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Class #3549

Lengthening Tower

45 min - Class
313 likes
Meredith Rogers
35 comments
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Description

You will lengthen your entire body in this Tower workout by Meredith Rogers. She focuses on using the springs for assistance so you can connect deeper to your center. She also includes exercises and variations that will feel amazing on your body which will encourage you to stand tall for the rest of your day.
What You'll Need: Tower

About This Video

Intermediate
Deliberate Pace
Sep 27, 2018
BASI Pilates®
Stretching
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Transcript

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Hi, thanks for joining me. We're going to work on the tower today. And what I have set up is the roll down bar. About halfway I've got some purple leg springs hooked up just above the push through bar and I have two red springs bottom loaded. And with that let's begin. So we're going to sit facing the tower, taking the roll up bar in our hands and lengthening and lifting through this spy.

Arm Pull

So we're going to Bryn the arms and bring the bar to the chest and take the arms forward. And as you bring the bar to your chest, feel that you're trying to pull it apart, stretch it apart, and reach forward and pull in using the springs to lift the spine and take them forward. Two more pull. Take them forward. One, pull the bar apart, take the arms forward, take an inhale, exhale round the spine and begin rolling back. So we'll just do this with movement through this spine. About five times coming all the way down. Lifting the head and chest rolling through the spine, bringing the shoulders over the pelvis in here, keeping the head lifted above the shoulders rather than in between the arms.

Roll Back

Exhale, rounding down all the way in how lift the head and chest connecting into the abdominals. Press the low back into the Madden curl and bring the shoulders over the pelvis. And three more XL around. Okay. And lie down and in head chest comes up.

That's a reconnect to the abdominal muscles. We curl forward and again are rolling back. Yeah, imprinting the lower back. Imprinting the lower back as we lift through it and lifting. So now lift the back, bring the bar into your chest and reach forward. Pull the bar apart as it comes into the chest and reach forward.

Arm Pull

Add three more. Building the spine, stretching forward. Two more. Lifting the spine and are reaching forward. One more time. Lifting the spine. Take the arms forward. As you exhale, roll down, down, down. Feel the imprint of the lower back down onto the mat and pause there. Then take unstrained down. N, I think of pressing the bar into the fas with the abdominals.

Roll Back Variations

And three me, one, come all the way down. And now here, bringing the bar into the Justin's a little heavier down here. Stretch out. Inhale, pool. Exhale, press. Inhale Pool. Exhale, press. Last two. One more. Take the arms forward, lift the head and chest. Imprint the lower spine into the mat. Roll Up, find the position where the shoulders are right on top of the pelvis, and then bring the bar into the chest. We're going to repeat that again.

So arms forward and lift. Arms forward and, and lift. Two more. Pull in and lift the spine. Naval pulling back towards the spine. As the bar comes to the chest, take the arms forward, articulate down, soft in the shoulder blades, soft in the collarbones. Find the lower back in here. Exhale, press down.

Arm Pull

Keep the legs actively pressing together and also actively pressing down into the mat. So this is a full body experience. Last two, one more. Come all the way down. Bring the Bart into the chest and forward and into the chest. And forward. Three more. Two more. Last time, arms reach forward, bend your knees, bring the legs all the way together and touch. Lift the head and chest. Inhale. Exhale, curl for the bar, comes right over the tops of the knees and then pull back.

Roll Back Variations

So it's just at the shoulder blade. Curl forward and back. So I like to remember here when I'm doing these that it's not the springs that are doing the movement. The springs are just a vehicle to assist us in going deeper into our abdominal muscles. So challenge yourself to use the springs to go deeper into your dominal muscles. And we'll just do about four more. Exhale and x down last to press the feet down into the mat and imagine lifting them as you're lifting your spine without actually moving them away from the mat.

Come down, rotate to the left, to the right ribs. Spiral across to the left, the left ribs spiral into the right and then list and come down. Exhale to list and come down. And just continuing that working, pulling down on the springs as we lower and feeling that depth in the front of the body as we left breathing. Last for making sure the pelvis stays level and three pulling into go down to work in the depth of the deepest depth of your experience. This is the last time we're coming down center. Left rib spiral across towards the right hip, right ribs spiral in towards the spine and we lift and back.

Roll Back w/Rotation

Keeping the gaze going just outside the knee, just outside the knee that you're rotating towards and working the spring in both directions and down. Curl. Think of going inwards. Fi Pool by four, pull back fury and back to oh it's hard. And one more time up. Come back in. Come into the center, stretch your legs out along the tower.

