Arms Pulling Down Pilates Reformer Exercise

Video Transcript

"Hi! My name is April Plank with Yoga Etc. Studios on behalf of Expert Village. In this clip we are going to learn the arms pulling straight down from the laps and abs series. So Helen is going to help me out today. I am going to have her start by pulling her shoulders a little bit away from the shoulder rest just to give her some room to work. She is going to grab on to the hand straps and then reach the arms straight up to the ceiling. She is going to engage the abdominals and bring the legs into a tabletop position. The knees should be right in line with the hips and what that is going to do is really help to fire and engage those low belly muscles. From here she will inhale to prepare and exhale reaching the arms down to the sides engaging the abdominals. Inhale resist the pull to springs bringing the arms back up and she will repeat that several times. Every time she is exhaling, she is engaging that corset, those transverse abdominals. This is a really good exercise to build strength to the arms but it is primarily building strength through those abdominals, through the corset and even into the back and that is why it is part of the laps and back and abs series because it is working the abdominals, it's working the latissimus storaci in the back. We'll do that two more times. Inhaling, slowly resisting last time, exhaling, the arms coming down, good and have the arms come up and you can relax the legs back on the bar. Great. Nice job and that was the arms "