What to do when you can’t do a Pilates Roll Up

Imagine this scenario.  A person starts taking a Pilates Mat Class.  She might be an active person who wants to see what this “core strength” thing is all about.  She goes to her very first class, and it is hard.  She feels work in her belly muscles, and quite frankly, this first class is just a little confusing.  What is this move vertebra by vertebra business?  When was she supposed to exhale again?  She might have even found herself holding her breath completely.  Maybe some exercises seemed absolutely impossible.  She may have learned that there is a completely different way of thinking about the body.  The movement might seem foreign.  The necessary awareness may feel very different than other fitness classes. But at the end of the day she decides a Pilates Mat Class is worth a second try.

Fast-forward two years…She has been going to Pilates Mat Classes twice a week.  She has made friends with her classmates, and it has become a way of life for her.  She loves the way she feels after a Pilates Class.  She feels longer and stronger. Her Forward Leg pull rocks. Her balance is improved, and she is more flexible.  Everything seems better, except for one pesky exercise…The Pilates Roll up still feels elusive…She has practiced and tried and practice and tried some more, but she simply just can’t get past the ribcage when doing the Pilates Roll up…She finally goes to her teacher after class and says, “What can I do? I’ve practiced and practiced, and no matter how hard I try I just can’t seem to do the roll up.” 

This did happen, and when my client came to me, we talked about her posture and about the fact that The Pilates Roll up isn’t about abdominal strength.  Her abdominals were strong.  The Pilates Roll up was about finding segmental spine movement.  The Pilates Roll up was about finding ease in the back so that the spine can bend.  We talked about the fact that simply “practicing” the roll up might be reinforcing the movement patterns that are impeding her progress.  Then we set up an appointment so that we could design a workout that would help her body prepare for the roll up.  Will it work?  I hope so, and I think so. 

Try the following video.  Let me know what you think.  Might this work?  Would you be willing to try this for two weeks?

Like so many workouts, this series has basis in many different movement theories.  I think of it as collecting the tidbits of information and then connecting the dots.

Tidbit #1 I have learned this tidbit many times in many different ways.  And simply stated, it doesn’t matter how strong your abdominals are if your back doesn’t move.  So in my opinion the first steps in training to do the roll up is to loosen the back of the body.  In the video I do this with The Hamstring Release Series and several Spine Stretches that move the spine in several planes of motion.

Tidbit #2 Shortness in the Hip Flexors can impede movement in the Lumbar Spine.  The Hip Flexor Stretches with the Magic Circle on the Foam Roller can open the front of the hip, which will then allow the tailbone to drop and the spine to lengthen. These are dynamic stretches that allow the bones of the legs to move in the hip socket so that any fascial “stuckness” can be released.

Tidbit #3 Using the diaphragm efficiently helps lengthen the spine, and can connect the upper body to the lower body.  When designing this workout I coupled this idea with the fact that throughout my practice most of the people who have trouble with the roll up get stuck at the ribcage.  I also thought about how thanks to Tom Myers I know that the diaphragm and the psoas are fascially connected, and I connected this to the idea that we often forget to get all of the air out of our lungs…(This might need to be Tidbit #3a-3d)  It’s important in all of the exercises to understand that the breath can move the body.  It can open the ribs.  It is the Olive Oil of any Pilates Recipe! 

Tidbit #4 The Roll up is about segmental spinal movement…What’s another exercise that increases segmental movement yet uses gravity to help?  That’s right the bridge…There is a reason that I teach the bridge in almost every single pilates class…It is safe, effective, and uses the breath to find segments of movement that might be stuck.

Try the workout and see what you think?  Let us know if you think it might just work for you!   

Katrina Hawley PMA-CPT, C.M.A
Director of Instruction at The Pilates Studio

Core Strength Part I: What is the Core anyway?

 One won’t be surprised to see how many websites come to the surface when a person types core strength into the google search engine.  It’s the fitness buzzword these days.  This core strength phenomenon brings forth several questions for me.  First, what is the core?  Second, what’s the best way to add functional strength to the core? And finally, if strength in the core of the body is so important, and we work under the assumption that efficient movement is what the body will choose above all else, then why is the core so weak in the first place?  The following will be an answer to that first question, and then in subsequent blog posts we will explore answers to the others.

I LOVE the Psoas Still!

This first question is fun for me, because my own personal definition of the core has evolved over the years…At first to me the core was clearly the abdominals, and could be strengthened by doing “crunches.” (You should have seen me crank them out!!!) Then as my education developed I learned about the multiple layers of the abdominals and thus I added oblique abdominal “crunches” to my core strength protocol…Then I learned about the psoas, which is not an abdominal muscle at all and my whole view of the core changed. (If there were a soundtrack to this blog post, this would be the moment when bells start ringing) I was about 22 at the time.  I remember walking the streets of New York thinking about the Psoas and the way it swings the leg in the gait and supports the upright posture of the spine.  At this point, the Psoas was definitely the most important muscle of the core!!!!!! (The exclamation points are meant to signify the tenacity with which a 22-year-old anatomy geek can latch onto an idea and promote it as the TRUTH OF THE WORLD!) 

