De-Stress Reformer

Hi everybody, Tracey Mallet here. We're here for a reformer workout. So today we're gonna try and do a nice flow of basic to intermediate. Of course some of the exercises will be intermediate. But mostly basic to intermediate, nice flow, and I hope you have fun.

Okay, remember I have lots of other videos out there. Lots of other reformer work outs out there as well. I've collected many over the many years I've been here, so please check them out and go and see some of those great workouts that I've done over the past five years. All right guys, you ready? All right let's take a nice deep breath in.

We're gonna center ourselves, get rid of all those negative thoughts. Get rid of our to-do list. It's time for us, it's me time now, our time together. So let's take a seat onto the reformer. You're just gonna gently bring your knees together.

We're gonna take alignment into consideration here. We want really the shoulders over the hips and I want you to think of lifting up to the sky and pulling your shoulder blades down. Perfect posture, which is how we should be sitting every day especially at the computer. But do we all sit like this? No, so let's think of that while we're sitting here right now.

We're gonna take a deep breath in, inhale through the nose. And then exhale, really drawing in those abdominals and pulling the sit bones up. It's almost like we're elevating off the reformer. We're lifting up the abdominals are pulling in and we're depressing the scapula down. From here we're gonna place the hands on the reformer and we're gonna slowly roll down.

Keep the hands where they are and roll down, so the head, neck, and shoulders are off the floor. Reach the hands over your head, interlace the hands, and then gently lift your head, neck, and shoulders off the floor. So there you go, there's those abdominals activated here. Just want you to hold it there. Depress the scapula.

I'm on a little relever here, my feet because I have short legs. Some of you will be able to press your heels down but for right now I'm just gonna be on a little relever here, put the heels together and I'm gonna lift up. We're gonna inhale, come all the way back, a little bit into extension. Exhale lift up. (air whooshes) Inhale back into that beautiful extension, exhale and lift up. Repeat that.

Every time you lift your head, neck, and shoulders off the floor, try and depress your scapula even more. As you draw your shoulder blades down, think of squeezing your inner thighs and your knees together as you get that contraction of the adductors, pelvic floors, abdominals, that nice chain reaction there. And again, inhale, exhale, keep those elbows to the side of the body. Let's do three more. Ready, inhale, and exhale.

(air whooshes) Hold it there, hold. Bring the right knee in and then come back down and take the head, neck, and shoulders back. Let's lift up, bring the left knee up. Take the knee down and the head goes back. Now we're gonna bring them up together at the same time.

So everything comes up (air whooshes) inhale and down. Let's switch to the other side. So kinda like walking in place. Now remember, look where your shin is. Your shin is parallel to the sky.

So don't drop your heel to your butt. You're in that perfect position, knee over hip, shin to the sky. And again, inhale, you're gonna feel the burning in those abdominals. We're warming up that core. And exhale, inhale.

Can we do four more of these and really open up your chest as you go back, feel really good to open up your chest. (air whooshes) Just two more. Open up that chest. We all need that, including myself a lot. One more, hold it here, hold and then lift. Hold that position here.

Reach your legs up and then bend your knees. Lift your legs up and then bend your knees. Lift your legs up, take that extension, bend your knees and lift up. Ready, everything's gonna come together. You'll lift in that extension, bend the knees.

Then lift up, open your chest to the sky, exhale in. Inhale, breath, exhale, (air whooshes). Knees over your hips. Inhale (air whooshes). One more, exhale, hold it there.

Take your right hand and then reach. Hold that position. Use that hand to get that nice rotation. Now we're gonna go into a little single leg stretch, so reach the outside, one and two and three. Exhale four, keep that rotation reaching out through the fingertips. (air whooshes) And four and three and two and one.

Knees pressed, get that rotation. Hand behind the head. Take your head down. Nice stretch, lift up. Take the opposite arm, press the forearm on the thigh, now try and get that lovely rotation.

Use the resistance of your arm against your thigh and get that lovely rotation. You ready? Hold that position and single leg stretch. (air whooshes) Press. Four more and (air whooshes). Hold it, lift up, try and clear the head, neck, and shoulders off.

