[Music] hey everybody it's michelle and today i've got for you a pilates workout on the reformer using a fitness circle so grab one if you've got one uh today's workout is going to be focused on our upper body mostly we're going to get some nice movements for the spine some extensions some rotation work the abdominals quite a bit and also the arms so it's gonna feel really good have your reformer box close by because we'll use that um i have my foot bar all the way down just so it's out of the way because we're not actually even going to need it so you can do the same and then let's get started so i'm gonna start with a blue and a red on that might feel a little heavy for some of us so feel free to do a red if that feels too intense okay so we're gonna start with some arm work to get warmed up with the ring and the straps okay so facing backwards you wanna set your ring up first so you're gonna take your straps off if you have two choices of loops i like to put this in the smaller of the two okay if not just put it in whatever you've got so you're gonna take the pad of the ring and hook it inside of your loop of choice okay and then you'll do the same on both sides and it should fit in there pretty securely so that it won't go moving around okay and then we're gonna hold on around the outsides so that the strap and the ring stay in this nice position okay so once you've got that set up you're gonna place your legs through your shoulder rests you can have your legs crossed knees bent whatever's comfortable with a little space behind you and the edge of the mat all right now you're just going to hold your arms outstretched take a breath in now take a stretch forward you can let the ropes go slack reach that ring towards your feet take a forward fold and then come back up tall good do that again think of this as more of a spinal flexion than a massive hamstring stretch yeah so think of pulling your spine away from your legs leave the arms level with the floor and then come up tall good do that two more times even just holding up the weight of the ring is some good work for the shoulders one last time drawing the abs back and then stack up tall all right now hook your fingers firmly around the pads of the ring you're going to bend your elbows and we're just going to take some rows of the arms back and forward yes so elbows draw out nice and wide and bring that ring as close to your chest as you can very good okay so just getting warmed up checking and seeing if we like the spring tension here okay now we're gonna try to pull outwards on the ring almost like we're trying to make it an oval lift your chest and take a back extension and then release the pole on the ring and reach forward so i've got my fingers hooked on the inside i'm trying to rip my ring apart as i lift and then return do that a few more times you should really feel those upper back muscles and the shoulders working and then release yeah i'm trying to put as much tension out onto the pads of the ring as i can and then release two more times so lift it's not easy accessing these upper mid back muscles good all right and then reach forward okay now instead of extending the spine we're going to flex the spine same arm movement you're going to tuck under pull the ring to your chest and lean away from your legs and then re-stack your spine back up good you can tilt the ring slightly so that it kind of matches the angle of your torso so that you can pull it even further and then up very nice you can still have that sensation of pulling out with your hands to get more activity in your shoulders let's do that two more times and then lift now this time roll back and stay we're gonna bring back that spinal extension hold back here away from your legs pull out on the ring and lift your chest up drop back down look forward and then restack so now we're doing both of those positions we flex our spine to roll now don't move the carriage pull out with your hands and lift the chest to the ring round back to that c curve and sit up tall good two more times that's not easy we're lengthening those abs but they still have to hold us there and let's do that one more time tuck and roll lift and open those hands and then nod the chin and come back up so good shoulders are feeling that already all right next no more extension for the moment we're going to still use that c curve and we're going to go in a circular motion so we're going to go around the world pick a direction and we'll go that way a few times so tuck under i'm going to go clockwise first so i'm going to roll leaning back over my right hip slightly now i pass through the center to roll over to the left and come up again tuck under leaning to the right through center and up to the left good exhale so we're passing through that same c curve that we found a minute ago as we switch sides very good squeeze your legs tight together so there your foundation and then your body up on top is free to move around so good last one getting into those obliques as we rotate around come up drop your arms for a second and then let's go again so now it's reversing so to the left or just opposite of whichever way you went and then up good exhaling on the roll back inhaling as you rewrite your spine good try to keep the ring kind of at or below the height of your chin so good let's do that two more times tuck try to aim your low back towards the floor get a huge lean away from those legs and then come up and take a stretch forward ah very nice you guys