Transcription
Hi everyone, it's Alex with Holistic Movement Plotties. Today I have a full body unilateral workout for you today on your reformer. No props needed. Just reminder, unilateral is just one side at a time. And we're going to be doing that just so we get even um work throughout our right and our left side just cuz we do tend to favor one side over the other. So let's go ahead. We'll start with your foot bars all the way down. A heavy and a light spring. As always on my balance body reformer. That's going to be a red and a yellow. So one heavy, one light. Headrest can be up or down. And then we are going to go ahead and lie ourselves down onto our reformers.
Now to start with our unilateral work, it's going to be more of obliques rather than arms. Um, so we will reach behind us and grab both of our straps into our hands. And then we're going to go ahead and grab a hold of the short loops. Once you grab a hold of your short loops, arms are going to be straight up to ceiling. Hands should be right over your shoulders, over your chest, neutral position of our pelvis. And then legs are going to go right up into a tabletop position. They are zipped together. We're going to start with just ab curls. So on an exhale, I'm going to press curl myself right up into my abdominal curl. Feel free to readjust on your reformers if you need to. And then we're going to inhale, return back down with control. So again, we're going to exhale, press, curl up to our bra lines, and then inhaling as we return back down. Let's keep going with our abdominal curls. So again, not quite unilateral yet. Eventually, we will add in some single leg work to work our obliques. Just warming up our rectus abdominis. So, those superficial core muscles. Exhale. Curl. Inhale. As we return back down, let's go ahead and do two more. And then last one. Exhale, curl. And then inhale, return back down. Okay, we can relax the feet. You can relax your arms. Feel free just to give yourselves a little bit of a stretch.
And then we're going to add in again single legs to work into our obliques. So, we're going to start with our arms back up towards the ceiling. Legs in our tabletop position, zip together. On an exhale, let's press curl ourselves up into that abdominal curl. Hold. We're going to inhale, dip our right toes down towards the springs. Exhale as we lift back up. Inhale, dip the left toes down. Exhaling as we lift. So, we're hinging at our hips to dip down. And then exhale, engaging our obliques to lift. Make sure arms and wrists just stay nice and long at your sides. If the necks are an issue, heads go down. Dip. Exhale. Back up. We're going to go for three more. Two. And then last one. Now, when we come up, we're going to pause at the top. We're going to inhale, reach our right leg out to a challenging level. Exhale to pull in. Left leg extends. Exhale as we pull back in. Again, make sure arms, wrists stay long. Try to hold those curls. If you can't, shoulders and heads can go back down into your carriage. Inhale, reach. Exhale, fire up those obliques every time we pull in. We're going to go four, three. Okay, have one more right, one more left. And we are holding ourselves at the top. We're going to reach both legs straight up to the ceiling. I'm going to inhale, lower my right leg straight down. Exhale to lift it up. Left leg lowers. Exhale, lift. Draw your abs in. When you lift those legs. Okay, I'm going to do two more with my right leg lowering, two more with my left leg lowering. One more right, one more left. And then when we finish the one on the left, bend your knees, arms up, heads down, relax the feet, and feel free just to give yourselves a little stretch.
Now we are going to hang up our left strap. You are keeping the right loop. You're going to take the long loop onto the arch of your right foot. And then right leg is just going up as high as we can hold our neutral position. Left knee is going to go up into a tabletop. We're going to pause. On an exhale, we'll lower the right leg straight down towards our springs. And then on an inhale, we'll hinge at our hip to come back up. So, we exhale to pull straight down. And then we inhale to hinge. Same toes stay pointed straight up to the ceiling the entire time. So, I'm watching that I don't move into external or internal rotation. And then if you do want a little extra work in your hamstrings and your glutes, if you bend your right knee slightly when you pull down, doesn't have to be big a big bend, just a small bend. If you bend it slightly, you will feel a little extra work in the back of your leg into your glutes. Exhale, lower. Inhale, hinge. And I am thinking I'm engaging my core every time I pull this leg down. Okay, I'm going to do two more and then last one.