Bend your knees, chair position, hand behind your head and then come all the way down. Slowly take your right leg down, left leg down. Now reach your hands to the floor in that beautiful stretch. Slowly bring the hands back and then reach the hands back over again. This time take your hands back behind the head, lift your head, neck, and shoulders off the floor, bring the right knee, left knee.

I'm gonna gently do a little rock in come all the way up and pull your shoulder blades down. That nice, beautiful extension and hold it there. Okay let's come all the way down on to the reformer. We're gonna start with some leg work. So I'm gonna put the headrest up.

All right, I'm on three red springs right now. So you're gonna put your heels level with the sit bones, tail bone down, ready to start off. Take a deep breath in, exhale and we're gonna start to extend out and back. Extend and back. Now everybody focus on the quad pulling away from the patella, so you're lengthening out those legs.

Meantime, the tailbone stays firmly planted into the mat, in that beautiful neutral position. You're reaching out with the fingertips continuously, that long torso. Good. Let's do a few more. One more time and then hold it here and then come back down.

We're gonna place the heels of the toes. Ready, keeping exactly the same position, exhale and pull out. Now remember the foot stays completely still. We sometimes forget that and start to move and ankle joint. We need to keep the ankle joint completely still, working on the thighs pulling away from the patella, but don't forget those hamstrings.

As we bend those knees, the hamstrings are pulling us back. Think of the hamstrings pulling you back. You're in a nice rhythm, not too fast, but also not too slow. So let's do a few more, feel those hamstrings. (air whooshes) One more.

And then back. Gently into your small Pilates V-position, I'm squeezing my heels together before I even start, I'm squeezing the heels. Those adductors are firing already, tailbone is down. Ready, squeeze. Do not move your ankle joint.

Focus on every time you push away, I'm trying to lengthen my shoulder blades down my back, reaching towards the bar and trying to squeeze my inner thighs even more. You don't need a heavy weight to work your legs. You're working them yourself. Let's do a few more. You breath in (air whooshes).

Last time and back down. Slowly go out into your wide second position. Inhale here, exhale push your way. Hamstrings, don't forget those hamstrings. We all forget about the hamstrings when they're on the reformer in the leg work.

You always focus on your quads, but we all forget that the hamstrings are pulling us back. So you gotta put your mind to the muscle to make them work because the reformer's not gonna make that happen. You've gotta take control of the reformer. That's why Pilates is so unique. You have to learn to control your body. (air whooshes) Let's do three more with me okay?

Two more. Last time and then back. Quickly replace the heels of the toes. Ready, let's go back out again. Keeping those heels still.

Focus on those hamstrings pulling back. (air whooshes) Five more like this. Relax the upper body. Three, still a couple more. Last time. (air whooshes) And then come back down. Bring your toes together, about hip width apart.

We're gonna push away, flex the heels, relever. Then come back down again. Let's try that again, we do two's. Flex, relever, flex rise, hamstrings. Extend and three, and two and one.

Bend the knees, hamstrings. Good and push out. And four and three and two and one. Bend your knees slow and controlled. And again.

And five and four and three and two and one. Controlling hamstrings. How much more we got left? And six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one. Relever hamstrings.

You've got one more. Seven and go, seven and six, and five, and four, and three, and two, and one. Feel those burn in those little calves and then slowly pull back. So now, we're gonna roll up and I'm gonna take the resistance down a little bit cause we're gonna do single legs. So right now I'm actually on two reds and a yellow.

You can do two reds and a blue. I'm going a little bit lighter today cause I want to really focus on my hamstrings. Sometimes I go a little heavier if I want to work on the quads, but I'm going a little bit light today to really focus on the hamstrings. Okay so we're gonna come back. All right, so heel, extend that leg.

Ready, we're gonna exhale. Toss the leg and then come back down. Now be careful when you're tossing the leg that the pelvis is not moving with it. So you only gonna go as high as your flexibility will maintain. Lifting up and down.

Let's do a couple more. (air whooshes) One more, let's hold it here, flex the energy out and we're gonna circle inwards. Inhale and exhale and inhale and exhale. Inhale exhale inhale and exhale. Reverse it. Inhale and exhale.

Inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale and inhale and exhale. Hold it here, point the toe, grab that leg. Nice little stretch, feel the shake. Then release and then come all the way down.

