Beginner Pilates Round Two: The Long Box on the Reformer

Here is Laura integrating her abs on The Reformer. I don't think this is a beginner Pilates move...

The fabulous tingly feeling in my spine lasted for almost two days after my first Pilates session, so on the third day, I could not wait  to get back into the Burlington Pilates studio for round two.

We moved into the big room – very nice light in here. And we broke out the long box. My guide this time was Alison Hopkins. Alison is a licensed Physical Therapist and a certified Polestar Pilates instructor. It feels great to be in such good, experienced hands.

The first thing Alison did after I laid back-down on the carriage of the Reformer was ask me to breathe deeply as she lay each of her hands on the sides of my rib cage. I love this focus on breathing. We reviewed a few leg extension movements from my first session and added some seated moves, some standing moves, some on the belly, and a lunge.

Many of the movements we worked on today had half the body stable (either on the floor or on the stable part of the Reformer), while the other half slid along the carriage, as in the picture above, Laura has her right foot on the stable foot bar, her left foot is on the sliding carriage of the Reformer. It takes control and concentration to keep balanced and integrated (your muscles, spine and breath all working in synch to keep it together). Imagine standing wide-legged on ice, now imagine pulling your legs together – you have to integrate in order to do this.

My abs should look like this any day now

Here are some examples of the new moves we worked on in round two:

The lunge: One foot on the floor, the other foot on the sliding carriage. First you reach your legs towards the splits, then bend your front knee into a lunge.

The Inverted V: This starts out like a shallow downward dog. Stand with both feet on the carriage, hands on the foot bar, shoulders directly above your wrists. Now slide your feet and legs back to a plank position, now slide them back to the beginning position (using only your abs to do the work). Wow.

We also worked on thoracic spinal mobility (this is the posture pictured on my first beginner Pilates post.

My abs still felt this days later. To integrate the shoulders, I did this exercise with arms at shoulder height (like I Dream Of Jeanie making magic).

The long box exercises we did worked on shoulders and arms. The exercises were executed lying on the stomach and using straight arms to pull the body (and carriage) forward.

We also did exercises with the Short Box (this is the Long Box turned sideways) pictured right.

One more private session before I get to join in on Pilates Group Classes!

image credit: www.longislandpilatesandyoga.com, seattlehealthandfitness.blogspot.com