Creative Mixed Equipment

Good afternoon. I saw that there were lot of commentary, positive, very positive feedback on the plots anytime forum for the mixed equipment class that I taught a while back, so I thought I would add onto it and create a short but effective and deep workout using a bunch of different equipments because heck, if you have a studio you might as well use it. So starting out on the Cadillac just as actually traction the body. So important to decompress, grabbing hold at the top. You can be stepping on something if you need to. First of all, literally just bending the knee and letting the whole body decompress, letting the shoulders come right up by the ears and feeling the skin stretch and release it. Amazing how much. If you just hold here for a minute, the body opens still and then start to pull the stomach muscles in towards the spine and the shoulders down so you feel your body weight just being held in the trunk, connected up, coming back to releasing the shoulders again, releasing fully opening up the ribs, the intercostal muscles, the obliques, and allowing the body to decompress. You feel a bit like a monkey hanging from a bar. It's all good and other side, believe it or not, Romani used to have us do this in drug goals. Jim, years and years and years ago when I used to go out there, it was awesome, Huh?

I already feel taller, more ready to start my workout. One other stretch grabbing on a diagonal and opening out. So the whole side body opens and bending into the inner knee to get more of a stretch. I'm turning around to do the other side and same thing, starting with the big lift. My first place of focuses into the upper arm and the armpit. So as I start, I don't rush to the lower body.

I look to see how much can I get the opening coming into this part. Then I go into the ribs, go into the waist, go into the hips and then bend the inner knee for that extra openness and then coming to the side. The hands come externally rotated into the side of the Cadillac and just leaning forward a little bit to get the shoulders and those little muscles that run right under the collarbone. Seeing if I can find them and they're going a little bit further in order to open up the the body. Then standing up spread eagle, which often is a wonderful way to end, but also a wonderful way to start the class standing high, nice long spine and just hinting the hips back and pulling the stomach and in slightly scooping to stretch and open out the waist, the lower back rolling up to an upright position, standing up over my legs, lifting the spine to the whole thing is up out of the hips.

How much can I lift my chest to the ceiling and then very slowly and methodically opening out again, pulling back, stretching into the lower back through the waist, opening up the back body. The knees can bend a bit to get that extra openness rolling up, lengthening first to a vertical and then arking out, bringing the hips forward slightly to get the front body to open. One more time, scooping and lengthening backwards, rolling to an upright position, nice long spine, long lifted hips, sit bones, a down, opening and lifting the chest. Then gradually going further and further back and it's fine to just do a very slight lift. So the body starting to wake up and feel that elongation coming in through this.

The spine, starting out with rollback. I like to sometimes work with the heels bent and the knees bend. So I'm lengthening through the spine and on my way down, pressing the bar and elongating through the heel. So I'm using the feet and the legs to started, connect into the hips, into the sacrum, into the waist, into the ribs and into the next of the spine as long three pools into or towards the chest to start to get the pex in the arms, waking up and then scooping through the trunk and rolling back up, allowing the knees to bend a bit to really get that lift in the back part of the sit bones and again, rolling down, articulating through the spine. Long back three times. Now I'm really working to reach through the legs and then from the waist up through the head and rolling back up, lifting up to get that extra lift in the lower back. And one more time.

Working harder can be achieved by pressing the bar down the whole time. So there's traction into the arms, into the waist and rolling back up to an upright position and coming up. Now left hand in the middle, right hand round the waist to open up the side body. So again, I'm slightly pushing down with the bar rolling down through the center of the spine, making sure both sides of the ribs on the bar and now stretching first long so that right side is nice and long and then extending I'm tall, I can grab the side. You can also grab the side and then elongating the right side, right foot reaches towards the left. Once it's hooked, I stretch the leg as straight as can be in order to open up this side body and watch the both sides of the rib stay down so I'm not letting myself lose contact with the pad under me. Changing hands. Same thing again. Shoulders are down. Nice roll through the spine, reaching with those feet, making sure both sides of my ribs are on and the shoulders are abroad.

