over the other knee, come onto your back. The head and shoulders are gonna be off. Bring the leg to tabletop, hands behind the head, and begin that nice rotation in and back center, in and back center. Keep your focus on what happens as that leg moves away from you guys.

There's not a rest in the exercise. Once the exercise begins, you wanna maintain that engagement. And now twist and hold. Some of you follow Nikki. The other leg goes out, and we go to crisscross.

Twist and twist, twist and twist, twist and twist. Using that breath. Last one here. Here's the last one, and lower down. Rock yourself up. That foot goes on the headrest.

The other foot goes against the shoulder blocks. One hand behind you. One arm is up. From here, step into your feet. Lift the hips up, reach so far back, open the chest, and lower down. And again, lift straight up.

That should feel nice on the body and lowering it down. And again, lifting straight out and up. Use the limbs that touch the ground. Stay here, continue to turn in that direction. If you keep your feet kinda together, you won't get tangled and arrive facing front and the knee comes side.

Here we go. Driving the knee of the shoulder and back. And I'm not taking the leg all the way behind me guys. I'm keeping the tension on the machine. Try coming up on your fingertips. Try taking an arm away, and also, try taking that leg out straight.

So the hardest version of this would be, of course, the leg going straight and just one arm on the machine. Almost done here. And last time like that, and come on down into your child's pose. Take a deep breath into the back of the rib cage, long, slow exhale. And now we're gonna back out of here and take that loop off and rehook it.

We're gonna come over to the front of your machine, and I should have told you earlier, see that we've set our boxes up in a little bit unusual setting. Come onto your knees onto the back of your box. Be vertical. From here, we're gonna step up, up and down, down. Then the other leg up, up, down, down. Okay, so now you're doing this at your own tempo.

Push, push, push. I'm gonna move slower. Some of you really push your tempo. Still show that you have control and that at the upright position, you have beautiful posture. There's never a sense of you clunking down to the earth, getting nice and vertical and anything with the arms that make sense. And pause here, come to your hands and step back into a perfect plank position.

Hold here. Hug in with the hands. We're going to a walking pushup. So come down to your forearms and then come up to your pushup. Then reverse it. Down, down, up, up. Continue like this. The tempo is up to you guys.

So we're moving briskly, but I don't want you to entirely lose your form. The legs are hugging in. You're keeping them as still as possible. Last time here, and then lift your hips up and take a little hamstring stretch, soften your knees, and peel yourself slowly up to standing. Moving back onto your machine. Coming to your knees.

Hands into the loops. We're going to sort of a chest expansion, be nice and tall. So start just by pulling the arms back and taking them in, growing tall, always as the arms come back, moving from the upper arm, not the hand. Pause here. Some of you put your hands down on the shoulder blocks, follow Nikki, and step up to standing.

Same exercise. The arms go back and the arms go forward. And the arms move back and forward. From the crown of the head to your feet or knees, you're absolutely vertical. Same form, just a little different balance challenge. Last time, from here, everybody hinge from your hip.

Come to an overhand grip on the loop, set the shoulder blades, and begin to press out and in from those elbows. Think about this being a pendulum swing. Check in with your lower back, check in with the upper back. The tricep is gonna work no matter what. So take your focus away from that.

Find the work in the posterior adult, the length in the spine. Last time here, bring your hands down to the shoulder blocks, come down to your knees, step off your machine, and we're gonna do a spring change, and we're gonna work really light. Come down just to one yellow spring. So we're going to sort of a new and a different exercise. Step into your well, pretty close to this back wall.

Take your right foot and make contact with the shoulder block, bend the front knee and be in the deep lunge. Now, your hands are here on the risers or the frame for balance. This is all about the action and the standing leg. From here, stand up and come vertical, and then hinge and come back forward. And again, come vertical.

Really focus on that standing leg and back out. Try to get your tail right under you top of the head to the ceiling. And if it's available to you, take the arms away. And if you get wobbly, just put the hands back down. No big deal.

Hinge, last time, lift, and hinge, stay here. Bring your hands down on the frame as if you're getting ready to do a plank, which you are. Step your foot down on the carriage. Your height will determine where the foot goes. Take the other foot back to join it. Squeeze the legs tight.

Bend your knees, pull the carriage in all the way and take it out. So they're coming into a ball shape, not a cap. Ball and out, big exhale, ball and out, big exhale, ball and out. Last time, ball shape all the way out. Take the other foot down, set up for the lunge on the other side.