Let's switch to the other side. Reach that leg out. Ready, shoulder blades down. And extend them down. Feel the length in the hamstring, call this active flexibility here.

Single leg, your hamstrings are working to pull the carriage back. All these cues are really important so you put your mind to the muscle. Don't think of it as muscles, think of it as movement. You're learning through movement. Let's just do a few more.

And let's do one more hold it there. Flex the energy out through the heel. We're gonna go inwards first. You ready? Think of drawing a circle with the heel on the ceiling.

And again, inhale and exhale. And inhale and exhale. Inhale and exhale. Beautiful, reverse it. And inhale and exhale, inhale and exhale.

Inhale exhale, you're there, inhale and exhale. Point the toe, grab and let's do a nice stretch. Feel the shake. Then release, bend your knee and come back down. Switch the leg on a relever now.

So we're gonna extend, flex both feet, point both toes and come back down again. And two, flex point. And three, flex point. And four, flex point. And five, flex point.

And six. Good, seven. And eight flex. Two more, really flex the heel underneath the carriage. One more, flex hold it here.

Enjoy that gorgeous stretch in the achilles. Relever and point that top toe and then come back. Switch to the other side. Ready? And one, flex.

That's the rhythm. Up flex. And three flex, point and down. And four, flex, point and down. Five flex and six flex.

Good and seven flex both feet. And eight flex both feet. And nine. You've got one more flex. Enjoy that gorgeous stretch, push the energy out through the heels.

Slow relever and then bend your knees and come back down. Beautiful. From here, we're gonna gently roll up, graciously. We're gonna go down now to... We're gonna do one blue and one red.

I'm gonna bring out the lovely ball. Here's my little ball. We're gonna do some strap work now with the ball underneath the sacrum just to get a little bit more range of motion, to get a little bit of challenge with the ball. I love this because it feels really good in the hips. I'm gonna come down.

So put your heels on the bar, lift your hips and place the ball just underneath the sacrum and just let the sacrum drop down into the ball. Feels really lovely already, just to release that lower back. We'll call this the destress work out. I think this is good. We all need a destress workout right?

We're gonna put the straps around our feeties, be careful that you don't fall off the ball. Put your hands by the side of your body for stability. We're gonna turn the feet out, externally rotate at the hip and we're gonna slowly push out. There we go. So now you're in that little hip extension here, there we go.

Then gonna go into a little froggy. Inhale, exhale, diagonally out. Now your abdominals have got to work even harder now because you're got the instability the ball on top of the unstable surface of the reformer. Again, a lot of biofeedback there. Exhale, push out.

Remember we're working with the hamstrings as we extend out. The heels are glued together. Let's just do a couple more in that lovely flex position. Now let's do one more. Extend, point the toes.

We're gonna circle straight up. Open into a nice big circle, bigger than normal, press down so you're gonna try and aim a little bit lower towards the actual bar and come straight back up again. Ankles over your hips okay. We're gonna go out, circle around low as you can with control, then come back up directly. Ankles over your hips.

Open, take it down and around and then back up. And again, open, down and around, and back up. Let's just do one more. Open, down around, and then up. We're gonna try and reverse it now.

So aim down, hamstrings, hamstrings, hamstrings. Open your leg in that beautiful second position and then come straight back up. And again down, try and aim, watch the rib cage. Open out. Back to center, hamstrings reaching out.

Open. A lot of inner thighs working here. And again, flexibility in the hips. Go as big as you can with control and then back. Let's try and do one more okay.

Down, open that nice big circle with control, and bring it back to center. Now diagonally come down, so you're in that beautiful diagonal position, drop the sacrum down, your tailbone into the ball. Now, we're gonna try and go into a lovely diamond position. Try and get our feet together if we can in that lovely external rotation, got a long diamond, not a short diamond, it's a long diamond. We like nice long big diamonds right?

So we're here. Now we're just gonna hinge from the hips. So hinging up and over the ball and then coming back again. Just hinging so all I'm doing is moving at the hip joint and then I'm coming straight back. Beautiful work in your adductors, your stabilizers.

