Side Lying Arch & Curl from the Leg Lift series on the Gyrotonic Ladder

Ladder Leg Lifts – Side Lying Arch Curl

Side Lying Arch & Curl from the Leg Lifts series

This video makes the exercise look deceptively easy. There’s alot going on. One of the most important aspects of core strength is stability. In this exercise you’ve got to stabilize in all three planes of motion.

If you put your arms out to the sides, that is your frontal plane. Anything in front or behind you is your sagittal plane. And when you turn to either the left or the right, that’s your transverse plane. In this side lying exercise on the Ladder, keeping the legs at the same level as the torso (and vise-versa) is stability in the frontal plane. The movement of your legs and upper body is in your sagittal plane and you’ve got to stabilize your pelvis so it stays perpendicular to the padded rung.

Press Ups from the Waterfall Series on the Gyrotonic Ladder

Waterfall Series – Press Ups

The Waterfall series on the Ladder or the Archway is the absolute best for pure front of the body core strengthening. While you’re working the same muscles as a sit-up or crunch, you’re asking your body to do the same thing in the opposite direction. The extra space you gain by being off the ground allows you to add fun variety, like Press Ups.

Snake, from the Levitation Series

An old school exercise on the Ladder

I recently recorded several exercises in the Levitation series and as I was selecting which exercises to use, I looked back at old syllabi to see if I was forgetting any really cool ones. I was. I haven’t done Snake in years and I remembered how much I’ve always liked this.

While it looks kind of intense, using the arms like this actually allow me to increase my back bend. I can get higher than with my arms on the sides of the Ladder or hands clasped behind my head. I suppose its the physics of changing the lever length. It’s also a great exercise for opening your chest and the front of the shoulders.

Leg Lifts with Rotation on the Gyrotonic Ladder

Exercise of the Week: Leg Lifts with Rotation on the Ladder

Multi-planar strengthening of your back and butt

The Ladder and it’s updated version, the Archway, let you do movements that would be practically impossible to do any other way. Having the shoulder girdle be the static part of the body allows freer lower body movement. And having your pelvis up on the bolster lets your legs have a larger range of motion than you could do on the floor.You can do motions similar to this in yoga and there’s a cool full body stretch I used to do in traditional personal training, but you don’t have the range of motion the Ladder allows.