So the foot hooks against the shoulder block, the foot comes pretty far forward and you're pitched forward in a lunge. From here, stand up, get that tail under you and lengthen back out. And again, getting vertical and taking it back out. So again, all about the standing leg. This left leg is there just really to add some tension to the shape.

Head to tail relationship guys. And lift, last time, and lift, take it out. Going back into that plank, bring the hands back down, plant one foot, plant the other foot. Option to pull into ball or into pike. Nikki's doing pike. I'm doing ball.

Truly, I'm not sure which is easier, and pull in, two, and out, and pull in, three. Try not to rely on your arms. Two more here guys. Pull in, four, using the breath, five, and step out. Good. Stepping out, and setting up, facing forward.

So we're in front of our reformers. The hand goes into your front loop, take your right foot back or the foot closest to the reformer back, and just find a 90-90 position equally weighted on both legs. From here, the arm push is straight forward and slowly back. Continue like this. I don't want there to be any slack on that rope, and I do not want this shoulder moving with the arm.

So the shoulder blade stays in its home. Think about spinning this bicep up, the crease of the elbow up, and still maintain the feeling of balancing something quite heavy on the top of your head. From here, pivot and turn and face the machine. Now, feet together is gonna be more challenging. Feet apart is gonna be easier.

From here, we rotate and we rotate, and then you might need to adjust a little bit to the right or the left. Really feel your body spinning on an axis, (exhales) actions coming from the ribs, not the arms. Last one here. Set back up for your lunge, back to the 90-90, and notice I'm kind of adjusting myself so that I don't have slack in my rope. From here, left hand is on the hip.

The arm push is forward and it comes in. Some of you will rotate here. So you'll rotate away from the arm and back center and away from the arm or back center, or just stay this simple arm. Somehow, the psychology of getting to move sometimes is easier than the strength part of it. Do you know what I mean?

That's why a hundred is so hard for people. You just have to sit with yourself and your breath. Last one, guys, push and pull back to that rotation. Turn and face your machine. Feet can be wide. Feet can be narrow.

Begin your rotation. Getting tall as you rotate. Checking in with where the tailbone is, trying to maintain, wait on two feet. If your feet are wide, stay low in your shape. Last one here and come on out. We're gonna go ahead and lift up the foot bar.

Now, once you've done this workout a few times, you might find that you don't need it, but I like definitely to begin with foot bar up, take that loop and put it over your knee, and stand with your feet together. Your back round. You're in a nice C shape back in cat, and just put your fingertips here. Lift your heel up. Notice your knees are right in line. And now from here, drive the knee into your chest and then right back down. So it's just a pulling in and a lowering.

Strong, strong bend on this standing leg and then option to take the hand off and be in a full balance. If your hand is on the bar, just even being light with the bar will give you the sensation that I'm looking for here in this standing leg. Last time, put your foot down, quarter turn, bend your knees. And I'm gonna invite everybody to start with their hand on the foot bar here. Now this time, the back is gonna be flat.

Lift the heel up and let the leg open and close, open and close. So similar action in the standing leg. We're still getting a lot of work in that glute mead, but just taking that leg through that abduction and adduction, really squeezing the knees very tight together, and then light with this hand or try taking the hand off. It's surprisingly difficult. Try not to lean to get your balance, two feet together.

Let's just stand up for a minute and give that glute a little break. Okay. Let's come down onto the machine and find a plank. Step one, foot back, the other foot back. And you'll notice the carriage is floating. It is not all the way in.

This is the center mark of the exercise. The right knee comes in, twist the knee across and push the carriage out and now go all the way across the other direction. And thigh and hands twist across. And then they move in the other direction, and twist, try not to lift your booty. You'll notice that you will lose tension on the machine with the knee, but the arms will pick it up.

Last time here, big exhale, twist, and lower your foot down. Take the loop off your knee. Put that loop down, put the foot bar down, and we're going to kneeling abdominals. The feet are against the shoulder rest, and you're in a perfect plank position. From here, inhale, take the carriage out.

You'll go downhill, and exhale, come in, and inhale out. And this might be very big. You might get almost all the way down to the ground, but that's not the goal. It might be something pretty small. Just feeling that work in the abdominals and the stabilization of the shoulder, and press out, and pull in, one more, and lengthening out, spinning the biceps up, pulling in, and into child's pose.

Stepping over, bringing the foot bar up. And we repeat the whole series on the other side, beginning with server tray. Find your 90-90 lunge. Be strong in that lunge, and then start moving, pressing straight out, straight in. Remember, we already discussed what's happening with that shoulder blade.

You're deep in your legs. You got that (chuckles) sign. You got that spine sandwich happening, and press, and in, and press, and in. Two more. Last one, everyone. Okay. Quarter turn, choose where you're gonna work.