There we go, down. Keep that diamond the same shape. It doesn't shorten, it doesn't alter, it stays completely the same shape. I can feel those inner thighs, they're shaking. Let's just do a few more. (air whooshes) And let's do one more.

Hold it here, feel that contraction. Open your legs, back into your diamond and let's come back up again. Should we try that again? So we go down, open without moving your thighs, bending your knees. I'm using my inner thighs, they're shaking.

Extend. And then come back up again. Nice work guys. From here, what we're gonna do is stretch, come up a little bit higher, and go into parallel position. Go to where you feel you can go.

Some of us are more flexible than others, but my tailbone's stretched. My tailbone's anchored down into the ball and I'm stretching. Hold it there. Five, four, three, two, one. Come back.

Beautiful. We're gonna step out. Put your foot down, bend your knee and step out. Slowly, put those down. Ah, it feels so good.

Doesn't that feel good? Every time you move your ball away just like that it feels so good. Your lower spine should feel nice and relaxed now. Beautiful. So you're gonna hold on to the ball and we're gonna slowly roll all the way up, gently.

Okay so now we're gonna work on some abs now. We're gonna turn around. I want to get at... I think I'm gonna go for, let's do one red spring here. Put the headrest down.

So we're gonna do a few little combinations here. Put your feet on the headrest. Now you're gonna put the ball just in your lumbar spine here. This is just a warm up. It's gonna give you some nice support here.

You'll feel your abdominals are lifted in. See, there's the train again. So it's real. Pull those abs in. All right, so what I'm gonna do is grab, keep the ball there, grab our little straps.

So we're here, in that nice C-curve position. Feels lovely and comfortable. The lumbar spine is supported. My abdominals are working harder because I'm in a C-curve. It's making sure that I'm in the right position.

From here, palms are facing in, all I'm gonna do is open and then back. Open. So I'm really focusing on my mid upper back. Posterior deltoids, pointing your shoulder blades down and back. These are perfect exercises for me right now cause I'm rehabbing after two shoulder problems.

So these exercises are perfect for that to really work your mid upper back, your rhomboids, your posterior deltoids. (air whooshes) Your abdominals are firing to stabilize. Let's do three more. (air whooshes) One more and then hold it here. Changing the combo, it comes out and then we're just gently gonna rotate to the side. Back to the center, rotate. So you're going into your obliques, back to the center and back here.

So we open, we lift over, center, lift over into the obliques, back to center, and down. And again, one, two, center, side, center, contract. Last time, open, side, center, side, center, contract. And open, we're gonna go right, and left and right and left and four and three and two and one. Center and back.

So you feel a lot of work on your mid upper back and your abdominals were working hard. So now we're gonna move on. We're gonna put the ball underneath and work those hamstrings again, yay! Okay, so we're gonna grab the ball and we're gonna try and balance. So now I'm leaning like a rolling like the ball position, but I'm in that nice C-curve. And I'm gonna repeat that again.

I'm gonna come out and then back. Just to get your balance. Let's try that again, two more. Now one more, hold it here, hold. Now the right and left.

So you go right and left. It's a little bit more challenging because you got to balance and balance. And four and three and two and one, center, come back. Now, palms up and we're gonna go into this little beautiful position here. Can you see I'm doing like a one arm row but the other hand is coming up.

Now I'm gonna try and add a little rotation in that balance. A little rotation, keep squeezing on to those hamstrings, though as you're gonna fall over. (air whooshes) A couple more. Last time. Ready for the other side? Keep the eye focused forward for the time being until you've got your balance.

Then you can add the rotation. So your eyes are following your elbow. Beautiful. Just do a couple more. Last time.

Back to center, you ready for biceps? And out. Keep those elbows in line. (air whooshes) So there's a lot of balance going on to play here. Those abs are gonna stabilize, those elbow are high. Squeezing that ball, those hamstrings are working to hold the ball in place.

Depress your scapula before you even move. Exhale. Three more. Two more, last time. And release, slowly come down.

Great little combo with the ball there. Put the ball away. Take a little stretch. Now what I'm gonna ask you to do is take the ball onto your chest, press, and just stretch back. Feel the great stretch because you've been curved over and then we're gonna go into that lovely extension and just press.

