Class #3220

Hip Opening Cadillac

50 min - Class
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Work on opening your hips in this flowing Cadillac workout with Amy Havens. She focuses on articulation, length, and strength while you work your entire body. She includes advanced exercises like Airplane and others to give you a nice challenge that you can work up to.
What You'll Need: Cadillac, Reformer Box

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Hi everybody. I have my friend Andy here with me and we're here for Cadillac of course. You can do this on the half tower unit if you have one of those and when we get to the hanging feet in the trapeze swing you can also put a ball up on the table. You've seen me do that before. So we're after some articulation, some lengthening, some flow, some hip openers, some shoulder openers, and we'll get started.

So grab your roll back bar and let's have you start with your legs just parallel in line with your hips. You can have a little bit of space between your legs and just take a moment to really feel where you are on your pelvis and trying to buy us being right up on top of your sitting bones. A lot of times we start out and we're just a little bit behind them, so if you need to put a soft bend in your knees to get right on top of your sit bones you can do so. Okay, and before we get moving I want everybody just to take a little more inventory and to get yourself higher, more lift, space between your pelvis your last rib right here, rib number 12. Okay, a lot of length.

Take a couple deep breaths. You want to get that lateral expansion, that posterior expansion of your ribs. Okay, and then follow that all the way up to the top of your head. So one more breath, kind of centering and preparing. Good, and let's take one more inhale, get ready, and we'll start moving now on your exhale and feeling that nice clean articulation.

I might, keep on moving. I'm gonna move this out of the way, just because. Get that out of there. Okay, good. And then just easy roll ups so the head and the neck bend forward, spine rolls, keep yourself round Andy as you come forward so the top of your head just stays facing the bar, right there.

Now, I want you to pull your stomach way back and start rolling back from there. Yeah. There are a lot of different ways at that top as you know. Open up through the chest. Good, and then lift, and as you're coming back up now this is where you're starting to warm up.

You're still round but I want you to put more space between ribs and pelvis, good. And then rolling back, stomach way back to your sacrum and lower back. Open up through your shoulders. Let's add three arm presses. One, and two, and three, and rolling all the way up.

So I'm gonna give Andy just a little bit of traction and opposition. So I'm pulling a little bit on the bar. He's gonna widen his shoulder blades and he's gonna start rolling back. He's pretty strong. Roll.

Press that down, good. You've got it? Good, and roll all the way up. And this time go as you were a moment ago. So now from here start to restack up to vertical vine, press down on your bar just a little, just a little.

Breathe in and roll back with even more length between your segments there. Good Andy. When you get down let's do three more arm presses, or you do the arm presses. Good, and rolling up. So building that clean articulation.

Let's do one more just like that. Inhale, sit tall. Good, sit a little like your chest higher than the bar, just higher than the bar, good, there, and rolling back. Okay this time I want you to do three to five arm presses and one, and two, three, and four, one more time, and five and rolling all the way up. Okay, so you can keep going with the legs in parallel like that or join us for the diamond leg position.

So we're starting to work in the hip rotators now and before you roll back take a moment to press the feet together. Okay, and really sense that. Yeah, and you might get some crampy bits in your feet, just kinda work through that, but the active feet open up your hips. Sit a little taller, chest higher than your bar. Breathe in and then rolling back.

Good, and keep those feet pressed together. I think that's the hardest part is to keep that active. Now instead of pulling the bar do some chest, like row the bar up. Exactly, let's go for five. Checking the feet, and you want to feel also like you're trying to continue to open up the knees pressing the sides of the knees down toward the mat, feet together.

There's your five, and roll back up. Good, and then you can just kind of flow through round up to sitting extension breathing in and exhale, yeah, feet, knees open. Good Andy, fives times, row the bar up and one, making sure not to over arch that last couple of ribs on your back there, rib 11 and 12. Keep those down. There, good, and on your fifth one checking the feet and knees.

Good, rolling up. We'll do that all together twice more. Okay, and as you sit a little taller when you roll back think less roundness here and more lumbar round, there. So we're starting length length length length length length length, good. Five times.

Pull one. Active feet and knees open, good. And three, and four, and five. Rolling up. Good, one more time.

And roll back. I mean it would be kind of interesting if you could actually get that pinky toe, toe touching. He's got extremely open hips so he can most likely do that, yep. And three, four, and then on the fifth one this time when you roll back up just roll up to the tips of your shoulder blades. So come in the hundred position, little, maybe 10 extra little abdominal crunch actions.

