Control Balance Off Pilates Training Guide
If you’ve been looking at control balance off Reformer, wondering, have I ever gonna do that? That looks crazy. It looks a little ridiculous, right? Well, here’s the deal. It is an advanced exercise, but a lot of people can do control balance off reformer sooner than they think. They just need to know a few tips, some tricks and a few permission slips. So let’s get into it.
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The thing about control balance off reformer is so when I saw it in my manual, my teaching manual. I thought, Who is this for? Why would anyone do this? And then I did it, and you’re like, okay, I want to do that all the time, because it’s kind of fun to do gymnastics, things like, I’m not going to ever do, you know, some sort of vault, you know, in the Olympics. But I do like a little somersault, cartwheel off a Reformer. Yes, I do. And the reality is, that the moment you start Pilates, you’re actually practicing for control balance off Reformer, the moment you start from your rolling like a ball to your double straight leg stretches to your single straight leg stretches, and your jack knives there, of course, other exercises on other pieces of equipment that are so helpful, but your at practice is helping you get there. Each rep is going to build up to it. That’s why in today’s video—and inside my Lesley Logan Pilates tutorials—I love breaking down the exercise and the movements that build up to it. I want to show you how to approach it step by step so you can see just how achievable Control Balance Off the Reformer really is.
Why Control Balance Seems Hard
Well, let’s first of all just look at the space of our carriage. I mean, I’m just, I’m taking up the whole space just sitting on it, so it feels like there’s not enough room. Second, a lot of people actually have misconceptions about where you start, control balance off on your reformer. And so it’s very difficult. If you set yourself up between these shoulder rests, okay? It’s also can be difficult if you think that you have to be super flexible or most perfect person at any overhead exercise, because that’s just a standard you’re never going to meet, right? And then there’s a whole, I don’t know, landing on one leg, ta da! But that can seem hard, especially if you have a hard time to stay on one leg, right? So there’s a few things, and then also, you know, there is the fear, right? Let’s not put that out of what we’re talking about here, the fear of, oh, my god, am I going to fall off? And you might, right? If you do it wrong, you’re gonna roll off the side. But, you know, it’s not that far. It’s not that far. So I think it’s important to one, take a moment to feel your fear, explore like what really could happen, and understand what we can do if that does happen, so that it kind of takes away the power that that fear can have inside your brain.
What Makes It Possible Than You Think
So first, I want to talk about what makes control balance off on the Reformer a little more possible than you think. Some people want to say easier. I’m gonna say possible because exercises in Pilates do not get easier, they just get more possible. Okay, so you have, like I said earlier in this video, been building the skills all along, especially if you have a Mat and Reformer practice, or if you have access to other pieces of equipment, the control balance off Reformer is not this wildly crazy different exercise. If you have my Reformer flashcards, and you were to flip it around, you would see that it’s a single leg elephant. It’s a single straight leg stretch. It’s the Pilates Tree exercise, right? So it’s rolling like a ball. It’s your single leg stretch. It’s an open leg rocker, it’s a tendon stretch. So it’s in you. It’s just a new way of doing something your body has been building towards. Number two, it’s actually all about connection and not force. In fact, when I’ve seen people try to force it, they actually are the ones who kind of like roll off the side, okay? Because when you move your legs from your center, and you’re standing on your shoulders from your center, it’s almost like physics takes you off. Okay, just the fact that you’re reaching a leg so far back, reaching it so far away, you almost have to roll off and land, because there is a floor there. So it’s this really cool thing. Did you ever remember in geometry when you would just draw like an infinite line, and it’s like, okay, well, if that line is infinite, is it a straight line, or is it infinite line actually, at some point going to go up, right? It’s the same way you’re going to reach your like. You reach your like so far away from you. But because of the angle of the body that that line is coming from, it has to land on the ground, and you stand up so it’s more about the connection and where you feel you’re moving your body from, and the opposition of your arms and back, moving from one direction your legs move other direction that you just kind of land. It’s really quite cool. And you’ll surprise yourself, and then you’ll want to do it again. Number three, your mind will actually help you move better. We all know where our our like focus goes. That’s where energy flows. So if you’re thinking about going down, that’s where you’re gonna go, right? But if you’re actually bringing that mind-body connection to all your Pilates practices, you will be surprised at how you can do this exercise sooner than you think. So, part of it’s visual. A lot of it is just your mind being paying attention to what your body is doing, as opposed to what you don’t want your body to be doing, all right?
