Ladder Barrel Play

Hi, I'm Kathy Ross Nash here for [inaudible] anytime with my gorgeous Nia who's going to play on the barrel with me. We're going to go back and forth and do some exercises on here. Um, a lot of people don't know that you can do the traditional ending on here and for advanced students, and that consists of your grasshopper. You're jumping off the stomach, your handstand, um, your side bend series into, you know, your press up and finally hanging from your feet. And it gets all those components that you get when you do your traditional ending on the Cadillac yet kicked up a notch. It's actually a lot of fun. And I do it here when I really want to open somebody after a really, really tough workout where they might have been built up a lot of tension.

You take them to the barrel, you open them up, and it's a lot of fun. So we're gonna do a couple exercises on here in addition to that, because this can actually be a nice little complete workout. So Ninja is gonna. We're going to do 102 ways. One from column a, one from column B. She's gonna do her hundred lying this way. I love this position for her because it opens her a low back notice.

She's not tucking and it helps her fill that place in her rib cage. Good. Lengthen. Roll up a tiny bit. That's it. So there you go. And fill down there. Beautiful arms over the legs and pump. Inhale, two, three, big arms, four, five. Exhale, three to six inches over the legs. Six to eight inches. Pump. Fill the lungs up and squeeze it out. Look here, Chin right into here. Gaze right here. Not here, here or there you go. Not so low, right?

I want to be able to fit something. Ah, there you go. In Hell. What happened to my arms and exhale. That's it. Oh, now we're working. Roll back a tiny bit. All that's it. Inhale, two, three, four, five. Exhale. Two, three, four, five. Inhale, two, three, four, five. Exhale. Two, three, four, five. Roll Up. That gives her nice stability right here so she could work.

What? ELLs? Her. Kay. Now we're going to face this way. Don't fall off the barrel. That was my warning. So now I'm covered legally, so we're all back down. Good. Bend your knees in. Good. Get your whole back on their tailbone air. There you go. And pull back the stomach and stretch into your hundred. Good and pump. Inhale.

This opens the side body and challenges the balance as well. So if you're very strong, you can do this. If you're not looking at your feet, you see how it shows all the imbalances. This is a great place for her as well, so she can open up this opposite hip that she likes to pull forward and have dominate. There you go. Feel that. And exhale, two, three, four, five. One more. You could do one more and pull it back. Exhale, two, three, four, five. Go into your series of five and one.

Exactly. And to pull that knee in and three, stretch your low back. Pull it in. Good hand all the way to the ankle. Four don't let that foot roll in. And Five, I'll get out my strap and reach and make you push it out. That's it. That foot has to track that. So important for that to track. Elbows up so the arms are working.

Pull it into the shoulder right here. Yes, you're rolling like a ball position. That's it. Two legs in hug for a double leg pole all the way in. Stretch the back out. Feel the whole back foot. Find your rolling like a ball there. You see it now keep the stomach where it is and stretch out the legs and arms. Yes, and circle those arms and pull in, in, in, in, in, and stretch out right through the window and circle and pull in La.

It's really suffer heels together. Woman. That's it. Stretch out. Press your heels together to find your mid line. Don't bend your knees, circle your arms. Don't bend your knees. Stretch out. That's okay. Arms over the legs. Circle hold. Now pull in. Yeah, adds it and stretch out. We play dirty and Jersey. Fix your feet. Fix your feet and circle and come in. Don't drop those feet in, in, in, in like they're on the reformer. One leg up, down straight. This feels good. You can stretch your hip down. Go ahead.

That's it. And switch and switch. Stretch the knee. Kick and switch. Kick, kick and switch. Kick right in your midline. Heels. Kiss. Remember the heels are dating. They love each other. They're not married. The toes are apart. They're married. They need a little space every once in awhile. And reach, kick, kick, spoken like somebody married 27 years and reach, kick, kick. He's golfing.

