Footwork
Footwork on the Reformer does more than just get the body moving.
It sets the tone for the entire workout.
This is where a well-trained teacher is already paying close attention:
• How you organize your body
• Where you compensate
• How you synchronize your breath with movement.
From there, the same corrections carry through the session. It is the consistent guidance that helps you move more efficiently from one exercise to the next.
If you ever feel like the same correction keeps coming up, there is a reason. Everyone’s body, without exceptions, learns through repetitions.
It is easy to confuse effort with effectiveness.
Footwork can quickly turn into a “leg workout” if you rely on your leg’s strength alone.
Pilates was never meant to be about isolated effort of legs or arms—it still isn’t.
Yet this approach is so deeply ingrained in human nature that it takes a skilled teacher to point out the difference and give you the tools to connect to your Powerhouse instead.
Uniform development, the reason we practice Pilates, begins with the very first exercise you are performing in any given session. If your arms or legs take over, the purpose of the exercise is lost.
Footwork on the Reformer is a great opportunity to teach yourself, or your client, just that. If you focus only on pushing the carriage with your legs, without considering how well you are stabilizing your pelvis, you are missing one of the most important long-term benefits of practicing this movement:
Stability of your lower back and mobility of your hips, knees, ankles, and feet.
Pelvis stability while moving the legs is a fundamental "know-how" I teach in my course, "What Pilates Is: The Essential Skills."
Do You Know How to Move Your Leg Without Moving Your Pelvis?
How About Both Legs at the Same Time?
Footwork on the Reformer is often misunderstood and always misinterpreted.
Unless a teacher points out the nuance of where to initiate the movement from, it seems as if it is so simple, repetitive… almost too easy.
That’s when most of those new to the Reformer will push off with their legs.
But Footwork, with its multiple repetitions and different placement of the feet, is an opportunity to teach and learn how to organize the muscles of the powerhouse, and set it up for the rest of the session.
If you miss that here, everything that follows on the Reformer becomes harder than it should be.
Footwork tells me right away how well someone understands their body—
and what we need to work on next.
What’s one exercise that can easily turn into a conversation starter?
In my studio it’s Footwork on the Reformer.
The client lies down, starts moving the carriage…and starts talking about the weekend, the weather, what’s going on in their life.
It feels simple. Familiar. Almost automatic.
When I bring their attention back to the task at hand they begin to initiate their movement from the center, organizing their powerhouse to align their spine.
That’s how they prep their body and mind for an effective session.
Footwork may feel like a good time to chat…But that’s exactly why it’s easy to miss what the actual goal is.
Because how you move here sets the tone for the rest of your workout.
The springs on the Reformer can be a little misleading.
You feel your legs working hard.
There is resistance, effort, something to push against.
And it feels like the beginning of a great Pilates workout—but it won't.
If your goal is to benefit from practicing Pilates, you are better off learning how to access your Powerhouse instead.
Footwork isn’t just about pushing the carriage out.
If it feels like pure quad work, you’re likely initiating from your legs instead of your center.
Try this:
• Engage your abdominals before the carriage moves
• Inhale as you press away
• Exhale as you return with control
• Keep the center active the entire time
The difference is subtle —but once you feel it...
Footwork becomes a core exercise.
When you do Footwork, where do you feel it most?
I don't have to ask, I can see. When someone pushes the carriage out with their legs versus with their center the quality of the movement is completely different.
Over many years of teaching, I have learned that Footwork becomes easier to understand when clients first learn how to use their abdominals to support and assist the movement of their legs through the Pilates scoop, an isometric contraction of the deep lower abdominals that supports the pelvis and helps with elongating the spine.
What I teach my clients, I teach in my fundamentals course,
What Pilates Is: The Essential Skills.