all right now if you had that extra half of a spring on like i did take it off so now you're just on the single red all right okay if you're if you're able to do this with that extra spring on go for it but for me it's a little bit much okay so now i want you to sit up tall reach your arms out in front of you now you're gonna do a bicep curl and take the ring over top of your head and then return it forward good try to keep a straight spine here which is very difficult and it's okay if the ring kind of spins inside of the strap yeah if your hands are wrapped around it it's not going to go anywhere okay let's do that a couple more times keeping your upright posture last one good now reach the arms out roll back into a c curve and we're going to do those bicep curls here so back and forth still work for the shoulders but not so intense on the back muscles last two and then last one and come all the way up oh my goodness okay last thing here coming back to some of that extension we worked on so we're going to sit up straight do a bicep curl and roll back behind your sitting bones now you're gonna sit tall let your head fall back if you can straighten your arms and then the ropes will just pull you back to that tall sitting position do that again the further you roll back the more range you're going to have bend and do your bicep curl now open your chest extend and then come up tall so good if the extending is too much just do a flat back after the bicep curl so tuck you could do this keeping your head upright and then return so maybe try that a few times and then if it's going well look behind you as you come up so good let's do that two more times tuck and roll lift and then up it's more looking at the ceiling not looking behind you that was a little bit of an exaggeration all right one last time roll lift and then come up okay take one last much needed stretch over your legs all right you guys awesome so take off just one of these loops so i'm gonna take off you know just take off one whichever okay so now leave one attached come on up and you're gonna go to just a single blue spring okay so a little bit lighter because now we're only using one strap on the ring instead of two alright so there's three choices of sitting positions for this next exercise depending on your comfort level and how much challenge you need today okay option one is to sit crisscross with your back to the shoulder rests okay option two is to kneel on both knees with your feet back against the shoulder rests most challenging option only if you feel really comfortable up high on a moving carriage you're going to move the same foot as the side that your rope is on that shin is going to go back through the shoulder rest so my foot is on the headrest and then my other foot comes forward into a kneeling position okay this is the one i'm going to show but you do the one that you feel the most comfortable with alright so now once we're here i've got the rope on the right side so my right hand is going to hold over top of the rope and the strap and then my left hand holds the side of the ring with no rope on it okay rope goes underneath the armpit all right so now get tall if you've got one foot forward really kick the foot away from you to feel stable now just start pushing the ring back and forth away from you okay now this is challenging in a lot of ways it's challenging for our balance if we're kneeling it's challenging on the shoulder on the side of the rope and it's challenging on the obliques because we're not allowing rotation with this pull from the side so good all right now bend your elbows and take half of a twist towards the rope and then use your abdominals to come back and press yeah inhale and twist and then exhale to return so good so it feels good the rope kind of pulls you into that nice deep twist and then you have to work to come out of it and face front and if you want to be giving the ring an extra squeeze with your hands to work the pecs and shoulders more you be my guest now pause with your arms straight slowly as you can circle your straight arms around once you find the stopper or close to it bend and face back front so it's like we're stirring a pot you go around with straight arms and then bent to come in now if your foot is forward like mine the most stable place to be is with your knee directly on top of your heel so if your knee is jutting way forward you're not going to feel very sturdy so that's where that kicking of the foot forward comes in now pause with bent elbows we're going to reverse this much harder straighten your arms first and then use your abs and arms to circle and return good so the lower body is staying nice and strong if you're sitting down with cross legs that's almost harder in a way because you don't have the grip from the feet so it's a lot of work for the lower abs and the hip flexors do this one more time oh so good all right come down to a stable position take that strap off and then we're going to do that on the other side so place your strap down or hang it up and then we're going to switch and if it's feeling too intense if you have two loops you can switch to the longer loop and that will make the weight a little bit less for you okay all right so pick your sitting position if you're kneeling with one foot out it's going to be your new foot forward okay here we go come up tall get your grip and then just start simply pushing and pulling with the arms so this is your chance to kind of settle in get your lower