And our fourth thing that I want you to consider is that small steps actually do make big progress. So even if you omit the control balance off Reformer, when you’re in your former practice and you do something else, like short spine or another single leg elephant or tendon stretch like back, you are still building up to a future control balance off. Or when you’re doing your Mat practice, if you do single straight leg stretch again, or open leg rocker again, or jack knife again, you are building up to control balance on the Mat there. Every single time you do your Pilates practice is building you there, like I said in the first said in the first step. And so I want you to understand that small steps are going to get you there. How to safely progress in Pilates is by honoring those small steps and not rushing the process. There are multiple parts to Control Balance Off, which I’ll show you today. And you can, kind of, like I say, with a teaser. It’s a teaser train. Get off the stop you want. You can actually do the same thing with your control balance off until you’ve built up the connections you need, and the mind-body connection fitness you need to get all the way off that Reformer and then get back on. If you have been loving how I can talk about these exercises, build up to this exercise we’re talking about today, then you’re going to love this free guide that I’ve created on how to break down any advanced exercise. So if you are wanting to see, like, what are the different ways that you can consider breaking down any advanced exercise so that no matter where you are in your practice, you’re building yourself up to it, go to OPC Advanced.
How to Prepare for Control Balance Off Reformer
Alright, so I want to get into all the different exercises you could be making sure you’re doing to prepare for control balance off but also we should do it so that you can see these things in action. If you want full details, we have all those tutorials and everything. But first, let’s talk setup and Pilates Reformer spring settings, because this really matters for safety. You want to make sure your foot bar is down. I get a lot of people tagging me in their control balance off with a foot bar that is up, or a jump board that is in. Get it out of the way. Safety, safety, okay. Next thing, head rest needs to be down. So if you at all, get your head over on that headrest. It’s a flat, flat headrest. And then you have two springs on the Reformer, okay? And that just keeps it as a safety as well. You don’t want to only have one spring on. Now, you want to slide out. And by the way, control balance off on the Reformer comes like towards the last third of your Reformer workout, because you will have done a ton of the stuff about to talk about.
So notice how I took my forearms like a genie. I put them over my head, and that is the space I want between my head and my shoulder rests so I can get into this exercise. Okay, now that we are on where we need to be on the carriage, I can grab the shoulder rests, bring my knees into my chest and do a reverse, rolling like a ball into a jackknife. Okay, so there you go. Then I’m going to take, we’re gonna do the prep. So my left hand comes to the top of the shoulder rest, and my right leg goes to the frame right. And a lot of people like to collapse here, reach it. Now, that single straight leg stretch right there, isn’t it? And it’s tree, and it’s elephant. I bring the legs back together, and then I switch the hands, and I do the prep again. That is also side leg kick, single leg circles, and then I go back to the first side, and I’m working this hand into the shoulder rest, and I’m reaching this leg up, and it goes up so much as this leg goes back, so much. And because they’re going up and they’re going back, physics says I have to come off. I didn’t take that class, but I’m assuming that’s what it means. And then you come up, and your chest is now going through a tall back into extensions. There’s your swan prep. This leg is holding itself up like it would for single leg kick or side leg kick, right? And then now I have to come back down. So now I have to do a roll up. I’d have to round into myself. And then I’m going to look at this back leg. I’m going to look at it, I’m going to look at it. I’m going to look at it. And because of physics and gravity, you come down. That’s it. So, do you hear how many exercises that I listed in there? And there are so many more. So let’s talk about them.