Roll Back

Roll up and all the way over. Finding a stretch. We're going to come up. I'm going to move these springs out of the way, so I'm going to take them just up to the top and then we're going to set up the foot bar. So taking the safety strap [inaudible] and then loading this tower bar from below and coming down onto our backs. [inaudible] so for me, I need to get right back to the very end. Make sure that roll up ours out of the way and put the feet up underneath the bar.

[inaudible] to take the time that you need to take to get yourself into a good position, neutral pelvic position. Feeling the stretch to the back of the legs. Bend and press the pelvis down to stretch. Inhale, notice if you're arking through the middle of your back in order to get your pelvis down. And if you are, try to soften that place into the middle, pulling the bar in, pressing the bar. Okay, we'll do four and three and a two and ab. One more time in here and XL. Shifting to the toes, pushing the bar up and also think of pushing the bar forward so the backs of the legs work all the time. Bend, press forward on the bar and stretch in here.

Heels Parallel

Forward on the bar as you stretch, getting that full range through the backs of the length fully. Just straighten the hamstrings, work to bend and as the leg straight and we put a little more focus in the front of the legs. We'll do four. Can you hear the tower tremble? That's not the tower. That's me. Three and bend two and bend one more. Stretch externally, rotate the hips and bring the knees in and in here and pulling the bar up. All minerals draw and take that bar nice and low so you feel that you're really having to anchor the hits but you're working that full range and really reaching down in and finding a stretch. Breathing last for theory, this is where my lack of flexibility really shines last too.

Toes Parallel

And I won Benz and at swivel the feedback to parallel, flex the feed and push the borrow away and pull. And then as you're doing this, looking for full range of motion in the ankle, keeping the knees straight and really getting that nice articulation through the whole foot, keeping that front of the ankles as straight as possible, feeling that the arms are just lying flat, the Scapula are resting on the mat. Last one, and then we're going to alternate when he bends, the other reaches up and then change, lift and then change. So we're peddling the fee coming up to meet and then changing meeting in the middle and then changing. We'll do five more and five, four more and four.

Pilates Stance

Three more heavy through the back of the head and three, two more. Okay, one more pause with one leg. Straighten one leg bent and allow the spring of the tower springs to push down and just pause in that stretch for a moment. Feel the weight of the pelvis heavy on the mat. Change to the opposite side. Again, let the springs push the pelvis into the mat.

Tendon Stretch

Really heavy up there. Check to see if the knee is straight and then bend the knees. Take the feet out. Remove one of the springs or not. You could most certainly work with a heavier spring. I'm just going to choose to work a little lighter for my single length. I'm going to put my heel up underneath the bar.

Running

Stretch the opposite leg straight. We're going to bend that knee, press the pelvis down. Think of flighting without actually moving the foot. Think of sliding the foot forward on the bar. I'm just been am keeping my range small because that's as far as I can go without losing the stability of my pelvis or losing the positioning of my pelvis. We'll do three more. Sure. Two more.

Heel - Single Leg Parallel

And the last one, Ben, the leg that's on the mat, reach up, place it underneath the bar. Stretch the opposite leg forward. Oh Wow. Even that's a stretch for me on that bottom. Like bend and push in. Yeah, and exhale.

Watching the ankle during making sure it stays nice and straight. Making sure that the ankle joint lines up with the knee. Joy. We'll do five more working both directions. Four. I liked it. I liked doing footwork here. I like to be able to really monitor the positioning of [inaudible] my feet.

Last two, well one more and then bend that knee. Take your leg out, stretch it long. Scoot back so that your school is right at the edge. So my head's hanging back a little. If your shoulders are less, if your shoulders are tighter than mine, you may want to scoop back even further. We're going to take the hands onto the bar, glue the legs together, lift the head and chest, roll through the spine or articulate Brian coming all the way up into a vertical position. Bend the elbows, elbows forward slightly. Pull the scapula down, take the arms up and then start with the pelvis.

Roll Up Variation

As the pelvis tucks under, we start finding the lower back. Feel that the shoulders are wrapping around the front of the body. The head stays right over the top of the spine and we come down and we lift in here. Uh, Xcel flats new into the spine. Rolling. Huh? Oh, the way.

Keep the shoulder blades apart as the elbows bend and straighten. I hope I'm straight up and down. That's what I'm aiming for. And her road and allowing the weight and the bar to remind the shoulder blades. They're going down. We'll do three more. Lifting. Okay.

And Rolling. A Oh the way. Bend and stretch and then all the way down. Yeah. And last to lifting. Yeah. Rolling.