Now, when we come up, we're going to pause at the top. I don't want you to let your leg go up as high as you can hold a neutral position, just cuz that does make it a little easier. I want you to push into your leg a little bit towards the foot bar. Not a ton, just a little tiny push towards the foot bar. And then you're going to find a small small bend to your right knee. So, not a straight leg, a micro bend to that knee. Now, this right leg is not going to move, which means your pelvis doesn't move, which means our carriage doesn't move. We are going to inhale, dip your left toes down towards the springs. And then we're going to exhale, engage our obliques to lift. Inhale. Dip the left toes down. Exhale as we lift back up again. This right leg is going to stay in the same position the entire time. Inhale. Dip down. Exhale. Think engaging your obliques again as you pull your leg back up. [Music] Okay, let's do three. Should really feel those right hamstrings. Two. And then last one. Now when you come up, pause at the top. We're going to inhale, reach our left leg out away from us. Exhale back into tabletop. So reach it towards your foot bar. Exhale. Pull back into tabletop. Straight out. Exhale. Pull back in again. Carriage, right leg, pelvis, all stay still. Inhale out. Exhale to pull it back in. Let's do two. And then last one. Now keep your left leg long. On an exhale, kick it up towards the ceiling. Inhale, lower back down. Exhale, kick that leg up. And then inhale, lower. Again, just make sure that you're not collapsing into your low backs when your left legs go up. And if you're like me and you can't get a straight leg, you can always have just a small bend to your knee. Four. three and then last one. Okay, relax your left leg down. Grab your right strap. Give it a nice little stretch. Do not worry about your neutral position here. You are just stretching. You could go leg straight up to ceiling. You could open it out to side. Just careful when you do that. Or you could bring it across the body if you that feels better. The stretch right now is up to you before we switch to the left side.
Okay, I'm going to take my strap off of my foot. We are going to keep this right strap for just one more thing. Um, we are in a heavier spring than normal. So, if you want to use your long loop, you can. If you want to go heavier and use your short loop, you can. I'm going to start with my long and see how I feel. Right hand has the strap again. Neutral position of our pelvis. Legs just go up into a tabletop position. They're zipped together. On an exhale, I'm just going to pull my right arm to my hip. And then I'm going to inhale, return back up. Exhale, pull straight down. Inhale, return. And we're not going to be here for long. So again, it is pretty heavy. Legs stay zipped together. Now, the next time we press to our hip, we're going to hold there. Bend our elbow for a tricep press. Exhale to press. Inhale, bend. Exhale, press. Inhale, bend. We're going to do six more. Long fingers or a fist, that's up to you. Four, two, and one. Okay, relax your feet down. And then we will hang our right strap up.
Grab your left loop. Long loop goes onto the foot. And then once you get your long loop onto that left foot, find that neutral position first. And then pick your right knee up into a tabletop position. Straight down. And an exhale with your left leg. Straight up. Exhale as we pull. Inhaling as we hinge. Come back up. Same thing as the last side. If you want a little more work in glutes, hamstrings, find a little bend to your left knee. Remember, if you need to, you can always take your hands on your pelvis and just make sure that your pelvis is staying still. [Applause] Toes are staying pointed straight up. No external rotation, no internal rotation. Okay, I'm going to do three more here. And then last one. Now when we come back up, we're going to pause at the top. You are going to again not have your foot directly over your hips. So I am pushing it just a tiny bit closer towards my foot bar. It's not a big push. And then a micro bend to your knee. So not a big bend. Hopefully you already feel your hamstrings working here. Keep this left leg still, which means your carriage stay still. We're going to inhale, dip your right toes down towards the springs. Exhale as we lift up. Inhale as we dip. Exhale, lift. Again, if you want to take your hands onto your pelvis, your hips, just to make sure that it's staying nice and still, you can always go hands on the hips. Think firing up our right obliques to pull that knee back up into that tabletop position. Inhale, dip. Exhale to lift back up. Okay, let's do three, two, and then last one. Now, when we lift back up, we're going to pause. We're going to inhale, reach our right leg out. Exhale, pull back into tabletop. Inhale, extend. Exhale, pull back in. Again, keep that left leg. I hope you get a nice little burn back there. Inhale. Exhale to pull in. We're going to feel those quads, hip flexors. Again, think we want to engage our obliques as well. three, two, and then last one. Now we will hold the leg out. On an exhale, we're going to kick it up to the ceiling. Inhale, lower, exhale, lift. Inhale, lower. Again, if you're like me and you can't go a straight leg, that is fine. You can keep a little bend to your right knee. Four. Three. two and one. Okay, relax your right foot down and then again the left leg gets a stretch. It's going to be up to you. Do not worry about your neutral spine. You can go ahead go straight up to the ceiling, out to the side, across the body, whatever feels best.