First link through the left side. Then pivoting, getting the lengths of the intercostal muscles are really opening. The foot comes towards the other foot. And very slowly I'm working to stretch that leg to get the whole left side of the body opening out and releasing any stuck tension. Rolling back up. And same thing again, rolling down, reach, hold and stretch. And coming back with that bar and rolling up other side and long lengthening down both sides. I'm constantly, constantly checking our both sides of my spine working evenly.

I know the day to day my body is changing and I flip flop around, especially because I happen to be a person who is focused more on flexibility in my life. So the truth is that I can actually become imbalanced more easily. So it's always good. The body's always mobile, it's always shifting. So putting it back in the middle of a matter of survival. So once I've got that, I'm going to start working in preparation for the reformer, work with the leg springs to wake up the correct alignment of the legs. So this is one of my favorite ways.

I'm actually taking a crossover bar, crossover spring, making sure I'm long, I could be working either like this or like this. So that a to keep, if the, the, the uh, you're less stable. This is a nice way to slightly push with the arms. Lengthening the other leg out. I've known, I'm sorry not doing that, keeping it bent and stretching out and coming back. So as I do this, I'm focusing to keep the heel opposite my nose and I really have to balance all the muscles around the thigh. It's a beautiful thing. It engages x, the internal and external muscles of the thigh and the hamstrings.

So it really wakes up. The leg wakes up that very, very slight natural external rotation of the leg. That is, I like to work with when I'm doing before my work keeps allowing me to keep the pelvis very base stable. As I do this, sometimes I'll work smaller movement at first just to wake up the size. Sometimes the thighs can be a little bit dense in their energy and not sophisticated. So they kind of just work, but they don't work with detail. This really allows for more specificity to come in to the muscles, to the alignment of the hip in the hip socket and to the relationship into the pelvis. Also, one leg is stronger or weaker than the other. You really get to experience it and have the time and the detail to start to stabilize it and really figure out how to make the weaker side or the twisty style more kind of integrated and active and participating in what we're all working towards, which is more symmetrical work.

So work on each leg individually. Now I'm bringing both legs into the formula so the the, the springs are actually crossed over before I saw it. There's a looseness of the spring. I'm checking that my spine is long and I'm engaging in my powerhouse. I'm bringing the legs a little bit forward too.

It's almost like a tabletop position and right away I can feel the hips and the inner and outer thighs really firing and taking part in all of this. So it's very much the full leg muscle, not just the quads and not just the hamstrings, which gives that lovely long lean look to the legs. So I'm just becoming aware, I'm waking up and I'm feeling how the legs are participating in the work so that they are fully active and then I extend out and just going up and down a few times to make those legs fire nicely. Okay. And if there's a tendency to hyperextend in the knees, it's also lovely to start to work this way cause the calves can start to become active without being locked, which is what I'm looking to achieve.

Bring the legs back and flip the spring around. So I'm doing the same thing again, but I've just flip the springs around in the opposite direction. So, oh this feels awesome. It's really nicely waking up my legs, getting everything set. And this is truly the feeling you want to have when you're doing the footwork and the leg work on the reformer.

Hence my desire to get it really awake and ready to go when I'll be working in stronger springs. And then up and down a few times. Oh, that feels wonderful. So the legs are coming out. So from what I'll do is set up the push through bar and open up my spine a little bit further. So again, starting out with my knees bend, Nice, lift, scooping slightly and pushing down, seeing if I can lengthen through the legs. So it's really a feeling like spine stretch forward. And then scooping and lifting the powerhouses. I go forward to first star, I'm just taking my time using it to open up my back body, which has a tendency to get a little bit tight.

So getting that length and a few times going faster. Uh, and as I'm loosening up and keeping my legs straighter, uh, ah no, I'm bringing my heels in. So all of these are completely valid places to have the feet. Mostly the focus that I'm looking for is integrating my powerhouse. And one more time doing this.

Uh, and now reverse push through again, just looking to re, uh, to open up the shoulders. So the shoulders up being pulled back and first of all rounding forward and letting the bar go up to stretch and pressing back and as I'm working here by myself, going to wiggle my hips a little bit further forward so you can get a deeper stretch through the shoulders, through the lower back, scooping, controlling that bar up to lift, scooping and pressing back. And even if a person is tight and they can just go with small amount, it's a wonderful, such a therapeutic stretch. People love it and it really starts to open up the shoulders, open up the back. We all need to be able to have our arms pull behind our backs and not suffer too much or we'll give up too soon. That's a joke by the way.