Set up your distance and then turn and turn, exhaling and inhaling. Minimize what you're doing with the arms, (exhales) crown of the head goes up, movement in two directions on that rotation. (Maria exhales sharply) (Maria inhales) (Maria exhales sharply) (Maria inhales) Breath is nice and smooth. Last time like that. Pivot back to your 90-90 lunge. Check in with your knees. Check in with your pelvis.

Start moving the arm. If it feels right, turn as you press the arm. Now, if you're adding the rotation, make sure that this arm hasn't changed. The arm still just goes straight forward from the shoulder even if you're turning hand to shoulder alignment. (Maria exhales sharply) Really pulling that ribcage back behind you if you're twisting.

Last time, turn and face the machine, choose your option. I'm going for a little easier. And here we go, and twisting, and twisting. Try to make it look easy. Let go of the muscles of your face.

Even get the tension outta your jaw. Two more here, and last time, and turn and face forward. Up over the knee. We're moving into our standing cat. So the knees are bent, the tail is under.

Maybe your hand is on the bar, release the foot, and then driving the knee in and taking the knee just straight down. Back up, and taking the hand down even if it's just for a moment or two, you can always reach back. Let the standing foot melt into the earth and do have a strong bend on the standing leg. 'Cause I do want you to feel this a lot on this standing side. Two more here, and last time, put your foot down, stand up, and quarter turn.

Moving into that ab adduction. So the back is flat. Go ahead and place your hand on the foot bar at least to get going. Release the foot and the leg opens and it closes. And when the leg closes, go ahead and take a little squeeze.

Like you're squeezing a grape between the knees. Make sure you don't start to do this, right? So ugly. Don't do this. Stay really square. Maybe you've taken the hand away. Maybe not.

Maybe you need to catch yourself. Last time. Okay. Into plank. The hands come to the machine and step your feet back. Take a second. Notice the carriage is not into the well, into the bumper, excuse me, all the way.

Lift the knee up. And now that knee twists across the body, and then the knee goes away, and again, it pulls across, and I try to start this action from the twist of my hips and then finish it with my arms. So hips to arms, was kind of cool. Hips to arms. Don't let that booty lift. (Maria exhales) Last time here, and that's come out of here.

Okay. The loop comes off. Rehook it. The foot bar's going back down. Coming back into kneeling, abdominals facing front. Find your plank. We're gonna add some pushups here.

We're gonna take the carriage out. We're gonna come in. We're gonna do one push up slowly down, slowly up, back out. And the same time frame. We do two. We do one, two. We push out.

Now we quicken our tempo. We do one, two, three. We push out. We come in, we do one, two, three, four, and into child's pose. (Maria exhales) Step over to the right, bring your foot bar up. Machine is really light.

We're going into something I call pop up pike. So it starts with a basic psoas stretch. It's just keeping the chest lifted in an openness through the front of the hip. From here, stretch the back leg straight. And I want you to think pike or cat as you come in.

Pull the carriage in all the way, stretch this foot straight down, lift, lift, lift, lift, lift, and now a beautiful landing through that bottom foot. And again, lift yourself up. Hold, squeeze the carriage in tight, round the back more, and a beautiful landing. And option for you, whether you come into extension here or not, point. So you might just come down like this and put your knee down.

That would be fine too, and lift. So there's a feeling of cat and then a feeling of cow. And last time, cat, and cow. Stay here. Bring the carriage in. Let's go up and over to the other side, starting with that basic psoas stretch.

Chest is open, (exhales) and now stretch the back leg straight. And some of you might need to take your tension up a little bit here too. From here, pull the carriage in, stretch, round the back, and step down, perfect landing. And again, lift up, tuck the tail under, and I want you to control this. So no banging of that machine.

Notice how quiet we are, and notice how quiet on that landing, and last time. And bring your carriage in. Okay. Building on that idea. Remember what we just did. Come over here to the front of your machine. The hands are coming here.

You're gonna take a beautiful plea here. And this is our little cardio burst. We're just gonna do pike jump. So you're gonna pike, land, pike, land. And this, of course, can be on your own time.

I want you to get as much air time as you can. Really stretch your legs and really land the bottom of that jump. So watch my feet. Watch my heels. Note that they don't ricochet off the box. Keep moving. Last time.

Step down, bring your foot bar down. Now, you might just go back to the machine and do the pike that we just did, the popup pike, or try it here. No Springs on the machine. Step into your well. Same exact exercise. Bring your right foot back to the platform.