Okay. Then we're going to take our strap off of our foot and then we are going to again hold it in your left hand. Now again, long lip, light, short loop, heavy. Left arm goes straight up to the ceiling. Neutral position. Legs are up into our tabletop position. Zip together. We're going to pull eight times. Straight down. Straight up. Exhale. Pull. Inhale. Return. Lots of lats into our triceps. Think engage your core every time we pull down. Three. And then last one. Now, when we press down, we're going to hold. Bend the elbow for tricep press. Exhale. Press. Inhale. Bend. Press. and bend. Wrists again stays long. Three more. Keep those legs zipped. And last one. Relax your feet back down. We're going to hang our strap back up onto the peg. And then we'll sit ourselves off to the sides.
We're going to go to a medium spring on your reformer. I'm hesitating. You can either go to a medium or a heavy. We're going to move into some glute and some upper body work. Um, heavy spring obviously will be a little more work for your glutes. Uh, medium spring will be a little nicer for your glutes. I'm going to do a heavy just cuz I felt like the last time I did this it medium spring wasn't heavy enough. We're going to kneel on our reformers facing our straps. Hands are going to go right into the outsides of your headrest and then we're going to start with your right strap. You're going to grab a hold of it and we're going to pull forward. So the long loop is going to go right onto the arch of your right foot. And then here, if you want the strap to go underneath your right armpit, you can. Otherwise, if you do keep it to the outside of your right arm, it will kind of um rub on your arm. So, if you want to go on the inside underneath your armpit, you can. We're stabilizing from shoulders and core. On an exhale, I'm going to kick my right leg back and slightly up. And then I'm going to inhale back in. Exhale, press. Little lift. And then inhale back in. Then squeeze your booty as you push that leg out. Core is into our backs. Okay, I'm going to go for three more here. Two. And then on this last one, I am going to hold my leg out. So, keep it long. Dip your toes down to the springs. Lift straight up. Dip straight down. Lift straight up. You should feel your glutes working a little more. Hamstrings working a little more for these. Inhale, dip. Exhale, lift. And personally, I like a flex on my foot cuz I can feel like I can get into my glutes a little more with that flex. Okay, four more. Dip, lift, dip, lift. Two, one, and then relax that leg.
Now, keep your strap. You're going to take it into your hand this time. Long loop is light, short loop is heavy. The right arm is going to go to the outside frame of the carriage with your palms face back. Again, four point. I'm going to exhale, press my right arm straight back to my hip and return. So, back into lats. Exhale, press your hip. Inhale, return. Now, if you want to challenge your stability, reach your left leg behind you. And you can hold there. You don't have to do that if you don't feel comfortable balancing. I'm going to do three more here. Eyes should be looking straight down to the floor. Last one. We hold at the hip. We're going to bend our elbow for tricep extensions. Exhale as we press our palm back. Inhale. Bend. Exhale. Press. Inhale. Bend for those triceps. Again, abs are in. Okay, we're going to do three, two, and one. Relax your arm and leg. Keep the same strap. You're going to keep your right knee down. Left foot now goes into your head rest. And we're going to kneel nice and tall. Same thing. Long loop, light, short loop, heavy for your arm. Right arm is going to reach out. Palm flipped up to the ceiling. Shoulders and hips should be parallel to the wall in front of you. Exhale, curl in for a bicep curl. Inhale, extend. Exhale, curl. Inhale as we extend. Okay, let's do three more curls here. Two and one. Now, when we extend, we're going to pause. Flip your palm towards the floor. Reach your left arm straight out away from you. That palm is rotated to the floor. Left arm stays straight. You're going to bend your right elbow wide. Rotate to the right side of the room. Inhale center. Exhale. Pull. Rotate right. Inhale center again. I want the right elbow wide. Think aim for your fists to go to your armpit. Use your obliques on the rotation from the bra line. Try not to get it from your hips. Rotate from your rib cage, not your hips. Feeling lots of deltoids there. Okay, I'm going to do three, two, and one.
