Chest Expansion
I made this video to address a very common misunderstanding I see when teaching Chest Expansion on the Reformer.
Everyone, unless I point it out to them, focuses on moving their arms to maximize the effort there.
But that slight forward tilt, organizing your body and finding your balance—that’s the exercise.
The arm movement simply tests how well you’ve done that. 😊
Chest Expansion on the Cadillac and the Ped-O-Pull tends to feel clearer and easier to perform correctly.
On the Reformer, however, it often becomes the most challenging for clients.
I often say to my clients: “assume nothing, because nothing is as it seems in Pilates”
😉
Did you know that if you lean slightly forward in Chest Expansion, the springs will actually feel lighter?
That small adjustment changes everything.
Most people go straight to moving the arms back and forth, trying to create effort there.
But when you start by organizing your body—activating your abdominals, aligning your spine, and finding that forward balance, then the effort shifts.
From there, you pull the straps toward your thighs to move the carriage, while stabilizing your shoulders. Then you control the return—not letting the carriage slam closed.
Try this next time: set yourself up first, lean slightly forward, and notice how the springs feel.
Different, right?
Chest Expansion requires you to know how to stack your head, neck, ribcage, and pelvis over one another while kneeling, and how to maintain the curves of your spine as you move your arms.
You can learn and practice these skills separately through shoulder girdle and pelvic stability movements. They are part of my course, What Pilates Is: The Essential Skills.
What is Required To Perform Chest Expansion Properly?
There is not a single Pilates exercise where the sole focus is meant to be on the action of the arms or legs.
Chest Expansion is no exception—it is simply often misunderstood.
Over the years, I have noticed that most people naturally direct their attention toward the moving body part. In this case, pulling the straps.
But in Pilates, the movement of the arms is rarely the main event. It is usually testing something deeper: how well the body is organized.
That is why a small adjustment like slightly leaning forward and balancing before moving the arms can completely change the experience of the exercise.
Suddenly the effort shifts away from “pulling harder."
In my experience, that is often the moment when clients begin to understand what “moving from the center” actually means.
When teaching it for the first time, I ask a client to hook their feet over the edge of the carriage and slightly lean back and then lean forward to “find” their hamstrings.
Oftentimes, the key aspect of this exercise gets lost, which is to tilt slightly forward and find balance before moving the arms—that’s how deeply ingrained the desire to pull on the straps with force or momentum is for most people.
But that is not what we are training here.
We are training the ability to fully integrate the body first.
The arm movement is simply a test of how well we are centering, not how hard we can pull.
Chest Expansion is a perfect example of how to “move from the center.” I love watching my clients feel that and realize that there is more to this exercise than just pulling on the straps.
Chest Expansion can be easily mistaken for an exercise specifically for arms.
As much as the arms are involved and we do feel the triceps activating, they should not be working in isolation. Since one of the Principles of Pilates is Centering, working from the center and connecting the arms to it is the proper way to go about performing this exercise.
When the entire length of the spine is aligned, the abdominals are active, we are slightly leaning forward to further activate pelvis and spine stabilizers, the effort shifts from arms to Powerhouse.
But don't take my word for it, try it yourself and experience that shift that only happens when we quiet down the arms and amplify the Powerhouse.
I just taught Chest Expansion this week to my 4 clients who regularly come to the Reformer class. I reminded them as always, to slightly lean forward before moving the arms.
When they finished the sequence of moving their arms and turning their heads, and finally closed the springs of the Reformer, they all had big smiles of satisfaction on their faces. 😊
Did you know that Chest Expansion isn't about pulling the straps as far back as you can?
What you need to learn instead is how to move your arms while keeping your shoulders stable and your spine aligned.
In What Pilates Is: The Essential Skills, you learn what these concepts mean, understand why they matter, and practice them as separate movement skills so you can bring them into Chest Expansion, and ALL the other Pilates exercises.