One, two, a little more space between your chin and your chest. Five, and six, good, and seven and eight, nine and 10. Angle to the left or right just a little bit of rotation. Same thing 10 times or little, knees open, feet together. And five, good, he's got a nice flat neutral pelvis.

Seven, eight, nine, and 10. The other way, opposite knee might need to be more open. Yeah, the opposite pelvis need to be more open. Seven, eight, was that right? Nine and 10, all the way back to the middle just to rest your neck and then roll right back up to center.

Great, so we'll keep moving. Thank you, and do some more articulation. I'm gonna move this there. Don't mind me. I'm gonna move that around, okay?

So we'll load up the trapeze swing. This is the time if you don't have a trapeze swing just get a physio ball and put that up, okay? And that's where the feet will go. Andy go ahead and turn yourself around, head that way. And then feet in the swing.

All right. So I'm gonna use this bar. So we could have done this from the other end and we will flip it over in just a second. So let's go to parallel again Andy. Take a nice deep breath through your nose and then just pull the bar toward you a little bit, start to articulate your pelvis and your spine.

Connect to your hamstrings and that line all the way up the back of your body. Inhale, and exhale and unroll keeping your chest nice and broad. Inhale there, and again, good. This time I'm gonna have him add three arm pulls and one, maintaining that nice high spine. And three, arms stay steady and unroll your spine there.

Let's do one more version like that. Same thing, so arms don't do anything until the spine gets up, okay. And then three times, pulling one, energy out the feet, out the top of the head. And three, and rolling down. So we're gonna do three more repetitions but this time stay everything down here breathing in roll the body up and pull the bar toward you, exhale.

Stay there, breathe in. Unroll as you exhale. Twice more. So there's a preparation on your inhale. Exhale as you're moving, so pressing that energy into your spine, right into your spine.

Good Andy, and unroll. Okay, just one more time there, same thing. Articulating, energy head and tail. Excellent, okay? He's gonna unroll, let go.

I'm gonna ask him to help me move this back and you can move that back or move your ball to the other end. Thank you. Now, starting to build in some shoulder opener. Yeah, feet are, let's actually keep that 'cause you're gonna be, didn't read my mind, that's fine, like this. Same thing, feet up in the trapeze lying on your back.

All right. Fantastic. Hands there, all right, so you're getting that nice vertical line from shoulder to hand. Just keeping the pelvis down and legs down for just a moment. Take a nice deep breath Andy, bend your elbows narrow.

Yeah, and exhale and pull the bar all the way across your forehead. Okay now, I'm outside the end of the Cadillac. You can see these boxes built up, we'll get to those in just a moment but I have my hands on that bar giving him a gentle pull. He's gonna resist me with his mid traps on his back. He's gonna, you have the bar, right?

And he's gonna keep on pulling it through and right up above his head. Two more times like that. All right, so now I'm not gonna give you that extra pull but I do want you, stay right there, thumbs are on bar, thank you, and let your shoulder blades go up, yeah, way up. Get that stretch, that extra length. Okay, you were asking for some length.

Yeah, and then as you come down, they come down. And just easy, couple more like that. Just find the flow. So do let your shoulder blades go up following the length of your arms, thumb around the bar, there we go. Okay.

Keep that thumb on there. I'm gonna do one more with you. Good. There. Good.

Right Andy, and I'm not letting go until it's past this direction. There we are. Now, I would love for him to do a nice roll up. Head, neck, shoulders, go all the way. Can you push the bar way up?

Same thing, reach reach reach reach reach, and then as you roll down let's see if you can get the biceps to spin a little more toward your head, good. Okay, and you can follow it through. So full, long sit-up now. Inhale, bar above the chest. (inhales deeply) Exhale, rolling up, and I want to see if you can get a little more activation of your lower back muscles all the way up and a little more of this external rotation of your humerus here. Good, there, and then rolling back, keeping that.

All right. Two more times. We're gonna add something in just a second, yay. So again if you're on a physio ball, here it is, you actually have a little bit of extra challenge because that physio ball moves around, but press down on it a little bit. There we go, a little external rotation of your upper arms.

Rolling down. I'm gonna be a little bit of a bully, go for one more. Yeah, thumb around the bar. Thumb around the bar. Why is that so important?

I want you to keep a good hand hold, okay? Yeah, now let's straighten those, get the whoop, thumb. Stretch, yeah, there you go. Now Andy, could you turn your legs out? Yep, and roll yourself down all the way on your back.

