In this live‑streamed Pilates session, basketball player Elijah Bryant, joined by his brother Kai (a regular reformer user) and their mother (a certified Pilates instructor), guides viewers through a full‑body reformer workout tailored for basketball athletes. The class emphasizes low‑impact, lengthening, and strengthening movements that enhance core stability, hip activation, and shoulder control—key attributes for on‑court performance. Elijah demonstrates and narrates each exercise, offering detailed foot, ankle, and hand positioning cues, breath‑linked repetitions (typically 10‑25 reps per set), and real‑time adjustments based on chat feedback. The routine incorporates a variety of reformer drills—ankle pulls, strap “rip” and “fish” motions, hip twists, shoulder block work, and controlled spinal extensions—while repeatedly stressing proper alignment, controlled tempo, and progressive range of motion. The session blends instructional clarity with a conversational, enthusiastic tone, highlighting the functional benefits of Pilates for basketball players and encouraging viewers to adapt the movements to their own flexibility and strength levels.
Chapters
How's it going, guys? Elijah Bryant here. We're gonna do some Pilates. I haven't done it in a while. My mom's a Pilates instructor, but Kai, my brother, he does it all the time with my mom, so he's gonna run us through what he does for his reformer. And Pilates is a great exercise for basketball players because it's low impact and you're still lengthening and strengthening at the same time. So let's go. 4 springs on. 4 springs. Okay, put your toe bones together, your ankles together, like ankle bones. Yeah, just try to— when you come in, think about pulling, pulling your ankles under the foot bar. Like putting your toes— yeah, pulling your toes back. So you're feeling it, you're getting your ankles on, you're feeling it right here, like right here. Yeah, yeah, get your ankle on the foot bar. And now you want to go to your heels, pull your toes as far as— act like there's a board in front of your feet and you don't want to touch the board. You're gonna do 10 of these also. Oh, now we got tendon stretch, which is— I'm doing more. And your feet on the toe right here, you want to go— all right, you want to go here and just sink into your— it's sinking into your heel, sinking your toes. Bumping or just being still? I bump, but you You can— it feels better if someone's pulling your feet. I'll do it. Hold on. Heels together, toes apart. Trying to get all the way deep as possible as you can. No, go back, go back. Feet under. Oh yeah, Mom pulls. Oh, get your handlebars and get into your— get into like— not— yeah, get like this. Get some tension in the things. Same time, lift head up, feet out, hands out, same time. Uplift. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. And go ahead. So you do what, 20, 50? Like 1, 2, 5? You're supposed to do every, every breath. That's what I do. We're going to do it one more time. Yeah, we're going to go 25. 3, 4, 5. Both, both straps, bar, this in between here, or this in between here. Through and through. Yeah, you put your feet in like this. Try to get your— just get— go to where just your tailbone is on the— on the— yeah, on the thing. Feet together like this. Yeah. And make sure your straps are even above, above the shoulder blocks. Yeah. And then you're gonna put your feet, feet, toes apart. Yeah. And push out nice and controlled and right back in, keeping your tailbone on the— try to keep your tailbone on the thing. Okay, we're gonna go for— we're gonna go We're going for 8. Why do you like Pilates? Uh, I just feel like, like you said before in the intro, it's very good for non-impact, and I feel like I'm still getting good activation through all the ranges. Yeah, same. I feel like loose but also strong after. Yeah, same thing, but we're gonna start a little higher and we're gonna push out and go around, out and around. Nice and controlled. And you're trying to get your shoulder— your straps to come up same time off the shoulder blocks. Uh, you know, you could be a Pilates instructor. You know all the cues. We're gonna go through 5 and then we switch. Yep, 5 other ones. What's the cue going back? Same thing? You wanted to pop off the top this time to the side. And then you're gonna go hands here, grab onto the thing, and you're gonna go out, down, up. Back. Trying to keep your back straight, shoulders back, shoulders down and back and forth. Try to get far up as possible. Now we're gonna go same thing, but you put your hands shorter blocks. Try to get the back straight as possible. Down, up, down, up. No, all farther. You gotta go further down, further down. Make sure your shoulders are even. There you go, there you go. Get a lot of range of motion going down. Yeah, there you go. You're gonna put your— I'm not gonna help. Am I gonna help you? You're gonna go out, out, hands. Yep, hands, hands straight, down and back like this. So keep them— yep, there you go. Come here, down, down and up, down and up. Go out, down, up, back straight, back straight as possible, back straight as possible. Yeah, try to get to my hands, try to get to my hands. Reach. I'll reach like— you want to reach like that? No, no, just keep your hands up, like actively reaching towards my hands. Oh, there you go. Go down. Yep, down. There you go. I got to get a stretch. Oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Ooh, stretch me! These suck. What? Side? Yeah, those things suck. All right, so we're going to foot in here, feet in here. All right, like this. Go back just enough. All right, come on. Trying to rip the— trying to rip the, uh, the strap on their feet. Rip it. Trying to rip it. Rip it, pulling back? No, trying to rip it side, like— oh, pushing it outside? Yeah, trying to activate your hips. Uh, all right, long arms, shoulders down. I'm going to go back, up, back. Still trying to rip that strap. I'm going to go side. Other side. Keep your hip down. Yeah, yeah, I remember this one. You don't want to lift off. You don't want to lift your hip up. Just trying to activate the side of your core. Alternate or just alternate? Alternate. Yeah, we're also— we're going to add fishing to it. So you're going to go down, fish, and back. Twist down, fish. Yep. Here, twist, face, look at your toes, turn back up, and then back up here. Twist down, face, toes. Yep. Alternate on the— when you go left side, so like this, you're gonna lean over, look back on top, and then here, back the same way you came from. Toes, left, up. Go here, use the bar. Okay, yeah, that'll help more. Put your hands like this. Oh my gosh, we're going to go here. So we're going to start around this and then we're going to go behind the head and then out for 10. Well, there's no way you get 10 all 30. Yeah, is that moving too slow? You're going way slower. Oh, I thought it was slow and controlled. I'm like looking over. Go slow and controlled. All right, go slow and control 10 if you want it to hurt more than you hurt more. Oh yeah, that feels amazing. It's like a reward after. Yeah, I think you got two hands over here. Elephant. I'm an elephant. Keeping your butt forward. Toes up, back half inch, half. Oh, not too much. A little bit, just a little bit. In and back in. Keep toes up the whole time. Out, in. Close, close, close, close, close. Yep. Super light, super light, super light. Out. Butt down. Butt to your— butt to your heels. But I can't go that far. I said— are you being serious? Yeah, and it's tight. Your hamstrings are cooked, Chad. Oh, Chad. Oh, Chad, his hamstrings are cooked. Good. All right, 3 inches off the ground with your knees. 3, 3 inches, that's all you need. Push. Should feel it, should feel all your knees, should hurt so bad. We're gonna go 20, 20. So we're gonna go here. Yep. Feet, feet apart. Yep. Way down like this. Out, in. Oh, faster. I'm going slow. You can go slow for a better stretch, but— oh, same thing. Feet there, and then not lay down. Yeah, pelvic. I forgot. Now lay back. You're going to lift your booty up here first. Yep. Out, in. Keep Butt up the whole time. Oh really? Yeah, little lower. Butt a little lower. Butt a little lower. Yeah. Which one are you picking, chat? Which one are you picking in the chat? Faith plus consistency. Love.