And letting go and just to test my powerhouse, lying back for double leg stretch, pulling the legs in, lifting up and really pressing those arms down into the mat, extending the leg, looking to see if I can get that engagement. Arms go up, arms go back, arms go to the side. So slow motion for extra action. Hands Down, deepening, really pressing into the mat, extending arms up, arms back, arms out and deepening in. One more time. Pressing in on legs. Go out long, arms up, arms, back, arms out. And in enrolling, like about just massaging the spine as this is more of an intermediate, advanced approach to the work. The body's already educated. And now I'm ready for reformers.

So I'm going to switch pieces of equipment. All right, so here I am with the reform. I've got my size ready on the Cadillac. So lying down, I have four springs for myself set up on this piece of equipment. It's a grass reformer. So we'd had a little bit more of a rough and tough type of machine.

So before I start, I'm already checking to see can I find that engagement where the outer thighs, the inner thighs are locked. And first of all, I'm just going to go out. And then a few times, not four, to see if I can really wake up the thighs, wake up. This, um, it's not really a wrap because I'm not rotating my knees out. I'm narrowing the muscles to the bone. So I'm really hugging the muscles in and they can really only happen when I, I um, how can I put it? When everything is squeezing, it's actually an amazing feeling of all the muscles around the legs squeezing the bone and holding it. And that's what creates a beautiful long line.

We're not, not, no one muscle group is over or under developed and it's like a great, great sensation and feeling. So I've done probably about 10. I am wrapping the toes, broadening the toes around and seeing if I can really get them wrapped. So this whole idea of the foot being like the claw of a bird and I like to do some right up by the metatarsal. So again, same feeling, this hip bones pressing into the pelvis, the pelvis is long and the very top surface of the foot is being extended out to the ligaments and tendons and the top of the foot are being stretched. It's a fabulous feeling and it really helps with the toes in with that part of the foot that has a tendency to get a bit atrophied and locked up and stuck in people as they get older. So wonderful, wonderful feeling here.

Getting all of that to work and moving into the middle of the foot. So now just below the ball, a few more, same feeling, but stretching the foot over the bar and making sure the outer foot is working as much as the inner foot. So that line of the little toe to very, very active and onto the heels, spreading the feet wide, opening up the toes and again, and I can really feel the inner thighs working, the hamstrings, engage the outer size, stabilizing in the hips. Such a lovely feeling. Moving back onto the ball of the feet. All five toes.

I'm paying especially attention to my little toes, making sure they're in touch and then lifting. So as I'm doing this, I'm trying to see if I can feel all five toes active and sharing in this work of lowering and lifting the ankles. Such a fantastic feeling. And then bending the knees and coming back in. Now to add into this, I'm going to get a magic circle so I can make the next exercise more interesting. So I'm back. I've got my magic circle lying down. I'm actually placing the magic circle on the outside of the knees. My heels are on the bar and just for a moment I'm widening and widening.

So what this does is it's spreads across the sake room and opens up the back of the pelvis. It actually allows the pelvis to press and lengthen out as we do a lot of compression work. It really, for some people this makes a huge difference in making the leg muscles balanced nicely. So from here I'm pressing out, bringing the tail under and rolling up just to the base of the rib cage and then rolling back down, keeping the thighs wide, a completely different sensation from the one when the size are compressed together and down and oh dear. I just felt that my head rest is up. Not a good thing, but not the end of the world. The rolling up and rolling down. And one more time like this rolling up and rolling down.

So I'm not going into full bridge. I'm just doing the lower pelvis. So same thing but innercise now. So squeezing inner thighs, outer thighs and sit bones. I have not tilted my pelvis at all yet. Just checking that the legs are involved and then rolling up again and rolling down. Release. Squeeze, rolling up and rolling down. Release. Squeeze, rolling up and rolling down. Release. One more time. Rolling up.