Just keep the bar right above you. Now we're gonna add a little something here. You're holding on. Externally rotate the legs and do a kind of a frog. So it's like, how far can you and you bring yourself in like this to open up your hips but keep your hips on the mat.

Good, and then re-straighten, just do that a few times, okay? So there's a little downward press against the strap or your physio ball. You're trying to get your knees pretty close up to your arms but with your pelvis down. So what are we after? We're after some good hip joint flexibility, mobility, right?

And there's only a limit before your pelvis starts to come up. Let's do just one more there. But then what'll happen, you'll add that, this, when your up in the sit-up, all right? So it's a lot for the lower back strength. Let's go ahead, roll the whole body up.

Here we go, we're gonna stay right there. Now bend the knees, pull the knees toward the underarms, good, and extend three times. The idea is to not drop back here. Good, so now the back are the stabilizers if you want to think about it that way. Hip joint movers, beautiful Andy.

Breathe in, roll down exhale all the way. One more round, you can follow the bar all the way back overhead. Keep feeling the length, keep feeling the length even down this way in your body, good. And all the way up one more round time you guys, all the way through. Go for more length, good.

And one, eyes just right here. And two, right there. Three, excellent. Take one more breath get longer, longer, and exhale and unroll all the way. I'm gonna give you a final pull, go ahead.

Yeah. Great Andy, okay. Take the bar through, my hand is still on it. Good to go, all right. Now I will have you help me again.

You're gonna take that all the way off the Cadillac for me. I'm gonna set this up for footwork underneath. All right. So I'm gonna Andy on two springs for his footwork and leg presses. For double leg I'm thinking two red, he'll be fine.

Could do red and blue, but. Thanks Andy. And I have the table extended so that we can maximize good level pelvic position, good, organized alignment. So lying on your back, head out there most likely. And he's such broad shouldered person that he may not fit really well between the springs.

I'm gonna ask him to, yeah, he can take his arms out from underneath there. We may not need this. We're gonna find out how he is today. So Andy just stay right there for me for a second, yeah, and let's actually go heels wide to start. Okay, not our most common start position but heels wide.

Take just a moment and let your pelvis really settle and I as the teacher am going to, not yet, bend the knees, I'm gonna gently pull down on the bar and I want you to really sit your sits bones out across the table. So more, as much neutral as you can get. Great. Okay. Now, he wanted hip opener work so I'm gonna ask you to do a little tiny bit of external rotation with your legs.

All right, and then bend your knees, inhale. Your knees can go wide. Watch your leg hair on the springs and exhale and press up. Yeah, inhale, rotate your pelvis, your legs and your pelvis. So I'm looking at the feet for Andy and I'm not loving that foot position so I'm gonna ask him to change it.

I think it might feel better. Depends on who you are. Pause for a second, Andy. Step your foot a little bit, pinky toe on the outside of the bar, heel where it was. Can you step your toes under this way?

No No? No, okay, we're not doing that version. It's okay, you're fine. Let's try to keep going what you are. If you can, it's okay.

Instead, you just keep moving. Instead of your toes facing that way it would have been like the toes over here. So his ankle would have also been a little bit turned out. Some of that times it works, sometimes it doesn't. Neutral that pelvis, inhale bend, and exhale, let's just have one more.

Because the next one I know you'll get more hip opener. Andy do balls of feet now. All right, this is where we're gonna get really into it. So I want you to start with your ankles extended slightly, more external rotation of your femurs, great. Now, go for a big squat.

Bend your knees wide, knees to the sides of the room and exhale press up and level your pelvis down. Inhale, knees wide, pelvis flat, good job. And exhale. Let's go for eight of these. Here's your third.

So sometimes this deep squat at the very low end of it your pelvis is slightly going posterior. It's okay, because in a real squat, standing squat, when the lower you go to the ground that, we do have that lumbar and sacral shift that occurs. This actually might be prepping you for that. It's okay. And exhale, three more to go.

Lower lower lower lower lower lower lower lower lower. Yeah, and up, neutral, two more. Lower lower lower lower, I'm not pushing much but I'm giving a little downward press, and up. And one more with two feet on the bar. Okay.

Now, actually, one more round with two feet on the bar. Come to parallel Andy on the balls of your feet and stretch your calves. So flex, yeah, so I again, I'm gonna be the outside force here adding a little bit of downward pressure. He's resisting me by keeping the heels lifted up. So are you, and your tailbone is completely anchored.

