Bicycles from the Leg Lift series on the Gyrotonic Ladder

Exercise of the Week – Bicycles from the Ladder Leg Lift Series

Leg Lift Bicycles: Your Key to a Stronger Core and Better Posture.

Combat Forward Head Posture & Low Back Pain with This Total Body Exercise.

The GYROTONIC® Ladder is a core strengthening masterpiece. Depending on how you place yourself on the Ladder, you’ll strengthen your core with a focus in one of the three planes of motion: front to back, side to side or with rotation. And while you’re moving in one of the planes of motion (sometimes two), you have the stabilize your body in the other plane(s). You’re getting active and static core strength and every exercise is total body.

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.

Leg Lifts with Rotation on the Gyrotonic Ladder

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

Leg Lifts with Rotation on the Ladder

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.