Hi, my name is Portia Page. I'm from San Diego, California, and I'm a faculty member with
Balanced Body. With me today is Lizbeth Garcia, also from San Diego. Today we have a really
fun innovative way to do prone work on the Reformer. We're using the Pilates Arc with
a low slope towards the foot bar. We have the foot bar on the lowest setting with one
red spring. We're also using a little pad here. This is just for this area. It also
will help keep her from sliding. And then here we have a yoga mat cut up just for the
forearms for the last exercise that we'll be doing. So Liz is going to show you how
to get into, well first off she's going to step into the well and then get onto the Pilates
Arc itself. She's going to reach over, place ASIS pubic bone right over the midline or
the axis of the arc itself. Hands go to the outer edges of the foot bar. And she's going
to lower herself down so the forehead is, you know, a good distance from the foot bar. She's
in a nice neutral position here with the abdominals drawing in, protecting the lower spine. Buttocks
and hamstrings activated. And we're going to just go into a simple shoulder press. So
she'll straighten the arms on the exhale and inhale to bend the elbows. At this point
we're just maintaining neutral because what we want to work up to is swan dive. So we're
going to go out here and then lower down into a nice little swan dive, keeping this beautiful
positioning here with the spine, then come right back up and again down. So you'll notice
here she's keeping the arms straight. The key in swan dive which is so important and
so difficult to do on the floor is that she's able to maintain this position here like a
scooped shell. She looks beautiful. And then from here we're going to go right into grass
hopper. So she'll keep her arms extended out, shoulders flex and then one, two, three beats
with flexed heels. Reach out pointed, come back up so she'll need a little rest here.
This is a lot of work. And let's show that one more time. Coming back down, shoulders
flex, she'll flex the feet. Three times pulse, reach out with long straight legs, really
getting those hamstrings to activate and then come back up. And then here's the really great
part. We're going to do single leg kick. So she's going to come down with the forearms
on the platform. We've got that mat there so she doesn't scratch up her lovely forearms.
And then she's going to actually rest her forehead on the foot bar. So here she can
get into a nice long straight line activating where she needs to activate and then do a single
leg kick from here. She's got the support of the arc right underneath the pubic bone,
but she's got her abs lifted up and off of the arc. So she's very supported, very strong
here. This is a really great place to do single leg kicks. Good, nice work Liz. And there
you have a great way to add in some prone work on the Reformer for your classes or your
private clients. Thank you so much for joining us today.