Right? One more deep breath in and out. Great, bend your knees enough so I can un-spring this side. Okay, single leg, what I want everybody to do, push the bar up with both of your feet for a minute and instead of having, you can choose one of your legs, whichever, we're gonna switch sides. So if Andy starts with his right foot, instead of it being in line with the right hip I want you to cross over and put it where the left foot is, okay?

So if this is your right leg it's gonna be in front of your left pelvis. Yep, and this leg goes all the way to the mat. So this presents a nice opportunity for more external rotation of this femur. Bring that hip down into the mat. There you go, beautiful.

Eight times, we're gonna bend and stretch. Inhale, and exhale, level pelvis. Yep, great, and then press. So this leg is still really reaching long, inhale. So for teachers wondering where to cue this for your client, this hand on the leg is nice, on the upper leg is fine, on the pelvis is fine.

But also we're looking for hip opener so you may want to use your hands and just kind of steer the femur a little bit outward. There, client can look up at your own toes and make sure that all five of them are on the bar. Andy's got a nice smile. He checked, he had to make sure. They were though, and last one.

Nice Andy, actually, everyone do one more. Bend, hang out in the bend, okay? Teacher, do a little bit of pull down. Client, you can open the knee just a little bit more towards your sacrum. Anchor anchor, good, and then push up.

Yeah, great. All right, so change his legs. Keep this foot here. This one is kind of fancy. Cross the other way.

There it goes, ta-da! All the way. And hang out before we start, so teacher make sure they're in line. Always get that hip nicely positioned before you start. Okay, eight times, inhale, and exhale. So for filming purposes I'm not gonna walk around the table and adjust his leg from that end, or that side.

I can stay right here too if you don't want to switch places in your session. So again you're just having your hands just a little bit of assistance on that leg, right near the knee. Client sees all five toes. And so this whole patting on the mat that I do is just to help kinda give the pelvis a place to go down to the mat. Okay.

Is that five? It was seven? Seven. This is seven. Thank you for counting, and this one's eight.

All right, and then we do that last one where you can teach and kind of step in if you want and just hold it down. They get a sense the rotation, the sense of the other leg. Yay, and press press press press press. Okay, let's go to side line hip opener and then we're gonna come back around for some monkey and I'll move the boxes out of the way in a minute. So side line you're really ready for it.

You can turn to face out, okay. Now, if you need all this you can use that, you can put your arm underneath and stretch it out on the blue mat pad there. I like that better. Okay, yeah, long arm, perfect. So Andy's got a pretty good set up.

I'm just gonna adjust things a little bit. I'm gonna move this leg more underneath you, also move your pelvis more on the table. Yeah, a little bit more of that, same correction, perfect. Okay, so we've got a foot that's up on the bar. This is where he naturally put it.

I'm not gonna have him change it, okay? I don't want to be always governing what that person's gonna do. This feels good for him I bet. So we're after hip opener. So if we had those hands again come just right under the knee and dial it back a little, right.

We're gonna ask the knee, person, knee to the shoulder. Now he's very flexible to begin with and very mobile in his hips so this is pretty easy for him. Go ahead and push up, we'll do eight. If you're the guy watching this or the woman watching this and this is not your pelvis and hip, you work toward it. This is called practice for that reason, right?

We're getting better all the time. It just takes practice, a lot of these things. Yeah, good, now meanwhile the other leg down there is really stretching out from his hip. We can't forget that, nice and long. Energy out the top of the head because that's part of your body.

That's right, right? Is this seven? Six, thank goodness they count. And seven. Good.

And eight, nice Andy. Great, however, there. You see that actual little rotation? Do one more for me like that for yourself. Yay, and rotate rotate rotate rotate, perfect.

I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna lower the bar with you. You're gonna roll, take the foot down, let's do the other hip. I'll stand just like this for a minute. Great.

So I want to make sure that you're in a good position here. Is that black strap okay? He's gonna adjust it. Okay. Now, interesting.

This foot is not in the same place that it was on the first side. It is in an arch but I don't know if you can notice, it's closer to that part of the bar so I'm gonna help you. I'm gonna come up here and I'm gonna hold it and you need to scoot your foot back an inch or two if we're looking for what we did on the other side. Back this way. That's all I got.

Huh? That's all I got. That's it. That's all we got. That's all he got he says, all right.

Yeah, it's your body, not mine. So I gotta make sure that that's what's happening. Okay, ready? So you have a better chance to see where my hands go right by the knee, a little outward rotation, and press. Eight of these, there's two.

