Pilates Workouts
The Roll Up:
In spite of the name of this exercise, you begin by rolling down. It is an excellent way to strengthen the abdominals but is very challenging, so ensure you are comfortable and confident with the first position before moving on. Although you are curving your spine do not collapse into the movement. Roll down only a little way at first to get the feel of the movement, then roll lower as you become stronger. At all times, do a mental check that you are not tensing other parts of your body, such as your neck or face. As you come back to an upright position imagine that you are sitting against a cold steel door.
Purpose: to strengthen the abdominals
Target Muscles: Abdominals, hip flexors
Repetitions: Repeat 10 times.
First Position:
1. Sit upright with your feet on the floor and your knees bent. Hold the back of your thighs, with your elbows bent and your arms open, don’t over grip. Your spine should be in neutral. Lengthen up through the spine but do not grip the neck. Slide the shoulder blades down the spine.
2. Inhale and tilt your pelvis to create a C-shaped spine. Keeping your feet flat on the floor, roll down bone by bone, creating space between the vertebrae. Your hands are there to support you if you lose control but try to rely on abdominal strength to stabilize the movement. As you curl down, imagine your spine is a bicycle chain that you are placing down link by link. When you have lowered down as far as you can, exhale and contract the abdominals to roll back up to the starting position. Sit upright, keeping the spine in neutral.
Checkpoints:
– Do not over grip the legs, use them only as support
– Lengthen u through the spine in the starting position
– Feel the abdominals pull you up.
Second Position:
1. This time, hold your arms directly in front of you, level with your shoulders, your elbows should be bent, arms rounded. Let your shoulder blades glide down your spine and feel the crown of your head “float” up towards the ceiling. Inhale and tilt your pelvis to being the downward roll as before.
2. When you first progress to this position try a few small roll-downs to get the feel of the movement before going down further. Feel the support of the abdominals throughout the downward and upward roll. Keep your feet flat on the floor all the time.
Checkpoints:
– Use the abdominals, not momentum, to pull you up
– Lower bone by bone
– Do not collapse into the movement Keep the feet on the floor.