body kind of knowing what it needs to do for its job here so kicking that foot forward my supporting hip is over me front knee over ankle good now bend the elbows and allow a twist and then return to face front inhale rotate exhale go good now you want to keep the ring pretty centered with your sternum as you bend and twist rather than letting the ring go way behind you yeah so you just bring the ring to your chest and then rotate the chest yeah rather than letting the arms go rogue all right so next pause with your long arm slow yourself down it's like your abs or the brakes as you rotate bend and face front slow slow slow the slower you go the harder it is and then through so good now pause with bent elbows and let's reverse push the arms long to come around and then bend so good if you don't feel comfortable rotating in the leg position you're in no worries just keep going with the straight forward presses last two and last one amazing all right so good you guys take the ring out of the strap and come on down all right we're going to keep that same half of a spring on and do a little bit of side kneeling work okay so but again you can actually choose either sitting down crisscross or up on your knees just like we did before okay so you choose which works best for you today the arm movements and the spine movements will be the exact same okay all right so let's go ahead and get started so you're gonna hold on to the ring the shorter the loop you hold the heavier it's going to feel now grab the ring from both sides hip width apart with those knees now all we're going to do is just extend the arms and then bring the ring back to our chest and then return so it's the same basic arm movement we just did right but it feels totally different because of where the pull is coming from so a lot of work on that single pec and shoulder core is working to keep the ring centered with your body good now you might feel your carriage moving out and in slightly totally fine two more and back last one very good all right and for this one i'm just holding my strap and then holding the ring i don't think i mentioned that okay so just kind of sandwich the strap and hold on to the ring all right next bring the ring up over your head you're gonna put it over your head like it's a hat or a helmet and then you're gonna reach it up to the ceiling bring it down and then push it away now no pressure to get your arms all the way straight you just go as high as you can without compromising your alignment so knees should feel equally heavy oh hips squared on top so good last two last one all right now bring that ring over your eyebrows get your head centered between it give it a little squeeze and now take a half of a side bend towards your foot bar and then control to come back up do that again exhale and then up so the lower body stays solid and it's from the rib cage up that's getting that nice movement up and over and return so good you guys one more now let's start going to both sides so we get a full range i side then to the pulleys maybe the slack comes off your rope and then we go to the other side good the hardest part might be keeping your head equal in the center of that ring that's it couple more times make sure the chin is away from your chest last two exhale on the harder part last one so good all right come down so much work for that arm all right last thing on this side one of my favorite ways to do a side twist so hook your ring back inside of the loop either the long one or the short one depending on how much tension you want okay now you're gonna hold your ring almost like a dinner plate so horizontal with the floor now take the free pad of your ring and press it right at the base of your sternum kind of like under your bra line if you've got one of those so right where your ribs come together okay and it shouldn't be too uncomfortable now wrap your arms around your ring so they kind of match that circle give the ring a little pressure and then you're gonna breathe in and twist towards your pulleys and then exhale twist towards your foot bar so good so the arms don't have to work nearly as hard here they can just kind of rely on the support from the ring that way we can zero in on the abdominal work here so good so go as far as you can in those two directions breathe in and then breathe out that's it let's do that three more times this one feels so good amazing last two try to get taller as your pull as your twist gets deeper last one amazing all right let's do all of that on the other side so drop your strap turn yourself around all right hold your desired strap in your hand that's nearest the pulleys and then hold the ring with that hand alright so here we go bring the ring close to your body line it up with your nose and then push it straight out and straight in exhale and then return good so feeling nice and stacked head and shoulders and ribs right over the hips and the knees yeah you shouldn't feel like you're having to clench your glutes to stay there just a nice dynamic gentle activation okay do that one last time straight out and straight in all right now take the ring up put it on like an astronaut helmet now same press with the arms except we're going up to the ceiling and then back down yes hardest thing here is to not lean yes our body will do that to try to make it easier so try to stay stacked directly up directly down two last one now place your helmet on kind of in line with your eyebrows now side bend towards your foot bar and