Okay, when we come back, we're going to go ahead hang that strap back up onto the peg. Set your left knee down again. Both hands can go on the outsides of your headrest to start. You're going to grab the left strap this time. Long loop light. Um, oh, sorry. We are going to use your long loop for glutes first. I was thinking arms, glutes. Long loop goes onto the arch of your foot. Again, if you want the strap to go on the inside of your hand, it does rub a lot less when it's underneath your armpit. And then on an exhale, we're going to kick our left leg back and up and then bend to come back in. So exhale, press little lift of that leg. Inhale back. Oppositional pull. Think as you reach your leg out, you are lengthening the crown of your head forward. Eyes are just looking straight down to the floor. Not out in front of you, down at your headrest. Okay, I'm going to go three, two, and one. Now, we hold our leg out. We dip the toe straight down to our springs. We lift straight up. Straight down. Straight up. Again, we're going to feel glutes, hamstrings working a little more. Again, I personally like a flex of my foot. I feel like I can get into my booty a little more with that flex. Abs in, eyes down. Three, two, one, and relax.
Okay, now we're going to take it into your hand. This is where long loop is light, short loop is heavy. Left arm is going to go to the side. Palm is facing back. Fourpoint kneeling. We press our left arm to our hip. We return palm to hip on the exhale. Return. And then again, if you want to challenge your stability, you could reach your right leg behind you. Just make sure your hips stay parallel to the floor. One side is a little more challenging to bounce on than the other. Okay, the next time we get it to the hip, hold, bend your elbow, tricep press, exhale, press, bend, press, bend. Make sure your palm stays rotated back. Abs are in. Elbow stays glued to your ribs. Three more. Two. Whoop. and one. Okay, relax back down. You're going to take your right foot into your head rest. Left knee stays down. Long loop light, short loop, heavy bicep curls. Flip your palm up when you're ready. We're exhaling to curl. Inhaling to extend. Exhaling the curl. Inhaling the extension. Try to keep your shoulders and hips parallel to the wallet in front of us. Two more and one. Okay. Rotate your palm to the floor. Reach your right arm out. You're going to bend your left elbow wide. Rotate on an exhale. Inhale center. Exhale pull. Rotate. Inhale center. Again, when we rotate from our rib cage and not our hips, we should feel our obliques working to rotate that spine. Think fist towards your armpit as we pull wide and extend. Three more here. Keep your right arm long. Last one. Exhale. Pull. And inhale back. And then we'll go ahead and hang that strap up onto the peg.
Now, we're going to sit our butts down. If you're not on a heavy spring, go ahead switch to a heavy spring. We're going to sit facing our straps with our knees bent. Heels are in our headrest. and we have at least a palm's width away from us in the back of our carriages so that our sacrums can roll back. I'm going to grab my long loops off the pegs. Arms are going to be nice and long. On an exhale, I'm going to tuck my pelvis, roll down towards my sacrum. So, reminder, lowest part of your back is going to touch. Take an inhale here. Exhale, scoop into your abdominals to sit all the way back up tall. Exhale, tuck the pelvis. Roll down. Pause for an inhale. Exhale to come up. Inhale at the top. Exhale. Tuck. Roll back down. Inhale at the bottom. Exhale back up. We'll do a few more. [Applause]
Okay. Now, the next time we go down, we are going to stay down. We're going back into obliques. So, keep this rounded shape of your spine, that C-shape, arm stay long. Exhale, right knee to your chest. Inhale to set down. Exhale, left knee to chest. Inhale down. Knee to chest. Return. Arms stay long. Spine stays in the same position the entire time. Keep the tuck of the pelvis. Exhale up. Inhale down. Exhale lift. Inhale lower. Okay, we're going to do four more. Three. One more right, one more left. Then when I set my left foot down, we're going to come all the way back up, hang our straps up onto the pegs, sit off to the sides.