I have a very special surprise for us. It's coming up. Be Exciting, very exciting, and go down. Okay. And Huracan, Rola, Eh, all the way. Bend, stretch, roll down, fine into the position where the shoulder blades are up. Pull the knees in, stretch the legs up. Take the legs down, bend in stretch. Take the legs down, pull in, reach, touch, take fights down, pull in, reach, touch two more times, pushing the bar away. Port in reach. Touch last one, pushing the bar away in reach, touch, and then bend. Place the feet down and lower all the way down. Take your body out forward. I'm going to go into the tower prep here. So we take the seat underneath the bar and we reached a hold onto those vertical poles. Starting with the toes pointing.

Double Leg Stretch Variation

Exhale, bend the knees, lift the body off the mat, bringing the pelvis up over the shoulders in here simultaneously. Allow the legs to stretch as we just lay the spine down, using the abdominals to move the spine down into the mat. Get real heavy in the pelvis. Arms are active. Flex. Push the bar away and bend and lift. Inhale and exhale.

Tower

Push into the bar with the backs of the legs or with the feet or both. Come all the way down. Flex heavy up the pelvis, push the bar away, Rola and inhale and exhale. Roll down. One more bend or flex point. Curl and lift. Yeah, roll back down, allowing the knees to straighten. As the bar comes down, come all the way down to the mat. Reach up for that bar, give it a pull.

Okay. And take the feet out. Come out from underneath the bar. We're going to get rid of that bottom loaded spring. [inaudible] get rid of the safety strap. Can bring the bar down.

[inaudible] okay, so the next thing that we're going to do is they're going to lie down on our side. So I'm, what I'm going to do is I'm just going to line my body up with, I just got to get my mic out of the ways. Excuse me, the line, my body up with this spring. Gonna take that foot, that top foot, put it into the spring and press down hand is just resting on the mat. We're just going to do some circles here today. Taking the leg forward, controlling the spring as we lift and press behind forward. Feels a little heavy. That's what I'm looking at. But I'm gonna I ain't gonna persevere down and back and forward. [inaudible] all around to the back. End Down. We'll do three more.

Side Leg Circles

[inaudible] all around really working the back of the hip. Two more. My mom going to take us through six in each direction. So if for any reason I don't count as well as I could, that's the Gulf six in each direction we pulled down and back. Then we take you back, lift up, come all the way up through the stretch, through that l shape and back together. Reaching away. Take the leg back if to come down around and through.

Take the leg back. This is three. Lift up, control the spring around to the front and back. Three more. Back and up around the front and two together to our back and up keeping the Polis. Nice and supported and not letting the springs pull the spine around. Last one I think, I don't know.

Come all the way around and forward. So now what we're going to do is we're just going to bend that knee, bring the heel to the hip and let this spring pull us into a little quad stretch. Take your hand towards the front of the tower and lean back, leaning into that spring. This feels amazing to me. I hope you enjoy as well. And then come back through center. Remove the foot from the strap and James Signs.

Okay. Lining up with the spring. That feels too heavy for you. Use a yellow spring or change where the spring is coming from. It was quite heavy for me. I'll, I'll admit that. Okay.

We start by taking the leg forward and it reaches around behind us and we pulled down Oh word and I have reaches around and falls down using the hand as a bit of a support. Two more all round and up. No, that was only four were do two more now fully into that l shape before going into the circle. And last one. And then from there, take it back up, around and through. Go back, ah, all round.

Using the back of the leg to press back again, back. Ah, all round. And through really working that control last too. Okay. And one more [inaudible] and back. And then taking the hand towards the front of the tower, bending the knee and letting the spring pull the heel in towards the hip. At that same moment, press the pelvis forward to maximize a stretch in the front of the leg.

Then lean back, letting the foot drop heavy into that spring. You're welcome. Feels great. And then come back, remove the foot from this strap, put that down and let come up. So we're going to go into some arm work and I need some handles, but let's take those yellow springs and put them just above the shoulders. [inaudible] and then let's get some handles. Okay.

So we're going to put the handles on the end of those springs and we'll face this spring. So we'll start, don't go too too far back or go as far back as you want. But basically where you want to be is in a place where you feel like the springs are at a good tension for you and then you're going to reach down and back down and forward. Pretty simple chest expansion. Exhale, reach down and back down and forward and down and back. Thinking about lifting the spine, it's quite easy here and I have to remind myself all the time not to lean back. So I'm actually, as the springs are going back, trying to lean a little forward. I would just do about two more [inaudible] keeping tension on the springs all the time and one [inaudible].