Inhale, this leg is nice and long. It's right out from his hip, press, and three. Another way I've done this before is to sit real close to the client and I've got my hip against his hip trying to make his hip go more forward. So there's often this whole rotating back business that shows up here. Not a bad thing, but, is that okay?

Thumbs up. I got a thumbs up. I think that's good. I know that's good. I know this guy.

One more. (laughs) Yeah, okay? One more time you're gonna hold it. Rotate and hold, yeah. So see if you can get the rotation even more clear Andy before you push the bar up. Rotate, yup, and push, and rest, okay.

Let's go into monkey, all right? So let me move these out of the way. Ta-da! Now, because now you need all this space behind you, put your hands up on these bars. Pull yourself back, way back, shoulders over the edge, feet on the bar. Hands on the middle or outside, outside actually, you were right.

Okay, push the bar up. Now hang out there. I like to, if I have an opportunity to come behind a client and just give a little bit of hands on their lumbar spine and their body and just kinda help them get up. Now when you bend your knees point your knees toward your cheekbones and roll down and get into that nice small little ball shape. Nice Andy.

And again, as you push up, head between your legs. Right. Flex your ankles a little more. Ooh yeah, flex flex flex. Now when you bend, knees toward your cheekbones.

Getting into rolling like a ball. Two more times. You're doing great. Stretching, mobility, opening up the hips, the back of the hips, the side of the hips, good. And down, you're gonna hate the last one. (laughs) Press up.

Maybe you'll like it. So you notice I didn't do walking in place when he was supine. I'm saving it for right now. So just do a little slow walk in place and when you bend your knee aim it toward your cheekbone and let your pelvis and your spine round again. Then kind of yield, right.

The springs goes closed a little bit and open. A little together, yeah that's your spine. Your spine's getting a little closer together a little more stretch. We're gonna pick it up and we're just going eight and seven and six, five, good stretching Andy, and three, and two, and one, and both knees to your cheekbones come all the way down and then teacher you can kinda lean in like that and just give a little extra help. Feel okay?

All right, come on out of there. Thank you. I will help you like this. We're moving into some top loaded. We're going into some seated side bends.

You can stay right there. You can unclip this for me. He's so helpful. All right. So move a little bit this way for me and then I want you to take your right hand up on the bar.

Overhand grip. Now, usually we do a seated side bend you'd pull the bar down and you'd bend toward it with your legs like just that. I want you take this knee and bend it and put it up on the mat like this. Yep. (sighs) I don't know if you heard that.

He went, (sighs). Does that feel good? Okay, the reason why I'm doing this leg position is to help keep the hips to achieve the goal he wanted where is hip opener, some opening of the hips. Pull the bar down, okay? And you're just gonna hold it there with your hand which is slightly in front of your shoulder, like that-oh.

Take your other hand behind your head. Okay, sitting nice and tall, breathe in. Easy breezy you're side bending. You have the bar? Okay, I'm letting go.

Thank you thumb, stay there with that thumb, okay. Now, teacher, you can come in here and help. If you see that this pelvis is kinda starting to elevate up off the mat just use your hand a little bit, okay? Yeah, you can do lots of little things. You can do this.

You can put your hand right on his shoulder, shoulder and just ease them over a little bit, right? Now come back up to vertical spine. Let's do another one like that. Stay looking straight out. Right.

So now you can actively Andy press this leg down by using your rotators over here, exactly. That way then, teacher, you can make sure that everything else is staying fairly well even, like their pelvis, their spine. Open open, good, and come all the way up. Let's do one more like that. Inhale tall, and exhale press your knee down.

Great. Good, energy out the top of the head. Look at all these points of energy like up, out, out, down, it's great, and all the way up to sitting. I have the bar for you. I'm going to come up onto your knees, we're gonna do a couple with kneeling, okay?

I'm being nice with opening, helping you open that hip for, okay, just keep that there. You've got the bar? Mm-hmm. Okay. Hand behind your head.

Same thing, side bend. Yeah, now, teachers, you're gonna want to make sure that that pelvis doesn't go behind them like that, right? You want to keep that pelvis nice and in line with the trunk. And then Andy come back up to just the start position, two more times, taller. And go up and over this side.

Up and over, good. Engage your hamstrings into your leg bones a little bit. Thank you, that worked, right. Nice, okay, so I'm gonna get out of his way. You have to balance your body weight just enough on this inside knee so that the other leg can straighten out to the side.