Okay, we're going to finish with some single leg work. Um, three heavy springs for sure. If you want to go any heavier than that, four single legs with your foot bar, you can, but I'm just going to stick to my three heavies. Again, if you want to add on from there, that is up to you. Foot bars are at the starting position. We'll lie ourselves down. Head rests can be up or down. As always, that is up to you. Once we get down, heels are on the foot bar, parallel with each other. Sitsbones distance away. So, that should be about that distance out. Right heel stays on. Left leg tabletop. A nice neutral position. We're exhaling to push out with our right heel. Inhaling back. Exhale. Push. Inhale back. So think all the work is on the way out. Three more. Last one. Then pause in. Now left leg stays. Slide the arch of your right foot onto the foot bar. We're going to push out eight times with your right arch. Exhale out. Inhale back. Adjust your foot as needed. Keep those pelvises still. Okay, have three more [Applause] and one. Then when we come in, keep your left knee, slide your right toes, balls of your feet on. All five toes should be on up to where your heel is placed. Exhale out. Inhale back again eight times. [Applause] I have two more. And then last one here. Then when I come in, I'm going to pause in. I'm setting my left heel onto the foot bar. Right knee goes up into our tabletop. Eight heels, eight arches, eight toes. And then we're done with that. Exhale out. Inhale back. Again, think engage your core every time you push. Pelvis is going to stay nice and steady. I have two more on my heel. Then after this last one, I'm going to come in, slide right onto my arch. Once I get my arch on, I'm going to push out eight times with my left arch. Right leg does not move. [Applause] Okay, this is seven and eight for me. And then I'm going to go right onto my toes, balls of my feet, all five toes on up to where the heels at. Eight times with your toes. And then we're done with this series. Feel those quads. My legs shaking. I have three, two, and one.
Okay, bring it in. Pause with the carriages in. Let's take both toes, balls of our feet on, parallel with each other about sitsbones distance out. We'll push all the way out. And then we're just going to go into a run, bending one knee, lowering the opposite heel. And then, as always, you can take that run at your own pace. Work it slow, work it fast, whatever feels best in your bodies. [Applause] Now we'll lower both heels underneath the foot bar for our calf and Achilles stretch. Breathe in through your nose, out through your mouth. [Applause] Then keep the heels down. Little bend to your knees. Should get into your calves a little more. Hold that little bend. [Applause] Okay. Then finish bending your knees so those carriages come all the way back in. Sit to the left side of your reformers. When you sit to the left, one heavy spring to finish. We're going to take our right foot back onto the shoulder block. When we stand off to the side, left foot is on the floor right by your foot bar. You are going to push out with your right leg. Push out with your left. And you're going to hold your lunge wherever it feels good. Reminder, hands can go down. They can stay on the foot bar. You can move your carriage in and out. Again, whatever feels best in your body. So a nice like intuitive stretch here. What feels good for me may not feel good for you. Again, breath should be in through your nose and out through your mouth. Okay. Okay. Then if your hands are not on the foot bar, take them back on. Keep your right leg where it's at. Bend your left knee so it's right over your ankle. Keep your left hand on the foot bar. Right arm is going to reach up and over for that side body stretch. Push your right hip down a little further if you can and hold. Okay, take your hands back on. Bring your carriage all the way back in. And then we're going to do the same thing on the other side. So, left foot should be back. Right foot should be right by your foot bar. You're going to go out with your left leg, out with your right leg. Hold again. Wherever that feels good in your bodies. Okay, hands on the footer if they're not already there. Keep your left leg back. Bend your right knee. So again, it's like right over your ankle. Keep the right hand. Reach your left arm up and over. Push your left hip down a little more. Find that nice stretch in your left side body. [Applause] Okay, take that left hand back on. Bring the carriage all the way back in.
Okay, we're going to finish with a center stretch. So, we're going to walk around towards our hoop our face our reformers. Heavy spring. If it's too heavy, just switch to a medium spring, especially for shoulders. Fold forward. Take your hands onto the two front corners of your carriage. Feet wherever um they feel comfortable. You're going to push your carriage out. Drop your chest down in between your arms. Hold. And then you're going to tuck your pelvis round through your spine to come back in. So, think like cat cow for these three more times. Inhale. Push. Drop your chest down towards the floor. Exhale. Round to come back in. Two more. And then last one here. Push. Drop your chest. Hold. Round to come back in. Okay. Once we come back in, we're going to pause. I'm going to roll my spine up one vertebrae at a time. When I come up, I'm going to give my shoulders a little roll back. We can just step off to the sides. We are all finished with that workout. As always, I hope you enjoyed it. Thank you so much for joining me.