How to Use Foot Straps in a Pilates Workout

Video Transcript

"Hi! I'm going to now show some exercises with the foot straps with Laura. I'm going to have Laura grab these foot straps back here. We're going to put on. Move the other foot from the foot bar. She's experienced at this. Bend the knees. Right now, we're in a neutral pelvis. Meaning, we have that little grape in the lumbar spine. This is called bend and stretch. I'm going to have her stretch her legs out to a diagonal, but she's going to go into an imprinted spine using her obliques. Stretching out. So this is both working the legs, keep on going, and the abdominals as we from neutral to imprint. We'll do 3 more like that. 3, keeping the shoulders relaxed, ribcage netted, always using the abdominals with each exhale. Good. Coming back into tabletop, I'm going to have her go heels together, toes apart. Now we're using different lateral muscles on the legs as she pushes through for 3 more. And 2, and same thing with the stomach engagement, and 1. Good. Coming back in, I'm going to have her shoot them back out to a diagonal, parallel feet. We're going to do lift and lower, which is really great to stretch the hamstrings. I'm going to have her lift up keeping the tail bone on the reformer. Exhale lower just to imprint, so where she has the most engagement with the abdominals. Inhale, lift up, using those hamstrings, which lengthens them concentrically and eccentrically with the spring resistance. Good. We're going to do 2 more like that all way as far as you can go keeping the tail bone. One more. Good. Now, we're going to go back to out imprint, our diagonal. Feet together. We're going to do little circles. We're going to circle around, exhale as we come together, really using all those muscles around the abs from the obliques to the transverse. Good. Two more like that. Using the glutes and the inner thighs to squeeze it together, and we're going to reverse. Good. 3 more. 3, and 2, and 1, and coming back together, tabletop. Good. We're going to take one of the straps off, put the foot on the foot bar, other strap off, and we're done with that."