then restack give the ring a squeeze and then up so good long neck very nice okay now start to go into a full range we dip towards the pulleys and then away from them good every time you stack upright try to get even taller so good let's do two more and last one amazing oh okay all right now we hook the ring back inside of the loop turn it so that it's horizontal place the other pad against the bottom of your ribs centered and then wrap those arms around okay hip bones point straight forward and then we twist and then return good rotate and then back good so the arms can stay nice and grounded onto the ring good pelvis balanced right on those femurs and then the ribs rotate side to side yeah this really helps the ribs and the shoulder girdle to move as one rather than separate last two and last one ah awesome you guys all right make sure your straps are down onto the floor and then we're gonna go grab your box so set your box up short ways according to your own height whether that's covering the shoulder blocks or just in front okay if you're on the shorter side you might need to go in front and then put on a couple of heavy springs just so your carriage doesn't move for me i'm just gonna do two reds all right and then we're gonna take the ring with us and come up to sitting on your box okay so tuck your toes underneath your foot strap down near your platform and then sit tall bend your knees and just kind of rest the backs of your ankles against the carriage and really pull on that strap with your toes all right now hold your ring out in front of you sit nice and tall now a movement we have done before today so it should look familiar you're going to bend your elbows hook your fingers inside and pull pull pull out on the ring as we lift our chest and then return back front so for the first time today we don't have added resistance from the straps for this movement so it's kind of fun to see how this feels with no extra feedback yeah i do that a few more times sitting tall and then chin comes back to level with the floor very good all right now pause here lifting and pulling on the ring this time when you reach it forward you're going to tuck under roll back give the ring an extra squeeze and round your spine now hook your fingers in lift and pull to that extension do that again so when we round our back we're squeezing in on the ring when we lift our chest we're pulling out on the ring good and you take that as slow as you need to to really find each of those positions amazing few more times now you don't want to roll so far back that your spine loses its nice flexion so you want your shoulders higher than your hips at that end position awesome you guys let's do that one more time lift and then return and then come all the way up and drop the ring down so good all right now reach the ring out straight you're going to give it a squeeze bend your elbows and rotate your upper body to one side and then release the squeeze and sit back up so now we're doing the press of the hands on the roll back and then in good so kind of like before but our elbows are bent so it actually gives us more leverage to squeeze a little tighter on the ring yeah now again you want to line the ring up with your sternum and then rotate your spine rather than just taking the arms way past where your spine is yeah that doesn't do us too much good last two last one now hold to one side and stay and just do a couple little pulses every time you drop down with your spine squeeze harder on the ring three two pull with those toes come up and do the other side roll away and squeeze we release the ring a little bit come up squeeze and go back up back up back so good three more two one and then come all the way up and take a stretch over your legs so nice you guys all right next we're gonna sit nice and tall reach the ring up towards the ceiling you can pull out on it a little bit with the arms now breathe in and just do a pure rotation to one side and then face back forward do that again twist and then return good so the head the ring stays centered over the head almost like it's a halo so wherever the head goes it goes yes ring is level with the floor and head is even between your two arms so good all right now memorize that twisting feeling we're gonna roll away from our legs and drop our ring forward and then sit back up tall do that a few more times so now changing up the arms same roll back we found earlier but now we're dropping and lifting good all right now the next time you roll back stay there and hold lift the arms overhead find your halo now we're going to twist to one side just like we did except now our spine is flexed so it's a lot more intense on those abdominals do one more time to either side stop in the middle and then dive up and over using those abs stretch over your shins try to reach the ring even closer to your feet and then come up and raise your arms to the ceiling let's do that again so we find our round back keep it as the arms go up and then we twist in that position right center left center now make sure your legs aren't marching up with you between our hip flexors we're doing a little bit too much one more time in the middle stretch forward and stay down so nice you guys all right next different kind of challenge we're going to keep a straight back and hinge okay so now take your ring you're going to put your head inside of it and you're going to set one of those pads right where your skull meets your neck okay more on your skull than on