We're gonna move on, keep holding on to your ball. Now with perfect position, we're gonna be on one red but I'm gonna actually add a little extra, a little yellow on top of that like a red and a yellow. But you can be on a red too, depending on how heavy the springs are. So we're gonna come on to the reformer, we're gonna put the ball, squeeze that ball, and press the toe back against. Your hands or shoulder blades are pulling down and back.

Now from here, we're going to lift that leg up. From here we're gonna lift up into your plank position and extend the leg. So now you've got to reach it out to that crown of the head. We're gonna bend the knee and extend it. It's very small but I'm holding that position, that ball is behind and I'm just doing teeny tiny extensions.

Four, three, two, and one. Hold it there. Then go into a nice C-curve position, back to neutral. Exhale C-curve, back to neutral. Two more. (air whooshes) And one more.

Neutral, bend your knee and slowly come down. Let's try the other side. You'll get a sweat going now, I promise. (laughs) Okay, make sure that ball is there, nice and firmly. We do not want to drop the ball. So we're gonna gently press up, get that leg knee to chest and we're gonna bend, in and out.

In and out. Reach out to the crown of the head. It's tiny. Can you see it's very small? You're gonna have not much range of motion there.

It doesn't have to be big, it's tiny. (air whooshes) One more, you ready, cat. And neutral. (air whooshes) And neutral. And neutral one more. And neutral bend the knee and bring it gracefully down. Nice work.

Okay let's put the ball away. Slowly just gonna reach out in that nice child's pose and just stretch out. Come down to one red spring, ready to go into a down stretch. Pull your shoulder blades down, look up, inhale back, exhale and lift up. (air whooshes) Remember just pivoting around your shoulder joint, you're looking like that beautiful on the front of the Titanic and pulling the shoulder blades down and back. Everything stays the same.

All about the upward motion, not so much about the downward motion. A lot of people go too far back, it's a very small motion. It's not too big and this is where it happens as you come all the way up. That beautiful extension. (air whooshes) Two more. Last time.

And gorgeous, come back down, child's pose, and slowly roll the way up. Okay, let's step off. Still on one red spring, some flexibility. Place your hands on the shoulder rests. Place your foot in the middle of the reformer.

The back leg is parallel. We're gonna come into that lovely hip flexor stretch here. Pushing away from the should joint, holding that position there. Make sure your back foot is firmly planted there. Hold there.

We're gonna try and extend, keeping your hips square in that beautiful stretch. Hold that position and then bend your knee and then come back. Let's try that again. Reach out and then bend your knee, hold it there. From here, we're gonna push away.

Release and I'm just gonna go forwards and back. Keeping everything nice and stable, forwards and back. Your body is completely still, you're just moving at the shoulder joint. Two more. One more.

Take the same leg forwards again, open out. In that extension, that rotation. Hold and see if you can go into a split. Bend your knee, back to center. You ready for the other side?

Deep breaths, push out of your shoulder rests and then come back up, switch legs. Hold that position. Now, we're gonna go in to that lovely hamstring stretch. If you do not have the flexibility to extend your leg out like this, then come up so you're in this extension here. So you've got two variations there.

You're either gonna be in this position, or you're gonna be here, like I was previously. You got that nice parallel hips. Long hamstrings. You're gonna feel the heart rate elevated because you're stretching, you're working hard. Stretching is not easy.

All right guys, you ready? Bend your knee, push away. Ready, repeat again. (air whooshes) One more. Same leg forwards, rotate, and let's try and go into that extension. Bend your knee, come back.

Slowly come back. Nice work. All right guys, how you feeling, good? Nearly there. Go grab your box okay?

All righty. We're gonna turn this around, okay. All rightly, so once again, no graceful way of going into this position, but we're gonna place our foot like this. Gonna scoop myself down a little bit further and we're gonna bend our knees, come all the way down, hand on your foot, and then your feet together, so you're in that lovely clam position. All we're gonna do from here is we're gonna extend the leg, bend the knee and then come back.

Out, extend, bend and back. Out, extend, and bend and back. Out, extend, bend and back and we're gonna go into a parallel position here and we're gonna push out. Then push out. Can you see how my knee's inline with my hip and I'm pushing out?

Good. And you can smile at the same time. There we go, four more. Four, so you're working your hips and you're lifting up on the supporting side. (air whooshes) Two more. Last time.