I'm playing [inaudible] and reach. Kick, kick and reach. Kick, kick. We'll make it two 28 and good. Two legs up, hands behind the head. Lengthen, lower. Pull that right hip back. And La Ha. Look at your feet. And that's it. Pull that right hip back. There it is. Yes. You feel that good. And come back up.

Fix those feet. Pull that hip back. I'm working with you. That's it. And then come back up. Yes. And pull it back. Back. Back and up. Chris and the Cross and twist. Stay there. Dessert and switch cris and across. Bring your head back to me. It's my cross out on the hip, Chris and across. Head back to me. Uh, too. I'm giving her my chest so her head stays, midline switch, Chris and across might do different spot for my male teachers, my male students, and bend your knees both in. Very good.

Sit Up and we're going to go to our short box. Notice my hands are never off of her at any point. Good. Very important. Very important. I got the barrel and I got my baby. Good. So we're going to start with the hug. Come down a little lower.

Separate your legs so that they're going to be hips with flex your feet and push with the heel. So one reason we you do this on the barrel is to open up the low back, which is a great place for you. One way we open them low back is the oppositional force that you see. What just happened to the low back right now? Remember a little conversation about talking.

You can't tuck on the barrel. You're in an arch. So if you keep that contact, feel that totally you can roll back right and you see, keep it. There's no way that you're going to talk there. Oh, she just got a beautiful adjustment and arms come up. That's an extra $50 you know, and curl. So let's get, let's get rid of your arm circles. Okay, because that's very ballerina ish, and I feel you lose your length. So let's begin with the arms folded. Fingertip to elbow. Press on your heels.

She's smart. Cookie and roll back. Keep them here. Press on your hand. Press press. You feel that open your shoulders. Press now. Keep that here and lift your arms folded. You feel the difference? Head back there. Now you're stretching something. You see you're shaving and now your arms come up.

Press them on your stomach so it doesn't Pucci out. [inaudible] and again, use the barrel spread like a clean chase along the barrel. That's it. I am from New York. You know we'll jersey. We have better bagels and reach up. Stretch. Good. Now stretch your arms and reach for the floor. Good.

Now fold your arms the opposite one on top. Now come with the arms up. Chin to the chest. Pull and you see you how you open your low back up one more time. Reach, press. Lengthen your spine. Use that barrel. If it makes contact, it's not allowed to eat. Don't you?

Cheat on Mama. Now stretch those arms. Reach this one a little more. Good. Yes. Arms come up. Fold. Beautiful Chin. Now Peel off the barrel. Peel of the barrel. Oh yes. Look at that and look at how straight you came up. Oh my goodness. That was beautiful. Amazing. Oh good. Now slight back. Sit on the top.

Keep that same two-way stretch. Contact the heel, right? Yeah. This is the hard one. Lifts straight up top. That looks. I can't even tell you what your back looks like. I can't wait to see the footage and lengthen and tip back. Pull this in. Ribs, ribs, ribs, and return.

While I have a little variation for you, you're going to lift up and go back one inch in. Stop. Lift your lower stomach and soften your ribs. Go back another inch. From here. This hinge has to work lower stomach ribs. Yes. Back another inch. This hinge has to work lower stomach ribs and then Len thin up and end the little forward. Yes. Lift those arms up. Tip back.

One inch. Stop salt stomach. Soften the ribs. Tip back, one inch. Stop lower stomach. Soften the ribs. Tip back, one inch stop. There it is. Lower stomach. One more time. That's it. Lower stomach. Soften the ribs and come up and forward over to the side. Stretch side is wide and lengthen and stretch the other way.

Stretch, stretch, shoulders slightly over the hips. And just like as in everything in plots, we begin with those shoulders slightly forward. And then as we become big adult PyLadies people Ramani as you say. And then we do it straight on top and reach to feel different air you go. How old are you going to build to that side band, right, rich, go. I gotcha.

Ah, it's a girl. Reach out to come up and again, reach, stretch through the arms. Anchor this hip, anchor this hip. Reach through the head and come up, lift up the center, reach over, reach, reach, reach, reach out and come up and twist to the right. Don't move. I. Ah, so right. Keep these knees bent. They don't move. Twist to the right. There you go. Reach out to the corner. Beautiful. Get longer. As you come up, stay in the twist, stay in the twist. That's gorgeous. And Center.