You're just gonna touch your toe down on the mat. Great. Okay, lots of energy still in these points. Good elbow up, out the head. Now lift your leg hip height.

There's a body shift that has to occur. I'm holding the bar with him, leg goes down. Leg goes up, leg goes down. Leg goes up, I was thinking five of 'em, you've got two more, and leg up. And leg down, last one, hold it.

Do you want to do one front back, or two? May as well do three because it's a good number. Two, nice Andy last time, and three. Leg back, and then get your leg right underneath you, underneath your, knee down, and come out of the side bend, great. Okay, let's do the other side.

Facing the window. So the seated position first. Thank you. Hand on the bar. Make sure your hand is a little in front of your shoulder.

There we go. Nice even sitting bones, and then yeah he's got an opportunity then to actively press his leg down on his own. He's got it and he's gonna go over, pull the bar down. Breathe in, sit tall, exhale. Yeah, look straight ahead.

So sitting from the side of a person you can really tell if their trunk is wanting to go into a little bit of rotation. It usually does. It's all right. But you can see, you can kind of steer it. Elbow higher, there we go Andy.

Press this down more on your own, good. And all the way up and then the whole thing on your own. Good, up and over, lift lift lift, very nice, press. And lift, okay, up onto your knees. For three times, so hand behind the head.

Take an inhale. So now I'm gonna be over here. I'm just gonna watch that that pelvis doesn't (clicks tongue) right, and go over. Side bend. Sacrum under a little bit.

Good, and then restack. Thumb underneath the bar and coming over. Good Andy. And lift. Last time, he's going over.

Now I'm gonna just spot the bar a little bit, all I'm doing is holding it so that he can weight shift enough to put the leg out to the side. Kind of get your bearings, it'll be a little bit more of a weight shift as you lift your leg up and down. Five of these, and lift. This is the place where the pelvis starts to get confused. It kinda tips back.

Pull that sacrum under, low abs up the front. Okay, five, and three time front back. This is really hard, and front, and back very nice. Last one, front back. Good, leg out in line with your pelvis you'll bend your knee just like mat class and then come all the way up, great.

Have a seat, face me this way for forward push through. Feet on the frame. All right, hands on your bar. Get this over here out of our way, perfect. And then go ahead and take a straight arms, pelvic curl back and hang out in this position right here.

I want you take a nice check on your lats and tricep connection, breathe in, and just keep on pushing the bar forward. There's no problem here to do that. Yeah, go for some stretch. Yeah, good. Length, and then go back through that same rounded spine.

Okay, inhale nice and tall. Just two more like that. So really feeling that, yeah, a good connection with his lats, external obliques, all the way through, push push push, thumb underneath that bar. Good Andy. There, and one more time.

I like how you're sitting taller this time. Good. Stay there I'm gonna just, that okay? Yeah. Great, okay.

Now go all the way back through that curl but then up to the hinge in the extension and sit this way. So I'm gonna ask you to bend your knees so you can get more up on the tips of your sit bones, good. And then take the upper arm bones and spiral this way, great. So Andy take one of your hands behind your head. Good, rotate that elbow toward the other ankle for some saw.

Now look up toward the upper elbow just a little bit here and your spine following that direction. So lift up a little more, great. Now start to lean back, pull this arm straight, you'll rotate toward me with this side of your trunk, okay? So usually we do this with the arms straight I'm just giving a little variation with the elbow bend, and then carry it up again. Okay, so as you rotate toward the front leg lift your sternum out from underneath there.

That's the way, good, pull down. And like, open up into an extension, yeah, rotation extension, two or three more. Just make it flow. It's like a spiraling staircase that goes up, yep, and erm this way. Reach, good Andy, nice, two more.

From hips up, all the way tall, good. And unwind, a little bit further this way. Exactly, one more. Taller yet. Okay last time.

All the way, right. Other side. Good, good spine work. Mm-hmm. Ooh ooh, mm-hmm, and how.

(laughs) I've known Andy for 17 years I think, right? Something like that, long time. All right. So you unroll, you're gonna unwind. Start kind of small, rotating to the back to the table, right.

Then you wind forward, think up up up and around, up and around, up and around. Teachers just a little gentle press on your person's back. They'll be happy with that. Okay, if you really want a little more you can take the elbow if your shoulder's okay. Good, I like to keep reminding people that their heels need to be even on the frame of the table, even pressure.

But feel those beautiful spiral, lengthen, open open open, good Andy. Two more times, even feet. Yep, and the next one's your last one, good. Really think up, out the window, look for sharks. (laughs) We're looking for sharks and all the way.

