Pilates can be a game-changer for core strength, and the plank exercise is a popular exercise that many instructors include in their training. It has all the benefits for strength and stability, but if you’re anything like me, you’ll have a love/hate relationship with the move. So, imagine my delight when an instructor told me about how effective roll-ups can be in a bodyweight Pilates workout.
Pilates roll-ups involve lying on your back, slowly raising your back off the ground, and coming up to a seated position, explains Helen O’Leary, a certified Pilates instructor at Complete Pilates. She’s a big fan of the exercise as it stretches the intercostal muscles in your back while engaging your upper and lower abdominal muscles and your obliques.
As well as improving core strength, it helps improve spine flexibility and stretches your hamstrings. Even after a 10-minute Pilates workout, when I do roll-ups, I often feel like I sit and stand taller afterwards, so I know it’s also helping with my posture and back mobility.
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How to do Pilates roll-ups
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- Lie on your back with your legs straight and reach your arms over your head. Lay on a thick yoga mat if you feel pressure on your lower back or hip joints.
- Take a deep breath through your nose and as you exhale, start to lift your arms off the floor.
- As your arms pass your ears, start to curl your head forward and look towards your thighs as your upper back peels off the mat.
- Keep your legs heavy as you continue to roll forward and reach your arms forward to pull the rest of your back off the floor.
- As you come up into sitting, roll your pelvis right up on top of your sitting bones, and sit up tall, with your head floating over the ribcage and your ribcage over the hips.
- If you struggle to sit up tall in this position, you may need to bend your knees to get there. If you experience neck pain during this exercise, you may need to have your hands behind your head to support the weight of your head.
- Roll back down again, slowly, to start the move all over again.
Are Pilates roll ups difficult?
Like the plank, this exercise can take some practice and is not something everyone can do straight away, says the instructor. “People struggle with Pilates roll-ups, partly because it is a novel movement that we don’t perform every day, and partly because it is quite technical,” says Helen.
“You need to understand the movement to be able to do it. The roll-up is a combination of abdominals and hip flexors working, the abdominals more through the early part of the roll-up, and the hip flexors during the latter part of the roll-up.”
Tips for doing the Pilates roll up
- Stay in control: Helen says the biggest mistake people make is “trying to use momentum to do this movement, similar to the way that most people do sit-ups” and other core exercises. The movement is all about control and going slow because this makes your stomach and hip flexor muscles work harder.
- Focus on your breath: Helen says, “If you hold your breath whilst you’re rolling up or down, you will create rigidity through your torso, and this interferes with the controlled spinal mobility that you need for the movement, and even prevents you from even getting up off the floor.” Breath control is key in all Pilates exercises, so the more you practice, the easier you will find it to.
- Watch out for your neck: It’s important not to crane your neck or overuse your neck muscles, says Helen. “During a roll up or curl up, you want to have a sense of lengthening through the back of the neck. To help with this, think of slightly nodding the head on top of the neck, as if to give yourself a slight double chin. As you start to curl up, direct your gaze towards the mid thigh, rather than up towards the ceiling. The rest of your body travels where your gaze goes, so this will make it easier,” she explains.
