Total Gym XL Pilates Exercises

The Total Gym XL is a single piece of exercise equipment that serves as a home gym by allowing users to perform various exercises on the one machine. While the Total Gym first came into use for weight lifting and weight training, many people have started to use the Total Gym XL system to perform low-impact Pilates exercises. You can now use the Total Gym XL to do many Pilates exercises previously possible only on the Pilates reformer machine.

  1. Tree Hugger

    • To use your Total Gym to perform Pilates exercises that work your arm muscles, sit on top of the bench with your knees bent in front of you and feet sitting on the bottom of the bench. Take the arm pulleys in your hands between your thumb and palm, with fingers pointed out straight in front of you. Bend your arms at approximately 90-degrees so your forearms point forward. Pull your arms forward and inward in a curve as though attempting to wrap your arms around a large tree. As you pull with your arms, you will pull the bench up and down on the machine to work the muscles in your arms with little effort.

    Scissors

    • Exercise your legs using Pilates methods on the Total Gym XL machine. Lay on the machine with your body inclined and your head pointing downhill. While lying on your back, slide your ankles into the hand straps of the Total Gym machine and then hold your legs at a 90-degree angle from the rest of your body. Hold your hands and arms flat against your sides and spread your legs out to the sides. As you do this, your entire body will move up slightly as the bench slides up. Close your legs and reopen repeatedly to work the leg muscles painlessly.

    Circles

    • Work the hips and more muscles throughout the legs by taking a twist on the Scissors Pilates move. Lying on your back on the Total Gym machine, with head facing downhill, place your feet inside the hand straps, placing the loops around your ankles. Point your feet in the air to form a 90-degree angle with your body and pull your feet out to the sides as though performing the Scissors move. Lower your legs towards the top of the machine as though drawing an invisible circle with your legs. Repeat this process six to ten times, in this order and reversed.