And in your final one, both hands on the bar, all the way forward, good. Now you there, yep, okay. So I learned this, I don't even know when, but from someone I wish I could give the credit to 'em. You just get behind them, put your feet on the mat, teacher, get your hands here and kinda gently lean into them. Now he's leaning too far away from me, I can feel it.

I want him to lean back on me a little and then we're both gonna go up, there. Does that make sense, Andy? Mm-hmm Yeah, it did. So now I'm done with helping him. He's gonna stay right there for a couple more breaths.

Beautiful, and then teachers you can do one last little bit of pull pull pull, and then he's ready for some leg springs. Let go, you roll onto your back and then here I go. We're going high mounted leg springs. We're going, oh sorry, magician. First.

Okay. A few versions. It's like at a restaurant. Like, eggs two ways, magician two ways. Legs together, full arm push on the frame.

Okay and let's just take a little inventory here. I'm making sure you're perfectly straight in between the rails, okay. I think the first version I want you to do Andy is take, your body stays on the table, take your legs down about half way down. You have to kind of guess where that is, right there. I'm holding your legs.

You articulate your pelvis and spine to meet the sacrum and heel line here. Okay, you hold, I let go, you hold it. Take a nice deep breath. Connect head to tail. Good, and unroll your spine to your pelvis which will be neutral and then your legs will come up to vertical, just boom.

Two more like that. So legs first, space hold 'em there, as you articulate you wanna push with the arms. Good, extend your body line more, perfect correction. Did you guys see that? I let go, he stays there.

And then unroll, and I don't need to spot him I don't think on the next one. Legs will come up to 90, and then you're on your own take your legs down. Push into the hands as you, good Andy, roll and lift lift lift, okay. Let's stay there for a second and just do open close legs. Go as wide as you want with your legs.

Good, five or six times. Keeping that plank line which takes a lot of strength in the back muscles and those glutes. Externally rotated, open close once more, and then come in parallel, breathe in, parallel, and then unroll, keep, yeah, all right. And now your legs towards you. Okay, let's do the second way is pull the legs down at the same time you articulate up.

All right? Exhale, press the legs, press the spine. Now I want you to get a little more length in this part of you, there you go. Stretch in two ways, and then unroll everything. Both quality, both good, great variations.

Here we go, two more. Everything's moving, you're pressing, lengthening, your spine is extending, and then roll it down. Then the next one we'll add some frogs up there and probably some mini circles, little circles. Big smile from Andy, here we go, yeah. Okay, so your objective is to keep that plank line.

We already did this earlier, this frog, when your feet were in the trapeze. Go for five of 'em. Usually what'll happen is this part of a person will collapse and drop down. They might not be strong enough but you've got all this strength to push with your arms. Use your tuchus and lift your hips.

Once more Andy, and I know, you know what, keep going. You can stretch more, stretch stretch stretch. Good, now little circles, maybe five, and four, good, three. And five the other way. So hips up even though your legs are circling down.

Hips up, you have to keep repeating that in your head. Hips up, and that's four, and that's five and you're parallel and you get to unroll your spine bring your legs back, wonderful. What do you think? You want the airplane? Yes.

All right, for airplane, what I need to do first is move that cross bar because I know you and your legs are gonna through there so teachers make sure that bar is out of the way. Success for the client. Okay, stretch your legs out long Andy. All right, now this you gotta push the arms you gotta stretch your legs long, but let's think short spine for a second. So imagine that.

Bend your knees. You're not gonna take too much time. Roll your spine, lift up on your shoulders, feet go way up to that bar. Now, plank when your body, stretch out long. Follow me a little faster with your feet and your hips have to stay up.

There, now stay right there. Can you lower your feet a little bit? Push with your arms. So there's the plank line then just floats, floats, floats. Now it's your turn.

Knees, go (whistles), go fast. Up and up, go! There, that's the way, and more butt squeeze. Right, Andy, that's the way. Now go, knees, and go up, and open, take off. That's it! Two more this way.

He found a flow. Has had a little spark at the top. (laughs) A little spark at the top, here he goes, and shoo, up! Thank you, yep. Yeah, reverse it. Spark, pull, and then bend and roll.

That's a tricky exercise. So you're gonna hit the plank line reach out, bring it all the way up. You gotta pull with your arms up here, bend your knees to your hips, he found it, and roll it down, push. Lift, yes! Up on your back, good Andy. Bend, we have two more.