Really scooping the pelvis and I will do a few pumps again to wake up the thighs, wake up, legs, wake up the inner thighs especially and keep that links in the lower back and rolling back down. Next one is hundreds for me. I'm bringing a spring down and on this lovely grots machine can lower the foot bar solo. So here I am, I'm already finding that lower back pressing in and I'm going to start actually with the lakes and tabletop lengthening through the fingers, bringing the legs into diamond shape. So I completely am working into my trunk, not using my hip flexors, lengthening the legs out, lowering the legs down and lifting the chest more. I'm Kian suddenly pushing into the hands.

I can feel all the way from the back of the ribs, how I'm connected into the arms. And one more time really lengthening out with those legs and coming back in and coming down. Such a great feeling. I love working on a reformer. So short spine massage, two springs. So I've released another spring and if you pull on the straps, my teacher would have yelled at you unless you can get your feet in the straps without using your arms strength, you're not ready for short spine. So from here I'm bending the knees and bringing the feet down and yes, my head rest is down. So first movement going out, very long.

Inner thighs are working, just checking my lower abs. So I'm lifting my hips a few times here without moving my feet to make sure I'm really integrating the lower powerhouse and I'm lifting and seeing if I can lift in one long piece with control, bending the knees down and then rolling down, pulling the stomach in and pressing the feet down to come back. Same thing again. Look while lifting the hips coming up in one long piece, nice and long, bending the knees and now a little bit of fun. Lowering the hips a little bit, pulling an inch lower, a little bit, pulling an inch lower, a little bit, pulling an inch lower, inch and down or some way to open up part of the back that are really stiff and tight. And again, hips rolling up, rolling up, rolling up, rolling up, bending the knees and soles of the feet are together.

So it's like what I call karate chop. Rolling down, keeping the feet pressed together. It opens up the outer line between the knees, the calves and the feet, I should say flexing and pressing the legs down. And one more time just for flexibility in the hamstrings, lifting up, lengthening, bending and the feet stay where they are similar to the first time. But the focus here is really on getting the hamstrings and the legs long without jamming into the knees. So I'm not working my legs at all, I'm keeping them passive and really working that length down. So this whole area gets really stretched out and bringing the legs in from here. Coordination, curling up, extending the legs out and really scooping, opening and closing, deepening with the arms deepening and again, lifting my chest even more. Right leg, left leg, lifting the chest even more, lifting the arms and reversing it. Long left leg, right leg scoping and bring the legs even further in.

Bending and lowering back down. And from here, rowing, what would I do without rolling so long? Pulling the stomach in and up. Whoa. I definitely wasn't on the right spring tension once, spraying and really pulling in. So sometimes I'll take a few times to feel the arm muscles and feel the breadth in the back. So for me, a long spined scoop and rolling back.

Even so there's this whole pressure pressing the arms out, trying to stay in the machine, push and then nothing moves, nothing moves, nothing moves, nothing moves until the hands come together. And then long arms lengthening, pulling the stomach up all the way around. I like to flex my feet and stretch and again, again, one more time. Scope, press push and trying not to let the machine or move at all. All this time I was better big circle all the way around and stretch and I'm going into my next one. Nice lifted rib cage, long spine and long and stretch, big circle. And this time I'm doing a long stretch and one more time.

Big Lift and long and up and long over pulling the stomach lengthening and big circle all the way around. Nice long stretch. And that's all I'm going to do with the rowing. I'm actually taking the box and going into long box and short box. So bringing the um, long box on. I'm going to walk out till the front lengthen out.

So I bring the carriage right under me and lower down in one piece. I, my goal is that my shoulders are flush here. Noisy but so be it. So what I'm doing right now is lengthening the straps, lifting my legs, lengthening the spine, and then letting the machine come all the way in. So the spring is in fully. Then from here, first time I like to keep the chest completely parallel to the floor so it's only shoulders second time pulling the shoulders down and lifting the chest.

So now I'm looking forward, working those shoulders down, seeing if I can challenge myself further and coming down. And third time pulling the shoulders down and big open chest and all the way down and then arms to the side and pulling back and pulling and lifting. And one more time pulling and lifting a little bit more and coming back out. So from here I will do something interesting and slightly different. I'm going to get the stick for the short box and I am actually going to be doing short box right from here.

