Special Topics: Leg Day 

with Jeremy Laverdure, DPT

Special Topics Course Description

Increased leg strength and power correlate with better performance and decreased risk of injury in athletic populations, while deficits correlate with increased falls and all-cause mortality in the elderly. So we want to have lots of different strategies for working on the legs! This may require us to think outside the standard Pilates tool kit in order to create programming that is appropriately challenging for all our clients.

In this course, we’ll look at ways to make the most of the Pilates equipment and supplement the standard Pilates repertoire to help our clients build maximum strength and power in their legs. Participants will learn:

• Exercises for isolated quad and hamstring strengthening
• Strategies for coaching “functional” movements such as squats, deadlifts, and lunges
• Adaptations of exercises from sports performance (such as Nordic hamstring curls, reverse Nordics, and Copenhagen planks) for the Pilates environment
• Plyometric progressions to work on lower extremity power for everyone