That's one heck of a twist and reach. Get the crown of the head to the bar. Chin down, a little more length in the neck. There it is. Now use your eyes. They do the twist too. They have muscles. Look back. They're like on Chris Cross and length in the past, the elbow. That's it. Just like on Chris.

Cross and lift up and twist and reach. Good. Reach out and come up. Stay in the twists. Say in the twist. You don't want to unravel that spine till your line and center and twist and reach. It's twist and reach. Not within and reach out. Stay in that twist and come up in the twist deeper. Here's dessert.

Look all the way up. Sit Right on the spine and center. That's how you build your corkscrew. Very, very good. Okay, we're going to do, oh, let's do fishing and ferry. Okay, so you're gonna go into your twist. Just like we did. Twist to the right. Reach out. Now there does touch, touch and catch it and come back up by us. Dane, your twist, right? That's not good for your spine. So think about what you're doing, right? You're twisting and you're reaching. If you're coming up like that, you're, the spine is not elongated. You're in the twist. You come up, you square it off. We always think of spine twist, right? Twist, twist.

It's building off your spine, twist. You don't go twist and center. You Go, you're upright, you're upright. Twist and reach deep. And think about your stomach massage. Same thing like snake and twist. It's snake and twist and [inaudible] with. Yes. Okay, reach up. Speak clearly with your Peloton and reach out. Now tap. Tap your ferry and catch your ferry and come up. We're going very catching.

Beautiful. Doesn't it feel so good? Oh, amazing. Yeah. You know you work so hard in as we'll get dessert. Exactly right. And now twist the other way. You get to do it again. Reach out and dip and come up and deep instructs those elbows. Good.

Watch your risks there and center that affects how you use your back. Make those hands even on that pole. Reach out. Hold it with your pinkies. Now tap it. Come up good and come up and sending a fix your hands on the pole. I want those knuckles straight up. There you go.

Now we're going to go around the world twist, reach. You see now you go flat and now you twist and you come up in the twist and then you center and you twist the other way and you reach out and you go flat and you twist it. He gets ready for your snake and twist and center. Oopsy and twist and reach and flat and twist and up and center and twist and reach and flat and twist and up and center. Beautiful. Whoa. It's a lot of work but you see how it makes you long and it doesn't make you come down and it doesn't allow you to collapse in that rip.

How's that root feel? I feel like I've, I've lost 20 years. You look like you lost it is anti-aging. I'm actually 106 no, it really is. I can't wait for you to see the footage. Cause when you sat on the barrel, your back was so different from when we started working today. I cannot wait for you to see that. Okay.

So let's hop down cause I want to slide the barrel forward and we're gonna do our, um, semicircle into our back. Walkover okay. Okay, so hop up. I love the semicircle. So you're gonna slide your bottom as far down as you can. There you go. Not all the way down. Hug your arms around your waist, pressing your feet, and you're going to slide back and you lose them barrel.

That's it. Good. Reach your arms back. Stretch. Good. Bring your arms up and fold them and curl up and over. Up and over. Up and over. Now Scoop and bring your tailbone under.

There you go. And there a real lift of the powerhouse there and roll back. Now don't slide yet. Okay. Roll back. Right. Like you articulate your spine on the carriage. Now push through your heels. Yes. Reach your arms back. Tyrell might've been a good idea.

Bring your arms up. Now. Curl up and over. Curl up and over. Curl up and over. Curl up and over and then scoop yourself. Continue it like the sec first stomach massage into the, well, so hop off a sec. Let me show you. I know there's a little lift so you're down a little bit in it, right? So you're like a little like if I'm pressing onto here, I'm not going to be able to move. My powerhouse is light, right? I'm not ever bearing down. So as I'm here, it doesn't matter what material I have on, you see I slide down. It's all this lifting. So you push, I use the barrel on down.