So instead of it is possible to Hook my feet, but I actually want my feet on the wood, my hip study. So it's, it's a little bit easier and more comfortable to feel this nice length. There's no fixed place to place the pelvis. I'm going to add a spring and two so the machine won't be moving around. And just to kind of get the sense of this of I'm rolling back for short box, rolling back, rolling back up and lifting up through the back body rolling down again.

And this time allowing myself to go back and I'm nicely. So it's not as much of a freaky falling off the cliff sensation, but what I've noticed is that I'm hitting one one shoulder rest a little differently from the others. I know I'm not fully symmetrical so I'm going to go back again and see if I can correct that. And now the pressure here is even on both ribs, the openness into the chest is the same. And let me stretch my hands and see if I can touch the floor the same.

And it's a wonderful place to get elongation of the rib cage with stable hips. Hands come back to the waist. I'm engaging the powerhouse to lift, ruling back up and stretching over. Now flat back. So the arms along, I like to bring the hands in front just to check on my shoulders really wide and my ribs long. So I'm taking the alignment from the back body, just lifting and lifting and lifting and now long spine and it really somehow the position of the box this way allows for a lot more control in the back, which is a nice variety and nice sensation. Side bends slightly coming forward.

So I warm up in the obliques and now trying to do it more verticals so it's more in the ribs watching that my hips stay even and I know shifting weight on them. So not a big movement if the focus is on really anchoring the a the waist now full rotation. So as much movement in the ribs as I can tractioning out as much movement in the ribs as I can and going out again for a side again. So there are different angles that can be worked in this. You can work on a diagonal towards the corner of the machine if you have a really good twist.

Eventually you're aiming that stick right in the middle. So it's a full 180 degrees twist coming from the waist through the ribs. Now I'm not up to that much, but that's my goal so I'm working towards it. So from here, nice stretch through the legs for tree, working through the ankle and walking down and walking up and walking down again. It's a lovely getting the hands long stretching, rolling back up and let's see if I can work it to the side here. So very interesting place to keep the pelvis challenged.

That was interesting and nice. Stretch forward. Other side, making sure my hips are square and working the leg up, keeping that sense of the pelvis very slightly. You long and the stomach lifting. Sometimes a work, just check, is my stomach really the force behind the lift of the leg so it's not just the looseness of the hamstring, it really is the lift coming through the center of the body in do that leg and here we go to the side. This is going to be interesting keeping that pelvis long. Rolling back up.

Definitely I would want to experiment with the foot below to make sure it's stable and nice stretch forward. Oh, that feels divine delicious and wonderful. So I'm going to step off now and actually bring in the foot corrector, which is looks like this. There's a few, this is not a grotto and I believe this is balanced body, but it's a fantastic way to energize a whole body. Wake up the feet. So all I'm doing, I've been working my trunk, now I'm going to work the feet and just press into it. I've got the bar right under my, um, ball of my foot and normally I will have people hold onto the wall or something.

But right now I, and if you can, you lift the other foot up. So it's breaking up the Fascia and the connective tissue in the footwear that for most people they get really locked the feet bare our weight all our lives and they have a tendency to become really frozen. Even people like dancers who work, then they're frozen in a certain shape and in it affects the whole nervous system. So starting to deeply work into the feet and break that congestion up restores a huge amount of vitality and energy and flexibility. So I worked through the foot, I'm taking the heel down and without leaning forward, that's the trick.

My weight is back. I'm just pushing earlier. I need to work on this, pushing it down. So I'm doing this movement and it's working my Shin, my ankle, my foot. And as I do it, normally I would be watching hip, knee and foot is in correct alignment so you can really unravel a lot of maths. We all accumulate. Then I'm shifting all five toes a down, heels in the middle and I'm pressing down with the other foot. Fantastic for flat feet.

Absolutely wonderful cause it's making that arch work. So now do the same thing with the other foot. Hopefully you can see from this angle. So here we go. I'm working through the metatarsal, moving a little bit forward and down, moving a little bit further down. Okay.