Now reach the leg forwards. Press it back, flex it forward. Point it back. Little hamstrings are working here and your obliques. Inhale forwards, exhale back.

Let's do a few more. (air whooshes) One more. Lift up if you can and go for that lovely stretch. Hold it there and then bend your knee, come down. Gracefully pull it off. Okay, ready for the other side?

Outside leg, we're gonna shift away from the edge, pull. We're gonna come down and press the elbow into the middle of the shoulder rest. We're gonna come into a clam position. We're gonna close the legs a little bit, we're gonna open, extend, bend your knee and back. And open, extend, in.

Open, extend, in. Open, extend, in. Extend and in. Then slowly, we're gonna wrap it around your foot so it makes it nice and firm here, and you're gonna be in your parallel position. You're ready, you're gonna push out and then in and out.

When you have small feet like me, it's a little bit more challenging. And back. So keep the knee inline with the hip as you push away. Think of the glute and the hamstring. (air whooshes) Let's do four more like that. And one, now we're gonna bring it forwards.

Let's flex it back, good. And we're gonna point back, flex it forwards. Point it back, flex it forwards. So as you point back focus on reaching your toes away. Good, point back, flex forwards.

Try and keep the pelvis as stable as you can and that underneath side, your obliques are lifting up off of the box. Just a couple more. One more, beautiful. Come back to the side, lift that leg up, see if you can have that nice stretch. All right then come out, bend your knee and then come out.

Much easier to get out than it is to go in. Slowly, roll yourself up. So now we're gonna work a little bit of back extensions to finish off. So I'm gonna take the foot bar down. One red spring.

Make sure your chest is over the edge. All right we're gonna gently hold on to the rope. All right guys, gonna start that lovely extension here. We're gonna come up into triceps extension and then back down again. Keep open your extension and then the arms come back.

I'm staying in that extension. Extend in out. Keep reaching out to the crown of the head. You're leading with the baby finger, your pinky. Your palms are facing inwards.

Relax your glutes as much as you can. It's your mid upper back that you're working on. In. Keep that extension guys, work that mid upper back. Two more.

One last time. Then come all the way down. Take a little break. Place the handles back on. Take the hands all the way around.

Externally rotate in that position, lift up, so you're in that external rotation, externally rotate. We're gonna try and beat the heels together and reach out for the crown of the head. Take the hands forward, your palms are flat. Then back again. In that external rotation.

Keep heel beating and then back. Ears are by your biceps as you're reaching out through those fingertips and then back in the beautiful external rotation. Lift up a little bit higher and again. Two more. And back.

One more. And back, inhale hold it there, hold. Lift up a little higher. And then slowly come all the way down and relax. Just relax your upper body over the box.

Slowly you're gonna roll all the way up. I'm gonna come over the box like this and all I'm gonna do is roll back and then open back in that lovely stretch. Pull your scapula down, see if you can reach out in that V position. My knees are slightly bent and that feels really good, just to open up your chest. All right guys, slowly gonna bring your hands down and roll yourself all the way up.

Turn around, glute stretch. Can bring your left leg forwards in that lovely stretch. Pull the scapula down, hold it there. And then slowly roll all the way up. Switch to the other side in that external rotation.

Hands forward, press your hips forwards. Breathe. Silence is so nice. When do we very rarely get silence? We don't so just take a moment for yourself, deep breaths.

And then slowly come off. We're gonna place your feet hip width apart and we're gonna finish off with a roll down. You're gonna take a deep breath, inhale. Roll down through the spine. Then slowly articulate, roll all the way up.

Nice work you guys. I hope you enjoyed it. It was a nice, simplistic class. You work a lot on your abdominals, a lot on that mid upper back that we really need just to open up your chest. A lot of hamstring work, cause remember our quads really take over and we have to learn to work our hamstrings so they work together and we get balance in our body.

So think of this work as about balancing our legs a little bit more and working that mid upper back that gets neglected. Really focusing on breathing too, just that nice breath. Hope you enjoyed yourself and I'll see you soon. And remember, this is real! (laughs) It's for those guys that I was just in Dubai with. You know who I'm talking to.

Bye guys.