Left foot forward, hand somewhere in the middle of the machine, open the chest. And now from here, come into a feeling of cat. Get the carriage in all the way and step down. And again, the first couple of times, you might have to finagle a little bit with your position. Open the chest, pull in, round the back, get the carriage in all the way if you can, and step it down, soft landing, and all the way in, stay here, two feet down, hold the carriage in, in, in, in, and spin the biceps forward. (exhales sharply) Step the other foot down.

Sometimes the transitions are the hardest part. Go ahead and lift. I think that's a metaphor for life, and step down, and again, hold yourself in, spin the biceps forward, drop the head. I'm sure my head has not been looking great. I have a tendency not to have the prettiest head positions.

Two more, lift and down. That shoot for that transition everybody. Lift, step your foot in, hold the carriage in, put the heels down, hold the carriage in, (exhales) and step down. Okay. Come on off. Okay, that was sort of an ad lib thing we just did, but it was fun.

Bring the foot bar up, bring yourself to a red and a yellow. We gotta reverse all that flexion. Right? So down stretch. Onto your knees. Bring the hips forward. Lift the heart high. From here, push the carriage out, and pull in. (exhales) Really focus on opening the chest guys, inhale, and exhale.

(Maria exhales) Last one. (exhales) Round your back. Step forward. Turn around for tendon stretch. So the feet are at the edge of the machine. Stretch the leg straight, drop the heels, arms are straight. Tuck your tailbone under, push the carriage out and in.

That should feel really nice. Tuck and feel the stretch in the lower back. Two more here, tuck and in. Last time, tuck and in. Have a seat. Walk your feet forward.

Plant your feet. Bring your tail off. A little set of dips here, and press, two, three. Now, don't forget your Pilates form, right? Just because we're doing an exercise that feels more fitness doesn't mean you forget all your Pilates principles. Three, two, one.

From here, push your hips forward into a reverse plank. Some of you will take your feet all the way to the headrest for that. Draw the shoulder blades together. Open the shoulders, step back, and set up for your tendon stretch. Again, stand yourself up. Take a moment here.

Hold the stretch. Some of you will follow Nikki and add a little leg lift here. Take the carriage out. Kick the right leg up, put it down and come in. Push out the left leg, big kick, and in, Push it out, right leg, big kick, and in, last time, left leg, big kick, have a seat down.

We're going into dips. Take your feet forward. Take your hips forward and then any amount. So you might be doing something that's really pretty tiny. Move with integrity. Don't go wild with your body. Keep control of what is happening.

Choose the range that matches your form. And then from here, press the hips up, roll the shoulder heads together, feeling of a tuck on the tail, open the chest, and come all the way back, have a seat, and then step off your machine. We are at the grand finale. (chuckles) We're gonna use short spine as a cool down, which I don't know how many of you do that in your teaching. Headrest has to be down, but it's a really nice way to end a workout as well. Of course, you're gonna be moving a bit slower here.

So take the legs straight out over the foot bar. The legs are glued, and let's take our time, taking the legs up into a hamstring stretch. So really feeling the separation of the sacrum dropping down and that nice clean fold of the thigh bone. Notice that point at which you have to begin to tuck and curl, get the carriage in, press through the hands, use your abdominals, and lift yourself up to shoulder stand. And if you'd like, go ahead and just bring your hands underneath your lower back.

If you feel too much weight or pressure on the head and shoulders, bend the knees, open them, the distance of the shoulder rest. Carriage doesn't move. Begin to peel down, and then really notice at what point the carriage does move. The heels compress down into the sit bones and the legs shoot out. Let's do one more, real slow like that.

Let the hips fold. Take your time. (Maria inhales) (Maria exhales sharply) Peel yourself up. Use your legs. Use your arms. Use your hands if you need to for support, bend the knees.

And now, this down phase really relates to happy baby pose in yoga. So you're peeling down, but you're also pulling the knees into you. Compressing the heels down into the sit bones, that should feel delicious on the lower back. Take the legs out, grab the ropes, hold them up. Bring the bottoms of your feet into a butterfly position and place them down either on the edge of the carriage or maybe all the way down and into the well.

Release your hands. Palms are up. Roll the shoulder heads back, (inhales deeply) and just take some deep breaths and allow the machine just to traction your lower back out. Any other stretch that you're more comfortable with here will also be appropriate. Allow your body to get heavy onto the carriage. Feel the sensation in your body, the sensation of energy, and the sensation of being grounded, and how good it feels when we are energized and grounded at the same time.

Thank you for joining me, everybody. I think Nikki and I are just gonna stay here, signing off.