Video:Pilates Footwork on the Reformer

Transcript:Pilates Footwork on the Reformer

Hello, I am Katherine Corp of Pilates on Fifth in New York City for About.com. Today, we will be exploring footwork on the reformer. The model will be my sister, Kimberly.

Why Do Footwork on the Pilates Reformer?

Footwork is a great way to correct any imbalance you may have in your body without gravity getting in the way. A lot of us have knee misalignments or ankle misalignments, or even one hip higher than the other one -- that is a muscular problem. With the reformer, because you are lying on your back and you do not have gravity pulling you out of whack, you can really fix those problems safely and effectively.

Hamstring Footwork Exercise

This is footwork for a hamstring connection. We will start with our heels on the bar, and our legs are parallel, meaning they are right together, and the knees are pointing straight to the ceiling. One thing you want to check on at the beginning is that you are not rolling to the inside or the outside of your feet -- you do not want to go to the outside of your feet or the inside.

And on the exhale, we will press out -- as usual, we do not want to hyper-extend the knees, and coming in. And you can relax the muscles in the front of your ankles, so that you do not take your toes with you. So a lot of us, when we do this exercise, we are fine at the beginning and then as we press out the weight rolls to the outside of your feet. You can actually look at your shoes, and if they are all worn on the outside, and not evenly on the inside and outside, this would probably be a really good exercise for you, because it is a really good place to correct that problem.

Exhale out and inhale in, and because your heels are on the bar, you really feel it in the back of your legs more, especially as you come in, think of resisting the tension to come back in. It is like you are sitting into a tall-backed chair.

Inner Thigh Exercise on the Reformer

This exercise is for the inner thighs. We will have our toes apart and heels together, so you really want to squeeze the heels together so you feel your inner thighs activated throughout. The pelvis and spine are in a neutral position.

So lets begin. You will exhale to press the carriage out, straightening the knees all the way, and inhale coming in. Exhale pressing out, notice nothing in her torso changes, staying nice and neutral and you want to straighten your knees all the way without snapping into a hyper-extension.

Heel Position Exercise

This is footwork with high heel position. This is very good for working the front and the back of the legs evenly. So it is like you are wearing stiletto heels -- not that that many of us wear stiletto heels, they are actually not very good for your back -- but imagine that you are. So you are on the balls of your feet, with your ankles lifted as much as possible, and your legs are squeezing together. Depending on how you are made, your knees may or may not be touching. Sometimes it is helpful to think of squeezing a ping pong ball in your upper inner thighs, and that will give you all the connection with the inner thighs you need. The pelvis and the spine are in a neutral position.

We will exhale to press out, and you do not want the ankles to drop here. We really want to strengthen the muscles around the ankle. If you have ever sprained an ankle, this is a great exercise for strengthening those muscles again without putting them in jeopardy. Exhale out -- you will find that if you have sprained one ankle, one will feel a lot stronger, so on one leg it will be hard and on the other leg it will be fine. And you will also feel your quads a little bit more than in another position of footwork.

Calves Reformer Exercises

This is footwork lower and lift, great for strengthening the calves. Start in your high heel position, legs are squeezing together, we will inhale to press the carriage out. On the exhale, keeping everything the same, just lower the heels under the foot bar, and then inhale lifting up. Exhale lowering, and lifting.

What is interesting is a lot of us, when we lower our heels, we start to rotate the upper part of our legs -- our femurs start to rotate. So we are really working on holding the muscles on the outside of the legs, so that does not happen.

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