Chest Expansion

Okay, great. So now we'll take this springs with us. I don't want to turn around taking the arms out to the side and leaning forward into this spring slightly XL to bring the arms straight across and open straight across using the abdominals to contract in opposition to the pull of the springs. So we, every time the arms move we remember to connect to the center of the body. I'm watching to see that one arm's not going slower than the other and that the arms are moving evenly. Breathing and one more coming together.

Hug A Tree

It's the arms that lean into the springs. Open and forward. Rotate the palms down, keep the abdominals working. List open, straight across and in here. Okay, and exhale. This, one of my favorite things, I just love a really nice stretch in the rotation in the Scapula, keeping the shoulders nice and mobile. We'll do two more and back, one more and back. And as a way lifting the arms, press down in front, rotate the palms, reach at, let's see, arms press down in front and open. Fully rotate down the front. We'll do three more and down to then down last time and down. Bend the arms, take one arm forward and then pass the arms by.

Arm Circles

So when I'm straightening as the other is bending and all the while we're keeping the trunk just very still. So it's tempting to on a rotate with the arm. But no, we just keep it nice and steady when more to each side. And then we're going to go forward. Taking the arms straight back, taking care not to pinch the shoulder blades together. Again, leaning into the spring and then bending and straightening, bending such a nice stretch, great bicep exercise. [inaudible] making sure that we're feeling that we're just lightly depressing the shoulder joints. As we bend the elbows. I'll just do two more [inaudible] and one more.

Boxing

Okay, good. So let's back up again. Let's go back out into that. Hug a tree position, right? Just going to do a few butterflies to each side. So start just by a simple lateral flection of the spine and then take the top arm up in over the head. The back arm reaches in and back. So both arms are active in your unwind back to that lean and center and lean and rotate and back and center and in now feel the spiraling of the arms.

Bicep Curl

Both shoulders are working and we're working hard to control our bodies against the way to the springs and center. One more time to each side. Inhale. Exhale up in over and back. Center and in here. Up Pan, over and back and center. Okay, so that's all for that. I'm just going to move this springs actually off because they'll be in my way.

Butterfly

Otherwise, this restroom down here at the base of the Cadillac and while I'm here I'll pick up a one of those red springs that we used for our legwork and I put this spring on top. Bring up to the bar. Yeah. Can you go into a cat stretch? So I want you to start, I'd like for all of us to start with the elbows wide, a spine tall and before we even move, we're getting engage through the back of the legs. Exhale, push the pat a bar down, push the bar down and roll through the spine, trying to keep the pelvis right over the knees. And then we take the body out trying to straight line in India. Exa rotate the pelvis back through really deeply.

Cat Stretch

Feel the abdominals working. Don't rely on using the arms to your, the back of the legs and the abdominals, helping you to move through that lower spine and then bend the arms and Exhale, press down and articulate forward. I do a lot of pushing the bar away from me to create opposition for my abdominal muscles. We find our straight line in here XR, rotating the hips, rounding through the spine, bringing the body up and bending the arms. And we'll do that a couple more times. Press down, roll forward, keeping the shoulders in a controlled position. Try not to let the bar take the shoulders forward and then rounding through rippling through the spine and coming up.

I'm banned. And last time pressing down, reaching through, creating your straight line in. Yeah, and rounding. This is where I really use my arms right here in this moment, and bend so turns. If he's forward, press the bar down. I'm going to get pretty close to it. Take this arm up and then we're gonna take the spine over. As I'm reaching over the top of the tower, the hardest thing for me anyways, try not to let the springs boss my opposite shoulder around and then come back up and inhale.

Single Arm Side Bend

So you reach over using that abduction of the shoulder, abduction of the Scapula, or rather on that bottom arm and lifting. We'll do one more like that. Reaching over. Lifting feels amazing to me. I've just gotten more rain so I had to come through. Yeah, it works. It works. Go over now. Add rotation. So you're just reaching around over the top of the tower.

Single Arm w/Spinal Rotation

Come back and lift and inhale. Reach over and over the top of the tower, pushing that bottom arm away all the time and back. And at the last one go oh over and hurt Tate. Maybe you can even, oh, I'm going to just grab that and use it to help me to stretch. Yep. I didn't know that was going to happen, but it sure feels good.

So I hope you liked it to come all the way I bend and release had I said, okay, so let's just push that spring down. Take the arm up again. Just watch that. The shoulder doesn't, doesn't make your shoulder. Watch the spring, doesn't control the shoulder. Rather the shoulder controls the spring and we reach up and him pushing my scapula out as I push the bar down and then pushing the arm away, the bottom arm away as I lift up. And in now reaching over, opening that side of the body and exhaling up one more like that over. Okay.

