Roll Over

So we're looking at the Roll Over. This is a great exercise-- not for everyone-- but it's a great exercise and it's third in the list of mat repertoire. This exercise is going to be for, once again abdominal strength, also spinal mobility. It's one of the key things we need, not only in Pilates, but in our lives. So let's think of that as the reason we're doing this exercise.

A way to learn control of the spine and this lovely exercise. Amy is set up where she's lying flat on her back. Her legs are together. She's going to draw her belly in-- her shoulders are down-- and float the legs up, bringing them all the way to 90. That was her inhale.

She's going to exhale and rise up and over, finding this lovely line, this horizontal line. It's as if she's piercing the back wall with her feet, while holding her hips back just a little. So you will see and should have a C Curve to the spine here. It's not meant to be real straight. So allow that opening of the hips.

From that place, she's going to separate her feet. She flexes them. You can lower the feet to the floor before moving your back. And from there-- now take the stretch as she rolls down. She's exhaling, melting her way back down.

When she reaches about 90 she'll point her toes, circle the legs around and bring them together to do it again. Inhaling to 90. Exhaling up and over. From here she flexes, separates her feet. It's about hip distance.

Now, notice when Amy lowers her feet she doesn't change her back here. You don't want to collapse on your back. So if you're not ready for that flexibility, don't do it. Let it be later. From there she exhales and rolls her way down-- smoothing out the spine, binding pelvis.

And circle around. Let's do it again-- inhale. You're seeing Amy go all the way to the ground or almost. That's how Joseph did it. But it's something you want to build to.

So don't hesitate to stop when you get to 90 degrees. Circle and close and one last time. Exhale up and over. Flex and separate. Lowering the legs and now, even though she's rolling away, she's drawing energy out her feet, reaching away.

In almost every class you're going to see this reversed. So she'll finish that close. Now, with the toes still pointed, she's going to inhale and open the feet. Exhale up and over. And you'll notice Amy is not whipping her legs over, right.

You saw that control. That's a real big benefit of this exercise. You want to make sure you're not tossing yourself over. She flexes her feet on the way down this time. Oh, isn't that a lovely stretch.

Point, circle. Open around she goes over with her feet apart. From that horizontal position flex stretch then lower and exhale down. We're going to give you one more of those. And by the way, it's not just the abs.

There's some sense of wanting to hang on a little bit with the back of the legs. So even as Amy does this, and she lowers her legs down together, there's this gentle sense of engagement through the hamstrings. That's something to work on later, but it's something to think about. And then fold your knees at the end. That's the Roll Over.