I'm lengthening along the barrel along the barrel alone, the barrel come up, scoop up in and deepen. Okay. Can I? Absolutely. Yes. That looked amazing. It feels, it feels so great. I can't tell you. You can even do it. This one's a little more spaced and bigger than I'm used to, but sometimes I'll do it with my feet down here to really get a nice hip opening. Yeah. Okay. Is that okay?

I know I would go a little deeper for you. There you go. Right. That's it. So I, oh, why don't you in that extension already? Oh yeah. Beautiful slide. Beautiful. Reach back. Curl up in, in and now you're gonna use your stomach and scoop your tailbone under. Yes. Yeah.

So we use our spine in all different ways. You're using an extension, you're using it inflection. It's your semi-circle. Think about everything that the semicircle does. Okay. Absolutely. Good slide. Reach back. Good. Arms Up. Curl up and over. Up and over. Up and over.

And now use your stomach and right there. That's it. Yup. I saw myself. What I was doing. Do you wanted to release instead of hollow in lift and get longer, right? Good. Let's do your tree. Okay. Okay, so we're going to do the back walkover let's go for it. Okay. You could do a baby. I know. Good.

I know you can lift the back. Yeah. So your spine is going to be supported and lift one lift too. This is a little wider barrel than I'm used to. Three and walked down. Good. Take it back. Same way you just use that barrel, not hold the, hold the leg. Good. Pull the stem again and take the stomach back. Straighten the arms there you see? Now you're against the barrel.

Now go ahead. Walk down your tree and open your chest and good and come up. Chin into your chest. Bring the head to the knee. Keep this back. Keep this back head here. First crown of the head to the knee. There you see that. Here's your control. Balance this way. Okay.

There's the balance control, which is what this is. Now go back and this time go all the way down. Reach your arms back, stretch. Come up one more time. Round into yourself. Crown of the head here like you're big splits on the reformer. Good.

Now take this leg back with you. When you straighten your arms, straighten your arms, take the leg back and then walk down. Good. Bring your arms back and then you're going to float up. Scoop good. Don't move that foot and go into a split. Don't move the front foot. That's it.

Good. Ready to come back up. Mm. Much easier said than done and there you are. Oh, I got you. Come back up. Now. You can keep that leg up there or you can put them both on. It's up to you. Okay.

There's also a couple of ways when you're going back that you can suspend and then switch your legs. Go, go into your handstand, which I know you love to do or you can split back just so that you know. Okay, good. Take this leg underneath other side. Lift up the back, stretch and down and to and down. And let's this time leave the leg up. Okay. As you go, come back up and good. Go back. Good. You've done that variation right? And stretch.

Well then let's just for safety sake today, cause I haven't worked it with you, let's hook the second foot on. So we'll have two feet. We'll do it just like we did. I've done the one, you mean climbing back up again with the correct? Correct. Okay. Okay. Okay. Head down. I thought you had yeah, and reach. Now remember to come up with an open back. So arms come up, see those circle and arms again. Oh my goodness. Damn dancers.

And you take it back this time and give yourself a little stretch. That nice. Yeah. You're just like near just like, oh no. How nice it is. Good arm straight back and go ahead. Reach scoop there. Beautiful. That was absolutely stunning. Into a split.

That's okay. It's not a performance. Well right now it is. And stretch. Oh, hook and roll up. Ah, ah. Ah. That was your dessert. Beautiful. Lovely dessert. Okay. Now that I've been standing here, let me do big splits against the wall.

Love it. Okay, we'll do the naughty side first. Okay. So these are like the final splits and I'm going to get a little assist in my hips. Right prior to doing them on the Cadillac. You can do your stretches here. It's great for dancers. Okay. You really want to get that hip under uh, 52 feels good. Good. Turn this way.

Not so good from the back, but you know, we'll take what we can get. Looks pretty good. Yeah. Now for the good side, save the best for last. I say that's good side. Let's see what it does today. Right? Notice she's assisting from my pelvis, which is a really safe way to assist [inaudible] oh, dessert. That's so good. I haven't done them in a long time. Okay, good.