your neck so get it somewhere comfortable and then you're going to hold on with fists on either side okay it feels a little funny feels like you're in those old school hair dryers at the hair salon right it's kind of like that so press your head back what i love about this variation is it helps us to activate the muscles at the back of the neck and keep our head in the same relationship with our spine as we lean so elbows should be right in the corners of your vision stack tall now we're going to take a breath in to prepare as you exhale you're going to hinge your straight back away from your legs now having the ring it forces your eyes to look a little higher to where the ceiling meets the wall and then come back up tall do that again so we're exhaling as we move now stay there and breathe in without losing your connection and then exhale come up inhale get ready again yeah so every time we exhale we're moving every time we inhale we're staying and then come back up tall yeah if that doesn't feel good on your lower back you can tuck your low spine under ever so slightly and then hinge back oh let's do that one more time oh start feeling it in the arms too holding the head up lean and stay and then come up tall and take your head out of the ring amazing all right now we're going to hold the ring more like normal one hand on either side repeat that same exercise feeling as if our head was in the ring even though it's not so give the ring a squeeze inhale to prepare exhale imagine your head is still pushing into the ring so the head goes with you now stay and breathe in exhale come up amazing keep going yeah rather than letting the head dip forward we totally lose so much of that ab work if that happens a few more times our heads weigh a lot so by taking it with us whoo our abs are having to carry it amazing one last time lean hold it and then come up tall okay last variation if it's too intense scale it back to what we just did the arms are now going to be straight overhead slightly forward so if you peeked up you would be able to see the ring in front of your head okay so now here we go arms and spine it's like they're strapped together their relationship doesn't change hold it and then come back up tall so good you don't want to leave the arms behind you want to take the arms with you and come up tall oh two more times so our lever is way way longer making it feel so much heavier in our abdominals let's do that one last time exhale to go inhale to stay and then return okay take another stretch wow okay all right next we're gonna do a little variation on the tree with the help of the ring which feels pretty amazing so put one foot underneath the strap take with the other one out sit tall and you're gonna place the ball of your foot on the inside pad of the ring okay now sit up as tall as you can which i know is hard you're gonna pull your thigh towards your body and try to sit your spine up to it almost like you were in a panini press right with one grill on the back one girl on the front and you're getting squished in towards center all right now just start trying to swing your foot up a little and down a little getting your knee as straight as yours is gonna get today okay no pressure for it to be totally straight now the more bent your elbows uh the more stretch you're going to get on this leg okay so try to keep them as bent as possible oh just opening that hamstring very nice now you get your leg as straight as you can and pause now you're gonna tuck under and roll your low back your sacrum towards the box pull the leg with you and try to get it vertical and then kick the leg down sit up to those bent elbows in your stretch now do that again you're going to bend and stretch your knee just one time swing it down and up now pull the leg with you first and then once it gets high enough you can start to open the elbows a little bit keep your back rounded now use your arms to bring your chest back up to your leg and then sit up with those bent elbows all right now you're welcome to stick with that or we're gonna get a little back extension which is made so much less scary with the ring so once you get back here with your leg vertical bend the knee and let your head fall back off of the machine now kick with the foot nod your chin and magically you'll just come back up right to bend elbows so good do that again so much less scary feeling and like having to throw your head back up yeah so as your elbows bend or as your knee bends pardon me your elbows are able to get straight your head hangs back now kick with the foot and just that leverage is enough to help you come back up so good you guys let's do that two more times kind of sinking into it now that we've got the feel of it now again if you're not comfortable doing this today it's all good take a mental note that this is something you can work towards if you want to yeah one more time so good yeah the real version of tree without the ring we're just holding on to our leg and it's much more difficult oh amazing all right let's try that on the other side you guys so it's super good to do the original version too but especially if you're not comfortable yet with dropping the head back into the well this is a really good place to start okay so sit tall let's just do a few bend and stretches of this front knee to kind of open up the hamstring amazing all right so now pause with your leg long tuck under and pull that long leg with you the goal is to get it vertical and then pull your body