And it feels wonderful. Pregnant women, they adore this. When I worked with pregnant women, they start to come in early just to work on this and then they invent eventually buy one because it makes their body sot feel so much better. It just opens up all that pressure into the feed, pushing the ball of the foot down. Now I'm working into the heel. I don't have dropped arches so it's not as easy to see, but people with flat feet, it completely wakes up their awareness of how to work the feats. Very, very stimulating. So off with the box and the stick and the foot corrector and I am going to do semicircles, which I totally adore. So two out of springs are in and the foot bar is down. I'm very conscientiously checking that the alignment of my feet is even from both sides of the bar.

Once I'm down my hands or even I lift up and I attempt to slide forward evenly, both hands. I like the hands placed right at the base with the elbows. I hate to say it but locked so that I, that me or my client can really get into the shoulders and the upper rib cage where the body gets very, very tight. Check that the neck is Dyson long and roll down. So right where that edge of the reformer is getting into the back is an amazing place to release tension.

It's right behind the heart in the middle of the lower shoulder blade. More flexible people can take the hips all the way down towards the ground. Moving out maybe halfway I scooped through the spine and I lift up till I'm on a long diagonal and I stretch the size, roll down, scoop, lengthen and lengths in those ties out and then reversing, pressing out, rolling out. Oh that feels delicious and out. And one more time pressing out, rolling down and stretching out.

Hands on the bar. First. If I was standing as an instructor, I would be pressing this size that way in down and then with the feet flexed, pressing the thighs down again. So it's a huge opening into this area. Wiggling back, I'm adding my springs back on. Head rest is up and I'm lying back to get some footwork in. Toes in heels are together pressing out and the first few I'm going slow checking that.

I'm really working full range of movement through the feet especially. So the the bent knee, my lift, I'm lifting my heel up and working the arch to maximum capacity. Then I lift up maximum capacity and I reverse it. My left foot's a little bit more sluggish so I have to be really attentive to that. And here I go and coming back in. So I am done with the reformer, just a small stretch right at the end using the ladder barrel because it's so much fun just to pop my energy right open.

So I'm going to shift it from here to there. So I've got the ladder barrel here. I'm just wrapping out this short and sweet and multifaceted workout to open up the spine again and add mobility and flexibility. So I'm just making sure that my lower back is nicely secured. First Time I actually use my arms to traction through the spine a bit. Open out. Some people will only get to here.

Some people have to be on a block to even bend back like this and then I'm going to have a little stretch, three circles one way and then three circles the other way. Letting the legs relax, bringing my hands to the waist and rolling up. Normally this is attached to a wall over there so it doesn't slide and now just like the wall rounding down and I always always insists that people creep their hands down. They're here. If they are not flexible, they keep the knees bent, that's totally fine, but this is the open up the back body and get that mobility back grab and nice stretch in to get the back to open the hamstrings to open, rolling up again and again rolling back over the ladder barrel. If you're flexible, you take the hands lower and again three circles and reversing it, relaxing the legs, bringing the hands rolling up and rolling down, rolling down, rolling down. You can bend the knees and straighten a few times to get extra stretch here.

If you're more flexible like me, I start to check all my body parts, shoulders up, stomach in and walk the feet even further back to challenge myself. Further hand rolling back up and last time, rolling back. I'm making sure I'm going back evenly. I have a slight zigzag in my spine. Always need to have to watch out four and why not go for the full stretch this field. Incredible opening up the front body and stretching out the stomach muscles and the chest and then letting those hip flexors really relax and release is just invigorating. Hey, so rolling down again, stretching way in and rolling back up and just to finish that may make sure the Mike isn't going to be, I'm going to stretch out here and pull this leg down a little bit.

Do the same on the other side and stretch down a little bit and then come back up. And by the way, this very last routine Romana was used to say every teacher when she finishes her shift, should go over to the ladder barrel and do that because you can tend to be here all day long as a teacher, and that's not good for you. So you want to open up, get back that vertical line, decompress your energy, put on some lipstick, get your hand back and walk out and have a great day. So hope you enjoy the workout and have a great day.