Naughty Kathy. So now we're going to do this side set up series. I'm going to do one position of each and then we're going to go into our little traditional ending. Okay, so our site's set up well. That was a good warm up for that first one we're going to do, okay is here with the hands behind the head [inaudible] and you're going to press into here and you're going to lengthen, not collapse over the barrel, but like I'm doing a long spinal massage. I peel myself onto the barrel, I push out and come in in, in, lift the leg onto the wall. I go all the way down, lengthen and come in, in, in. I lifted off the wall all the way down, lengthen and in, and then I make a nice little picture.

Oh now that's dessert. Other side, you begin with your foot here and you gradually bring just like an all the sides series, gradually bring it to straight. Lift up. Lengthen, reach out, lift up, lengthen, reach and reach up. Linden and out. Reach up. Lengthen. And if left, reach up and out. Reach up and one photo up.

Up. Up. Good. [inaudible] okay. Okay. So if you could spot this, I'm going to start grasshopper. Okay. So if you could just spot. So my barrels not going to go anywhere. I would spot from the side cause my feet are gonna go there. Perfect. Okay. So this is the beginning of my traditional ending.

I'm going to do my grasshopper. I haven't worked on this barrel so I have to feel it out a little bit. Mine doesn't have these things here. My hands should be able to go. That's not the right angle right here. We'll see. Lift up, reach out and Ben [inaudible] job and Pete reach up and Ben [inaudible] reach up and reach out. Nice together. [inaudible] and then we go right into jumping off the stomach. This is a push out, not an arch up. It's really great for cramps.

Really is to touch the ground and roll up and fixed your outfit. Now we're going to go into a handstand. I love my inversions. Love, love, love. I couldn't do this at all. [inaudible] oh [inaudible]. Okay.

And once again, we're all touch roll all the way up. You always want to do a little flection in between all that extension and holding. That's a lot of extension. Okay, so my love, you get to do the lovely side bend from the side of the barrel and I get to pull on you. Okay. So this is a great preparation for the star and it's really important to get into this correctly. So what I want you to do is you're going to stand here and you're going to slide. So your hip is there and you're going to use that barrel to be long game over just like we did when you went backwards over the barrel. No, I just went there so that you could see. Good. Now slide here.

Palm down first look forward and see how you lost this apart of the barrel. So come a little further out there. Now slide your hand. Yes, you feel that? That's it. Beautiful. Now bring this arm up and over. That's it. Beautiful. Excellent. Try to keep that bottom foot down.

This is great for those hips. How's that feel? Yeah. Is Why they pay me the big bucks. Okay. I can pull a leg like nobody else. No, just kidding. I can pull your leg. Don't stop.

It feels so good. At the end of the day. Some of I teachers, we just go around with like I have four barrels interviews like on a bowel gun. Somebody pull my leg. That's it. Good, and you're going to come up just like you went down this lake. Then to lead this arm's gonna release and this length and you lengthen, slide and draw together. Look how nice that is. Oh, that was, that was dessert. That's absolutely, that's because I made you do all those other things. Yeah. Good. Other side, it's imperative how you get onto the barrel and how you get off the barrel. We have all this pomp and circumstance for getting on the reformer and getting on the Mat and ending chair exercises and beginning chair exercises.

Then we get to the barrel. We're like, okay, I can't find my position. Right. No. Every piece of equipment from the moment you walk into the studio to the moment you leave, you are working plots and then one day as you leave that it goes with you. Palm down first. Right? Slide it there. There you go. That's it. This can be good for this.

Now lengthiness this way I'm not going to even correct your hip. I'm going to let the exercise correct you. Ooh, good. How's that feel? I mean good. Now try to lengthen your bottom leg down. There you go. You feel that? That's it. How's that bottom like doing great. Good.

I'm holding her right above the ankle joint. I'm not ever holding onto a joint. Well, circles both directions. Oh good. Okay. Ready Baby. We're going to come up. Reach with that leg reach and wow.