back up sit tall and flex the knee good we straighten it roll yourself back now my back gets to a c curve my leg gets vertical that's when we can push and come back up all right you guys adding in the back extension if that's what we're doing for you today arms get long knee gets bent we hang back and then nod and push with the foot so good you guys a couple more times tuck under you want to get your whole sacrum to the box you have that support open and hang the head kick and curl oh amazing let's do that one more time lift roll back hang and stretch all feels so good on that bottom hip too ah so nice all right last thing you guys we're going to end with a little bit of mermaid on the short box so turn to one side you can either cross this one leg over the box or hang it off of the front whatever feels better to you this foot is going to be hooked in the strap and you're gonna turn it parallel so my toes are looking forward and this hip is off of the box all right now hold on to the ring if you need to you can place your bottom hand on the box for support so get into a long line from head to heel on a diagonal now all we're gonna do is side bend and then come up and it's very small so not a huge range of motion from that diagonal line i'm just side bending beneath that line a little bit and then above it a little bit okay and the ring just stays centered on your chest okay let's do that a couple more times so good now pause in that long line and stay i want you to rotate to face the floor rotate to face back front and then come up a little bit do that again so now we're just dropping to a straight line rotate to face the floor face the front and then come up a little bit two more times long line twist return and then up a little bit one more now stay and hold you're going to rotate all the way to face the floor and then all the way to face the ceiling oh so hard keep the ring centered on your chest good so the lower body stays solid and the ribs twist last one and then set your bottom hand on the head rest reach your ring overhead to stretch amazing okay you guys whoo we're going to try one last little thing here before we switch sides so now even smaller range more like pulses okay so hold your ring lean away squeeze the ring and we're just gonna do little baby pulses up and down if you'd like you can be doing little squeezes on the ring with your hands tiny little range up and down five four three two now hold it maybe take the ring up over your head and keep going tiny little pulses if that's too intense bring the ring back to your chest okay last set arms all the way along almost done three short set two one oh and then put your hand down all right stretch the ring over [Music] open up that side we were just working now set your ring on the floor off to the side and we're going to twist so that we're facing the floor hands on either rail and then just drape your head forward and slide the hands out and you'll get this amazing stretch all the way through the leg the hip up through the ql and the back all right you guys use your hands crawl yourself back up whoa okay and then we'll do the other side so take your ring with you ah all right so new leg under toes to the front shin on the box grab the ring find your diagonal line and then we go beneath it and above it good so that strap that your foot is under should be super taut if it's wobbling around it probably means you're coming up too high yes you want to pull and keep the tension on that strap all right now pause just in a long line so don't go as far and we're going to rotate to face the floor you can give the ring an extra squeeze at any time and then come up do that again long line rotate open and then up few more reach twist rotating around that thick spine now pause at the bottom and we're going to twist full range to the floor and then open your back elbow look at the ceiling so we're not just stopping facing forward we're twisting all the way back and up three two one and then bottom hand finds the head rest top arm relaxes over oh so so good you guys all right last thing here we do our smaller pulses here we go so we lean over start with the easiest version ring at your chest and do very small little pumps up and down now remember you can use your bottom hand on the box to support your spine if you need it all right next level if you choose to go there is elbows still bent but ring above your head all right last level is arms as straight as you can get them four three two one drop your hand all right place the ring down somewhere hands to the rails slide the arms away and let the head fall towards the floor good maybe the longer we stay the further those hands can reach all right you guys come all the way up whoo place your feet down and just sit facing your foot bar we're just gonna take one last stretch forward kind of cool our breathing down so arms along next to you you're gonna round forward just allow your hands to kind of slide down along the box stay stretched over your legs take a breath or two and then come all the way up oh we'll do that one more time draw the abs back head and shoulders round forward and then we breathe all right you guys i hope you enjoyed that reformer workout using our fitness circle uh if you did please give it a like uh leave me a comment down below if you have any ideas for future videos or any feedback for this one please subscribe to the channel if you haven't already and send this video to a friend and i'll see you next time bye