Tutorial #2588

Short Box Series

15 min - Tutorial
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Description

Work on your technique in the Short Box Series on the Reformer in this tutorial with Adrianne Crawford. She goes over where you should place your small Mat on the Box as well as the placement of your body so you can get the most out of this series. These tips can be applied in any Reformer workout so you can make sure you are moving with precision and control.
What You'll Need: Reformer w/Box, Knee Pad

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(Pace N/A)
Jul 17, 2016
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Transcript

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Okay. Hello, I'm Adrian. And I'm going to be teaching just a little short box just to kind of go over your placement where your macros and before you even get on there, I just want to talk about your mat. Um, this little thing, I like to use more of a sticky pep but this works just fine because it elevates you a little bit, but that's, that's fine. And as far as where it goes on here, we like to have it about hands width from the back. Some people will put it up here and then you have too much room. So we put it about a hands wet and so you can just measure that probably the back. And then I'm going to have Martha demonstrate the short box series.

So you see how it's over the shoulder pads. And for some people who are under maybe five foot, you'll have it the box in front of the shoulder. Pat, she is going to go ahead and put her feet underneath the strap and I forgot a pole. So I'm going to grab a pole. But while I do that, let's have you just round your back. Doesn't matter what Paul. So I'm going to put this pole underneath here. Okay, so she's in a nice c curve position here is we're looking for the head to be down, but the shoulders to be over the hips and then to get a nice rounded position here. So the more scooped you can get those ribs and to pull on the better.

And before she begins, I do want her legs to be long, but I don't want her to squeeze her knees. I want you to squeeze your seat. Good. So not locking your knees, she's gonna start to round herself backwards. This is an articulation position. So h time she goes back, she should be placing one vertebra on that mat where we had the hands with from the back. You should feel your back actually touch that part of the box behind you.

So let's watch that. So she's going to start to go back and hopefully you can see this, but I want to see this part of her back or bottom push underneath her so she can feel that mat. Now you go a little further back right there. I want her to hold and try to deepen that by scooping in. Good. Don't go anymore and I'll fill it up in forward. I have her demonstrate two more times. So now locking your knees.

Lots of things going on here. Not Locking your shoulders, but rounding that lower spine. Aha. I'm going to have her whole, can you pull it more deep, deep, deep, deep muscles and forward. Good. Got a smile out of her. One more time. No knees. Good. Go back. These are not easy, especially the more you get into that powerhouse. So let me see. You pull in and around.

All right. Taking her bar. She wants to maintain that head with the back so she might have to scooch back a little bit. She's got it. And here if I were to take this bar, which I'm going to keep your arms up, we want her to be as flat or as tall as this bar. So as she moves, she's going to hinge back by squeezing her seat and not her knees and stay as long as this bar. And then she comes back up and continues that length up. But she's, that's it. Okay. Oh my hand for the bar. So keep your smile as long.

It's really easy to fall back and start hunching the shoulders or our chain, the back. You want to keep those ribs in. She'll finish a little bit forward of the hips and try to lengthen a little bit taller ribs together. More ribs. Yes, hopefully saw that change in her body. And then relax. Squeeze your seat, not your knees. And now hinge. Stay Tall. Forward stretch.

So as she's stretching up, she's not stretching out, so she's pulling in those ribs again. Two more. You can go a little further back and when you feel a little shaky, get those ribs in a little bit more, see if that helps you. And then stretch at rest and one more time. Tall. Nice way to centered. Just as open spine Islam address.

Very nice. So the side stretch is probably one of the hardest ones to understand or to even teach sometimes. So take your arms up. That same exact spine she had. I want to grab this bar. Keep your arms up. Is the same spine that you want per side stretch only it's leaning forward. So she's in front of her hips, her shoulders are in front of her hips, but she's always got the scoop going. Aha.

So it sometimes feels like you're rounding, she's going to bend to the side Stang Tall. So it's like you're painting this big rainbow up and her sides open left. So she's go to the left and I'm gonna hand you that bar. She bend but she's hunching right here. So we want to keep lifting. It's really hard and come back up. It's like you're again painting that rainbow.

So you're reaching up and keeping everything long over. And these are really hard not to take the hips with you, so you want to try to keep the hips. That's far enough on the mat. So if I were not to hold her hips, how far can you go without letting your left hip lift if you're going right, that's it. [inaudible] and now how far left can you go without letting your right hip lift and you'll feel that gravity, you want to keep those hips anchored. Walmart each side and over. She is staying nice and open in her chest, staying really long and flat here.

So there's no rounding here, but there is a scoop of the ribs and the belly button and that's enough good. Still she's a hands with from the back. She's now getting ready to twist. So your arms come and come up. Same exact spine. So if I put that bar here, she's still got that long back, which is a little deeper here. There we go. She is gonna Twist and not change that position.

And as she's going to shift a little to the right, pull those ribs together. Good. Hopefully you can see and center and now before she twist, what will happen? What we all tend to do is we pop our roads back out. You got to pull them back in. So now she's back into a strong powerhouse. She's controlled in here. That's the idea.