Great picture of Transverse as well as Definition I - below

As my training continued I had another “aha” moment when I discovered in my own body the transverse abdominals.  This is the deepest abdominal layer with muscle fibers on the side of the waist, but learning about the transverse abdominals was also my very first introduction to the importance of fascia…(here come the soundtrack bells again) When I look back I was learning about fascia all along but it was at this point that all of the pieces seemed to fit together.  I learned of the word Gestalt .  Our bodies are a system of relationships that work together to make us whole…one cannot talk about the core as just the abdominals, or just the psoas, or just the transverse abdominal fascia.  To really define the core of the body one has to study the relationships between these muscles.  Also when we consider the infinite variation these relationships can manifest in the body, it also becomes absurd to think that there is just one way or even a best way to strengthen the core. I may have been 24 or 25 when this kicked in, and my mind was blown!

However, while sharing a large part of my geekiness with you, I have yet to answer the question posed?  What is the Core?  In my work, I find myself vacillating between a few different theories or definitions, depending on an individual client’s needs.  Often people come to me and say I need to strengthen my core, and I respond with, “Why?” Core strength is important, but everyone comes to the studio with a different goal that “core strength” will achieve. These goals help me decide how to work with each person.

Core Definition I – I use this when I work with a client who comes to me and says, “I need to strengthen my core to relieve back pain.”

According to this definition, the core is the transverse abdominals, pelvic floor, multifidi, and (depending on who you talk to) the diaphragm (see picture above).  When working with this part of the core, the client’s goal is lumbo-pelvic stability.  This person wants to have strength and stability in the core so that she can go about daily living without fear of a spasm or slipped disc.  When working with this definition I find myself using the cues, “pull your belly to your spine, smile with your belly button, zip up the front of your pelvis.” 

Core Definition II – I use this when I work with a client who comes to me and says, “I need to strengthen my core so that I have better posture.”

Quadruped position

Notice the Depth of the Front of the Spine

The core is the Deep Front Line – I base this definition on Tom Myers Anatomy Trains Theory.  When I studied with Tom he talked us through a quadruped exercise (the one that can be found in any Physical Therapist Office, as well as most yoga classes.) Yet, when Mr. Myers took us through this exercise he talked about the inside of the ankles, inside the back of the lower leg, the inner thighs, the pelvic floor, the psoas, the anterior longitudinal ligament, and the scalenes.  He didn’t ever say pull your belly to your spine. He didn’t even mention the belly, but as he was leading the class through this exercise the core of my being was engaged and the front of my spine was supported. 

This definition of the core allows people to think about their posture differently.  When a person is sitting and he begins to imagine the front of his spine, his posture improves, he grows, his spine becomes healthy… We often forget how central the spine is in this body.  The little bumps on your back are such a small part of the spine.   If we support the front of the spine our posture will be great without all of the effort.       

Definition III  -  I use this definition of the core when someone says to me, “I need to strengthen my core so that I can run faster, kick further, ski better…”

The Core is the Hamstrings, the Gluteus Medius, the Pelvic Floor, Low Abdominals, Psoas and Diaphragm.

Doing a series of abdominal exercises will strengthen the core, but it will do nothing for functional strength and performance improvement, if the core is not addressed along with kinetic chains in functional movement.  The abdominals and the psoas need to be strong if one wants to improve a stride because they pull the body forward, however, the diaphragm low abdominals

(internal obliques) and hamstrings are the balancing factors when working with this stride because they push from behind.  Full body movements that engage the core in function are going to be the core strengtheners that a person needs in this situation.      

Definition IV – I address this definition of the core when someone says, “I want to strengthen my core to relieve symptoms from my scoliosis”

Hardly symmetrical

To be quite frank, this is a new definition for me, and one that I am only in the beginning stages of learning, playing, and exploring.  It all started when I realized during my intakes that I say, “My training involved learning an awful lot about a perfectly symmetrical musculo-skeletal system of which I have never seen in real life.”  Well, it’s been ten years, why haven’t I seen this perfectly symmetrical person.  There’s got to be somebody right?  Well there’s not, and you want to know why.  Because we only have one heart and it’s one the left side (most of the time) and our liver is much larger than our stomach, we only have one colon and it changes sizes depending on what’s in it, and so on and so forth. 

How does the structure of our organs affect our musculo-skeletal system and of course the reverse can be true, how does the efficiency of movement in our musculo-skeletal system affect our organs.  And why is there all of this talk about core strength without a mention of our organs?  So in these explorations with clients we often use just the breath, try to roll, try to move without musculature, imagine our organs suspended in the pressure of the organ cavities. 

So there you have it…I still haven’t told you exactly what the core is, because for me it is constantly changing.  The body is such a mystery, and when we try to define this mystery in just one way, then we leave out so many possibilities.  So please, if you have other definitions of the core send them my way.  We can learn from each other as we all work to look at the same bodies with different eyes!

Katrina Hawley C.M.A, R.S.M.E

Co-owner The Pilates Studio