Smaller Pilates Exercises for Control Balance Off
All right. So now that you’ve seen it, we’re all on the same page. Now let’s talk about those smaller exercises. So and by the way, these are not an exhaustive list, but these are ones that, if I was to see you do them, I would be like, oh, yeah, we’re getting closer to control balance off, right? So rolling like a ball. Can you balance in your rolling like a ball, upside down for two full seconds? Not on your neck, on your shoulders, and then when you come up, do you balance and not let your feet touch that if you have that control, I know we can balance and talk about taking our legs up right? Swan prep, can you do extension through your thoracic or are you doing it through your lower back? If you’re doing through your lower back, when we come off, you’re going to feel like you’re about to fall, because nobody wants to balance on one leg in their lower back. It’s not going to feel very good. Right? Single straight leg stretch, when you do single straight leg stretch, that’s it’s in part of the abstainers. When you do it, you’ll see that there’s one leg that’s in the hands, and there’s one leg that’s free. That leg that’s free. If someone were to come and push on that leg, would you sit up, or that leg hit the ground? If that leg would hit the ground, then we are not connected. That your free leg should be so connected. If someone pushes on it, whoop. You just sit right up. That’s how you want that to be. Or you can almost do open leg rocker with your leg split like that, and they would stay apart. Okay, single leg kick. You get that extension that we need to have at the top, but also you’re getting that hamstring strength that we need to support those legs. Single leg circles, that standing leg when you come off is that same leg that’s on the Mat straight with one leg up doing its circling thing.
Jackknife Pilates tutorial, it’s a big exercise. It is an advanced Mat exercise, but it brings everything we need to stay on our shoulders. Can you control yourself down in your jackknife? If you can’t, if you just flop down the back arches, we got to get that control first. Okay? And one more thing on your Mat would be shoulder bridge. This is an exercise that you don’t even have to the kicks yet. You can start off just doing the bridge part. It gets you getting used to sitting on your shoulders. Then when you have those kicks in without your hips dipping. So if you out a kick and a hip drops down. It’s going to make for a hard control balance, right? Because the hip is one leg is going to be up, one legs gonna be down. You’re gonna be falling down on your side. So definitely get that shoulder bridge in there. And those are just the Pilates balance exercises on Mat. There’s so many on the Contrology Reformer exercises that we could talk about. I’ve named a few in this video, but it’s important that we don’t get so excited about these big, beautiful exercises that have a cartwheel off that we skip building our foundations and you’re mad at something you can practice daily, right? You don’t have to always have access to a Reformer to build yourself up to control balance off. If you’re really interested in doing control balance off your reformer. I actually have a really fun series. It’s not free, but it’s not crazy expensive, and I’m really proud of it, because people still talk about it to this day, and we did it a couple years ago, and every single person found their control balance. That’s why it’s called control your balance challenge. So I want you to go to OPC CYBC challenge. You’re gonna get three classes that also have many workshops attached, and each Reformer class will build you up to finding your version of control balance off.
Why It’s Worth Practicing
Well, first of all, it actually is going to combine all the efforting you’ve been doing in your Pilates practice and allow you to see what it’s been building towards, challenge your balance, challenge your stamina, challenge your endurance, and boost the confidence, because it’s pretty cool, even when you only get the prep for the first time, or only if your foot comes down and you kind of like slither off, there is something really fun and exhilarating about it. Have you done a somersault lately? No, of course, you haven’t. So this is so fun, builds confidence, and most importantly, it reveals where we have more work to do in our other exercises. So it allows you to be curious when you go back to your practice the next day and you get to that rolling like a ball, it’s like, what else can I juice out of this? Because it’s going to make the control balance even more possible. And of course, we are not doing Pilates just to be perfect at control balance or any other advanced Pilates exercise, although it is fun party tricks, isn’t it? We are doing it so we can do different things in our life better. And I promise you there will be times in your life when you’re going to miss a step, you’re going to stumble, you’re going to fall. I have done a somersault off a motorcycle, and I stood up afterwards. And it is not because I’m perfect at any exercise, but because I do have a consistent Pilates practice, as you rolling like a ball and staying up on two feet. So it’s always worth giving a try and allowing your practice to reveal how great you’ve made connections and where we have work to go.
Find Your Control Balance with OPC Community
Thank you so much for watching this video with me today. I hope this was helpful. I hope has your brain thinking? I hope it has you fallen in love with your foundational Pilates practice as well. If you would like to check out the guide, you go to opc.me/advanced, and if you want to grab those classes and really find what your control balance is, go to opc.me/cybc. And if you are wanting to have me take a look at your control balance off on your Reformer or even on your Mat. We do that for OPC members, so you can just go to OPC YouTube and join OPC not only have consistency and community and a place to ask questions about your practice and learn how to connect the dots on so many exercises, but you can submit a video of you doing control balance off, and I will tell you what’s going on where you have to work on, what exercises to add to your practice. Thank you so much. Have an amazing day.