Push, two ways! I'll count that one, but I don't know if you would. (Andy chuckles) When you go up you gotta get way up on your shoulders. Way up, that's it, that's the way, and then bend down, and in a frog, teachers you can kinda help your client this way and just kinda push on their shins. Great, all right. Good?

Yeah. Yeah. Take your feet out of those straps please. Let's go for a little swan, okay? Are we achieving our goal?

Yes. Length, strength, mobility, articulation, hip opener, shoulder opener. Come on down. He probably woulda just said that anyway. I'm kidding, okay.

So with your swan, organize your legs in the way that feels best for you. And I'm gonna make sure that you have even space on either side of you. You might think that you do, but you don't. Move your right leg a little more open to the right. Extremely important, teachers make sure, you know, that they're in the middle.

We're about to work our back extensors. We don't want to overwork one side than the other unless we have to for a reason specifically, okay? So here's something that I've learned a long time ago, a safe handhold. I have my hand on his sacrum, my hand on the bar, and I'm just extending length between the two parts. I'm not pulling hard at all.

Sometimes this extra little bit of length is what we as, when we're working ourselves out is what we're looking for but we can't get. Okay. It's kind of a nice calmer for the client. Okay, now I step away, and you get to bend your elbows Andy to, but uh-huh. Now he's really warm, you're all really warm.

I'm gonna have you hold right there unless you have really conscious and literal and intentional contraction, kind of swallow your spine with your back extensors and your rhomboids, okay. Notice this, just maybe a stretch in your chest that's occurring and then undo that and stretch the bar long again. Great, I love those elevated scapula and the contrast is sliding them down. You've got it on your own. I'm standing away.

Great. Yeah. I got my hand there, a little bit of extra length. Go one more like that Andy, and everybody. You can continue doing just this which is a lot of work on you know opening up that shoulder, engaging your back.

He's pretty even across his back way, this way. Always watch for that. Okay, and then stretch your arms long. So I'm gonna have you keep your arms long, float for face up off the mat and do a swan one, so you're just gonna bring the bar toward your chest, your arms are still straight in line, and keep 'em straight actually, and then roll back down. Just do that a couple more times and then we'll go bigger.

And look straight out across the room. And one more. Looking right out, good, and down. So the next one I want you to do Andy is bend your elbows and bring the bar behind your head, there, and now keep going up. Now yeah, so stretch and look up.

I'm gonna have you look up to the bar. Just really really look up, there we go. Now and when we're coming down bring the bar behind lat pull behind your back. This is so easy for him. Lat pull, lat pull, lat pull, and stretch.

Here goes my spotting again. Okay, two more times, everybody, here we go. Bend, just feel the flow, feel your breath, feel your movement, stretch and reach. Good, and down. Bar behind your head, exactly.

One more time everybody. We're almost done. Swallow that spine, good! And stretch, and lengthen and lengthen and lengthen. Good, and then down. So my last spot that I'll do I'll get my hand again, this time just on the left SI or sacral-iliac joint junction, maybe down there, and then the other side, and always want to finish with that in the middle.

Great. Nice work Andy. You feel good? Mm-hmm. I don't think we need to do that last thing we were thinking of doing.

We'll save it for the next time. Okay, make a child's pose or rest pose. Thanks for joining us everybody. (applauding) Way to go. We'll see you next time.

Thank you.

Pilates for Men - Playlist 3: Other Apparatus Workouts

Comments

5 people like this.
I absolutely love your teaching, Amy: informative, thorough, positive, kind! You can't ask for more in a teacher. Great class!
Z A
1 person likes this.
Ammmy, thank you, felt like a long time student of yours🙏
1 person likes this.
Amy, that was a wonderful class. Not only doing the movements, but also getting your cues for my clients. Thank you!
1 person likes this.
Loved every minute of it, I too really appreciated the cues to instructors! Enjoy every one of your classes as your teaching is so clear.
1 person likes this.
Excellent cues!
Thank you all so much for your generous comments and feedback. :) .
1 person likes this.
Great class Amy! Fun to watch you and Andy..reminds me of the old days !
2 people like this.
Great class Amy
Love your teaching
Amount of reps and cueing perfect
Thank you
1 person likes this.
Excellent cues! can't wait to do this class with my elite cyclist he's going to love it! Thank you so much Amy!
Thank you Susan ... it's always fun working with Andy! Helen and Connie , thank you both for your feedback as well. Connie let me know how your cyclist likes the exercise choices!
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