Excellent. Three inches taller. [inaudible] that was really nice. I can feel how your are are opening. Okay. Now we're going to do the back over the barrel with the leg circles together. First three little low, three big, and then three bicycles each direction.

Okay. Remember to use that bowel just like you did. Now Bend, bend those knees. Separate your legs, hips with or this. Let go. The distance of the barrel. There you go. Bend back. Like think you're in a spine. Stretch forward, position and reach. Yes. You see how the arms reach back here? That's your swan. Good. That's no more of the flowery stuff. Draw your legs together to take them off to little circle.

Three little circles together. Heels. Two, three rivers one. Do you think, let your head go back more. I'm here. And then open circles. Circle open around one, around two, around three rivers, around one, around two, around three in little bicycles and bicycle. One. One. Just like you're floating down from the Cadillac and rivers. M One, one, one. See how that opens that hip? Yeah. And good.

Two feet down. Separate the legs. Arms Up. Chin to the chest. Stretch with straight legs through. Grab onto the bar. Now here's the tough part. Take your hands forward. Forward. Nope. Take your hands forward. That's it. Now shift and lift and bring your pelvis off of the barrel.

You feel that? That your spine stretch forward. So I want you to be able to go right from here and now bring that forward. Don't bend your knees, don't change your feet. Hands on the mat, hands on the Mat, and shift it forward. Soften your knees and roll up. Roll up, roll up. Good step away from Merrill, show you so that your spine stretch forward. And that's that little piece in your back that you don't like to use. Right?

So I'm here, right? Even if my feet are here, right, I'm here, I take my hands forward, I lift, oh, I see. It's my spine stretch forward and my elephant. Yes. And then roll up. Absolutely. Sometimes a visual is all you need. And honestly, it's so funny cause people go, you don't demo, don't download B.

As we all learned from demoing, Romana would hop on. She's like, and she'd go do her walk, right? Go do her. Walk over, do her grasshopper and you go, okay, I just got showed up by you know, 75 year old woman. Okay, I'm great. Um, you know, she, so, and we would learn, she would say, do that exercise that that person's doing over there. And so you learned visually. Yeah. And you just applied the principles of the work. So sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words. We hope. We hope. Good. That's it. So find your spine stretch forward. Right?

Good. Grab that bar. Beautiful. Keep your head down. Write the heads part of the spine. Yeah. Now bring your hands forward and now scoop. Ah, sweetheart, that now soften your knees and roll up. That was amazing. Oh, that felt delicious.

See how front open the front of the hip is now. Oh my goodness. The barrel is the best. Amazing. Those stretches. And that's dessert on top of Xavier. I am the nicest teacher. Amber [inaudible] mean. I'm not mean. Okay, good.

So now you're gonna spot for me and I get to suffer through the PRESA. Thank you. Tell me how you want me to. Same Way. Hand, foot. Okay. So as you know, we know PyLadies never gets easier. It always gets harder and harder and harder. And so this is the next level of what she did. We're going to reach back.

We're going to set my hair free. Oh, can we do our scissors? And we're going to do our bicycles and reverse and we're going to do our helicopters [inaudible] and we're gonna thread our needle, which I'd never done on this barrel. So say [inaudible]. Ooh, I need a beer. I don't drink beer.

And then we're going to finish by, oh, let's do a fun little corkscrew. So from that same position, we're going to do a corkscrew. There's a couple of variations on this. This is the one that I like to do because I mean to myself. Okay? So you lower the legs to 90 degrees. You twist over your ear, you roll on the rib, the waist, the hip, you go flat, you go to the other hip, my shoulder, stay square. Here's my twist. Here's my center.

Press up for a long ways to find that length. Scoop the stomach. Don't drop the waist. Twist, roll down. Ribs, waist, hip. There's my spine twist down. Over hip comes off, waste comes off, rip comes off. I send her in, I lift up and lengthy circle scoop over shift roll up. Now I get my dessert hanging. See, I just like to hang around. Press there, reach back. Oh, and hang and push through the feet to really open that low.

Oh, and that's good. Yay. How much fun. Excellent.