I’ve had the pleasure these past few months of working with ‘Samantha’, an 11 year old elite level gymnast with a lower lumbar L5/S1 spondylolisthesis. While she’s incredibly strong, she presents with some asymmetries in her core and hip stability. Multifidis activation and strength on the left side is decreased, as is right sided hip abduction. Using advanced Reformer exercises for the spondylolisthesis has proven to be challenging, yet fun and effective.

Sam’s coaches have already removed certain skills that could exacerbate the spondylolisthesis, so that was relieving to hear. While I don’t have a strong gymnastics background, my main goal has been to do a bit of cross training for her core and round out her deficits. A large part of our sessions has also been ensuring proper TA activation with exhale. While she relies on her rectus abdominus for power, I really wanted to spotlight her TAs. Slowing down to take time and stabilize her spine has also been an underlying theme.

The novelty and challenge of the Reformer has been so helpful in keeping Samantha interested in therapy. It has been really important to me to keep things light and fun. At the conclusion of each treatment, I ask what she found to be the most and least enjoyable. Thankfully I’ve been able to put together a mix of Reformer, Chair, Mat, and Tower to avoid to much repetition.

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Here’s a sample of the Reformer exercises we used for Samantha’s spondylolisthesis:

1) Double Leg Figure 8s on Mat: Kinda what it sounds like. Starting with legs long pointing straight up towards the ceiling, looping them down toward the floor before returning to start position and looping around above the trunk. She was allowed to side flex through the trunk but it had to be symmetrical each way. Samantha really struggled with this so I’ll definitely keep this in rotation. There’s also opportunity to layer on some Feet In Straps or Hands in Straps later.

2) Standing Carriage Pull: Samantha mastered Carriage Pull Round Back incredibly quickly, so I’ve been working on quality TA recruitment in standing vs kneeling. The big focus here was to avoid having the rectus abdominus completely take over.

Set-up: one light spring with grippy socks.

Starting position: Standing with hands down on the rail and feet against the shoulder rests.

• Inhale for a big belly breath then exhale to transfer the weight forward into the hands.
• Pulling the Carriage slightly using the trunk vs. quads while avoiding rectus dominant patterning.
• Option to lift one leg to a hover while maintaining neutral rotation.

3) Chair: Side body twist; moving from side lying plank up into a seated pike/V snap position for oblique work. Lots of feedback to not collapse into her side and instead activate her obliques.

4) Reformer: Side Splits +/- forward fold (Picking Flowers from the Foundational Course) for glute med with cues to avoid glute max gripping.

5) Reformer: Tendon Stretch with single leg. I had Samantha perform a bit of a hip CAR moving the leg from front to back as she pushed the Carriage out. Don’t be fooled, this exercise targets the abs if done correctly. Here’s a sneak peek from the Advanced Reformer course.

6) Cool Down on Reformer: Pigeon stretch (from the Foundational Course) to open up her lumbar spine and stretch out those hip abductors. Bonus points for adding a bit of breath work. Samantha really loved this one.

7) Homework: Handstands with asymmetrical leg poses while maintaining core support. Samantha has gymnastics programming 5 days per week, so I really wanted to make her homework fun. Sam does handstands at home all the time for fun, so I thought this would be easy to add on.

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Working with high level athletes makes me really appreciate my Advanced Reformer training. The challenging programming makes things fun and exciting. To get a better idea, checkout the Advanced section in my exercise library.

Have any favourite Reformer exercises for spondylolisthesis or spondylosis? I would love to hear them!