Twist and then hinge as we come up that we'll wanna pop back out. Center. Much better and twist. Are Those ribs together? How far can you go with those ribs together? Up Center, twist ribs. Good. And I want to shift her more. More shift.

There we go through side stay long. Pull in. Yes. Lengthen up and to the right. One more set. Hold. Let me just double check. Let's see those position. So she's got a little arch going. There we go. Now she fixed it. Now she hinges. That's it. So you want to keep that, maintain that back.

Especially once you twist not to pop out and center. Good. All right, I'm going to take the bar actually. Yeah, we can put it underneath your leg. And now quick demonstration with your tree. She's going to sit tall, chest is open and she's going to do three stretches. So the idea is to just first get a good center of gravity and also to square yourself off. So shoulder to shoulder, on top of the hips, shoulder to hip and hip to hip. So you're at a nice rectangular position and centered.

You're in a walk up that leg after your three stretches and square off the hips again. So as soon as your leg stretches, the tendency is for that hip to move. So you want to make sure that once that leg is up that you feel like you've squared them off again, just like your hug. These are the exact same things that you had earlier, where you around him back. Well, the idea here is to get that support. So she has to fill this up and she has to get those hips to kind of tuck underneath you. [inaudible] keep going a little further back.

Now can you deepen that? Good. So she's got a scoop in her tummy. She's going to lower down and try not to lose that placement. So it's deep in here that's filled up and now she's going gonna keep her leg still as she climbed surgery, head to the knee, fall forward. Now keeping the leg right where it is. She's going to try to lift through here, taller, taller, taller, and Walmart. More time to burn times probably shoulders or down center control it.

Go down. So now she's here and she's got to, that's it. She deepened, she pulled in. It's that lower abdominal muscle that you're really working and lift. Okay, so I want to see that one more time. Do it kind of incorrectly in so that they can see what it looks like when you're correct it. So right here she has a little arch.

So there she just pulled in and that's just a scoop is really what it is. It's not in your thigh. It's in that powerhouse. Left and hold and she can flex. And as you're flexing and pointing, make sure that you're squared off. Don't let your right hip pulled back on you. Two, three, you can reach for your toes, stretch. And then I'll have a go to the other side. Now you could do a whole side lake thing here, but that's definitely more advanced than the hip placement is different.

So where you keep it simple today, just do a kind of a basic, and then you're going to stretch basic to intermediate. One, two, three. So what I want to see is this lift here. Good. Then go ahead around Sushi pulls in there. You're not quite square to fix that. So she had to kind of adjust her left hip and now she's keeping her her shoulders line with her hips. Going back, this is where people will go off center, usually start going sideways. So you want to draw an invisible line through the middle of your body.

Those shoulders stay square. She is going to come back up. Now here's where she can do a little check. Make sure her hips are square, that her left leg lines with her left hip, her right leg lines with her right hip and that she's not rolling those hips around, that they stayed kind of rotated out. Round your back, shoulders down, go back. Use that powerhouse right here. Get that scoop and keep scooping. And once you get down there, deep in it, yes, and then come back up forward. And once you get all of those little intricacies, these can start to go quickly left.

But really getting those positions are really important. That foundation built specially going here. You want to really get a good deep scoop and come forward. Getting those abdominals to put in lift. Now she's got more flexibility. Her leg could be up higher and she could fall forward a little bit cause she's falling back. That's it. So soft through here, even though the leg is long and flex one as she flex, I should still see her lifting two and three to reach, to stretch, grow tall and rest.

And I should say mini shoebox areas. Okay. Thank you.

Comments

Take notes short box series 7/18/16
This is nice. Can you do tutorial showing more advanced variations please?
Absolutely, I plan on getting one up with more detail and more variation and difficulty. Thanks for watching!
Great tutorial! Thanks Adrianne.
1 person likes this.
Great tutorial but the model seemed to have gum in her mouth which I found disconcerting.
Love your video. One question. what did you mean by squeeze of the seat? Is it squeezing the but that you go into a lift?
I am 5'10" and find that all the seated short box exercises are very awkward because my legs are so long. I use an 86" gratz reformer. My feet end up touching the end of the reformer and while in the straps, look nothing like those displaying the exercise. If I bring my feet up closer to the carriage, my bum will need to move back and will touch the end of the seat and makes the exercises even more awkward and unsafe if that makes sense. Suggestions? Perhaps its ok that my feet touch the end of the reformer and I just need to get used to it? Thank you! :)
Yunny - yes, add a slight squeeze to your bottom for support especially when you go back.
Mira, because you are tall I would recommend at least for the Short Box series to go into second gear with the safety block which will give you extra leg room and still allow you to have a hands width form the back. Also, the box can go over the hooks, just make sure it feels secure. Don't be to concerned with your feet touching the metal bar, the feet are in the strap to protect you from falling as you go back and it is okay if they touch the reformer. The feet will naturally lift as you move, the focus however should be feet flexed for safety and your powerhouse control as you move. Great question!

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