Single Arm Side Bend

And up. And now we add our rotations. So we go over India, ex rotate. I'm only allowing my pelvis to come with me a little bit and then unwind. I press it forwards and all this job and in now over. Okay.

Single Arm w/Spinal Rotation

Exhale to twist and back and lift up and over. Exhale, twist. Oh, can you reach, oh, I got to reach somewhere different this time and I'm still going to do it. Okay. And then back and all the way up, bringing the bar up. We'll just finish on. Okay.

The Mat like to make sure I'm in the middle. You never know. So engaging through the back of the legs, working for support, lift the head, slide the scapula down. What I like to think about is just letting the spring help me up. I don't push down on the bar very much. I just let the spring help me up and down, letting the spring pull the shoulders are aligned and encourage the shoulders to drop, lifting the head above the arms and then making it fairly small at this stage. We'll take it bigger in a minute, but just keep it small for a minute.

Swan

And then again, scapular that pulls down legs are energize, lifting the back. Yeah, and back when more like that. [inaudible] head up rough spine. And then we're gonna bend the elbows. So what we want to do here is you want to take the elbows just a little forward.

As the bar passes over ahead, arms are reaching up, spine is lifting up, and then we're gonna drop the head between the arms, but the body fall through. Then bend the elbows wide to take the arms forward. Inhale to bend the elbows, let them go, a little floor to clear room for the bar to lift up. And then let's the back, drop the head between the arms and the Elvis y and reach through so that elbows forward cue is just another way of saying just a little bit of extra irritation in the shoulder blades. Keep the scapular wide and lift and dropped down and bend through.

Just one more I feel is enough. I'm going to go Ben. Uh, okay. Stretch. Lift the back. Drop the head in the arms and Ben through taking the bar in our hands.

Let it come up. Come around to the bars with the feet. Sit Up nice and tall in here. Exhale. Now we flex the spine to get a little stretch in it. Push the bar through [inaudible] length and the body out and I push into the bar with your feet as you reach back with your spine. Take one arm off the bar, reach it back behind you and then up overhead and then back behind you. And then under the bar and across towards the opposite foot. Really trying to get the back nice and long and then coming back, I don't know, around the spine, push the bar forward.

Push Through w/Rotation

Ian gave the spine. Go back, creating opposition with the lengths. Take the opposite arm in, reach behind you, keeping the feet against the bars, keeping the pelvis level. Take it up and bend sideways. [inaudible] come again behind you. And then across the body, push up on the spring and down just across the foot. Try My best to get real flat here and then coming all the way back up to the bar. Take the bar with you. Turn yourself around. Last thing.

Okay, so we just sitting with the arms behind us, lifting our body nice and tall. It feels here like you're on a roll. The shoulders, a little fold. We're definitely not pinching them together. We're going to take the bar back. Exhale as you go. Come all the way through.

Reverse Push Through

Control the spring as the bar comes up. Overhead and then live. That's fine. Alright, calm down. Think of the middle of the back. Working to push the borrow. As we lift up, we'll do two more. Xcel around talking, talking, talking, talking, coming forward. This is where the springs want to get Bossy, so we just control them and down.

And all the way back to straight again and last time exhale. Okay. Notice maybe that you go further a little more each time. Going forward, lifting that, I mean, back pressing the borrow away and lifting this spine tall and with that, careful with the bar. [inaudible] enjoy your day.

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Comments

Skip to Latest
Cristina P
7 people like this.
I like very much the rhythm of your workouts.
I can listen your breathing and I feel the connection of the muscles.
Thank you :)
4 years ago
Rachel P
1 person likes this.
Lovely class, beautiful flowers - definitely lengthening!
4 years ago
Suzanne H
1 person likes this.
4 years ago
Z A
1 person likes this.
Delicious! Thank you Meredith🙏🙏
4 years ago
Svitlana D
1 person likes this.
Awesome flow Meredith, thank you for this lengthening tower class, the body feels great after the class.
4 years ago
Elizabeth D
1 person likes this.
Great class
4 years ago
Valya K
2 people like this.
Very nice class! I did this with two clients yesterday and they floated out of the studio : ) Thank you Meredith!
4 years ago
Rebecca P
1 person likes this.
Great start to my Friday 😄 thank you
4 years ago
Stacey S
2 people like this.
I’ve had my Tower for about six years and haven’t ever done one-legged footwork until today. Thanks for teaching me something new!
4 years ago
Meredith Rogers
Thank you lovely ladies!!
There's always something new to learn Stacey! Happy to share with you!
4 years ago
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