Footwork

We're here to take a look at footwork. I'm on a balanced body reformer. We usually use three medium springs for footwork, sometimes a little heavier, which on balanced body would be a extra blue spring. Head rest is generally up And the foot bar height is on this reform is in the high setting. Depending on how tall you are, you may have to lower that bar down.

But for myself, I'm five four. I have my foot bar high. My head rest up. And footwork. Here we go. Traditionally. Starting with the Pilates v position, which is the balls of the feet on the bar.

Heels pulled in firmly together. External rotation of the femur at the hip, and your knees are no wider than your shoulder frame. So we're really inside at the frame of the reformer. Pelvis position is neutral. So your hip bones pubic boner in the same horizontal plane to the floor, and your back rib cage is touching the mat.

Abominals are down, shoulders are open. So our setup is ready. And then we press out on the inhale We come in as we exhale. Eight to 10 repetitions is generally what we're going for, smooth ride out, smooth ride in. Objective to keep that pelvis level and those rib cages down controlling the springs as you come in, you'll hear the phrase resist the springs.

That means come in try not to just close the springs quickly like this. You slowly press. You slowly pull. Temple will go faster eventually, but for now we start kind of small like that. Next position will be the arches of the feet on your bar in parallel, sometimes all the way together, sometimes a little bit of a space between those ankles and knees, same with the pelvis.

Inhale, we're level, exhaling in. We wanna feel that the arch is wrapped around the top of the bar. Imagery might be like a suction cup. We want the muscles of the arch of the feet active. That connection travels all the way through the legs to the pelvis, all the way up the body to the spine, out the top of the head.

So footwork is this grounding this essential place to begin all of the reformal work. It really is what sets the standard of how we load our joints and how we align from the feet up. Next position is heels parallel. The ankle is in a flexed position, toes are straight up, that pelvis is still level, everything organized up top, inhale, and exhale. You'll hear cues of which muscles to use in foot and leg work.

It's all of the muscles in the lower extremities active to help push and pull these springs to help align you and let you travel back and forth. These are in line with those second toes, Generally, in line with your hip joints, pelvis stays level, and those rib cages stay down. The final position are the is the tendon stretch. We go back to the balls of the feet. The heels are now lifted a bit.

Even weight across the balls of the feet, so we're not rocking outward or inward, we're evenly weighted. And we take the legs out to that full extension, maintaining long, straight legs, lower both ankles with control, Press up with control. Lower the ankle slowly with control, endeavoring for about eight to 10 repetitions. And once again, we are working this whole full body integrated sense of elongation and alignment from the feet all the way through the pelvis, through our spine, out the top of our head, footwork is really that place where we set all of this up for ourselves for success throughout all the reformer exercises, and that is our footwork.