Episode 21: The Roll-up
Are you ready to try the Pilates exercise called the "Roll-up"? Are you currently doing the Roll-up and want to understand safe progressions that prevent injury?
In today's episode I break down the key things you need to know about this exercise!
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Show Notes:
Introduction to the podcast "Better Than a Pill" with host Cari Vann. The episode focuses on a Pilates exercise called the "roll up."
Definition of roll up: An exercise similar to an old-fashioned sit-up, but emphasizes stretching and articulating the spine rather than just lifting the torso off the floor.
Discussion about how to perform the roll up properly - peeling your spine one vertebra at a time, up off the mat and then back down into the mat in coordination with your breathing.
The roll up is an advanced exercise and should be taught in stages to avoid compensating with the wrong muscles, especially the back.
Discussion about the benefits of the roll up:
It helps to limber and stretch your joints and muscles.
Improves your breathing technique and spinal articulation.
Promotes deep breathing and cleanses lungs of impurities.
Restores spine to its natural state of uniform flexibility and strength.
Stimulates circulation and promotes the mind-body connection.
Long-term benefits include a strong, healthy spine, powerful abdominals, balanced shoulder girdle, well-aligned posture, and healthy hamstrings.
Explanation about precautions, modifications, and progressions in learning the roll up.
It's important to start with a modified version of the exercise and slowly progress to the full form.
Suggestions for starting stages: do it seated with your hands underneath your thighs, roll back only until your arms are extended, squeeze a ball between your knees for a deeper connection to your center.
Discourages the rush to perform the full roll up immediately as it requires tremendous control and should not be forced to avoid injury.
Ends the episode with a quote from Joseph Pilates highlighting the importance of spine flexibility as a measure of true age.
Key Takeaways:
The roll up is a Pilates exercise that focuses on stretching and articulating the spine one vertebra at a time. It is more about spinal flexibility than strength.
The roll up should be taught in stages to avoid injury. Starting with a modified version helps to slowly adapt the body to the exercise and avoid compensating with the wrong muscles.
The roll up has numerous benefits including improved breathing technique, enhanced spinal flexibility, and strengthening of the abdominals. It also promotes mind-body connection, better posture, and healthier hamstrings.
Patience and gradual progression are key in mastering the roll up. Rushing to perform the full roll up without being ready can lead to injury.
The flexibility of the spine is not only critical for pain-free movement and avoiding injury, but also serves as an indicator of our true age, as emphasized by Joseph Pilates.
Transcript:
Hello everyone, and welcome back to Better Than a Pill. I'm Cari Vann and I'm so grateful and excited to be here again to share with you today. In today's episode, we're going to be talking about the Pilates exercise called the roll up, and everything you need to know about this exercise.
So what is the roll up? Well, in its full form, the roll up is similar to an old fashion situp, but it emphasizes stretching and articulating your spine rather than just heaving your torso off of the floor. In essence, you're peeling your spine one vertebrae at a time, up off the mat and then back down into the mat in coordination with your breathing. With each movement, your spine becomes more flexible and your abdominals become stronger.
However, the full roll up is actually quite an advanced movement and should be taught in stages. And I will talk more about this later in the episode. If you do not learn the movement in stages, you end up compensating, and mainly you compensate with the wrong muscles, including the back. Believe it or not, I've had numerous clients over the years share with me stories of how they were told to go right into the roll up in its full form. And unfortunately, the outcome usually is not good, and that's how injury occurs.
Okay, let's get into some of the benefits of the roll up. Well, the roll up helps to limber and stretch your joints and muscles, and it improves your breathing technique. You work on spinal articulation, which is one of the fundamental skills that we've talked about, that emphasizing the one vertebrae at a time. It also helps to promote deep breathing. The roll up utilizes the action of rolling and unrolling the spine. And the action of rolling actually cleanses your lungs of impurities and so on.
So rolling can help to restore your spine to its normal and natural state of uniform, flexibility and strength. The roll up also stimulates your circulation, and the portion of your nervous system housed in the spinal column, which promotes the mind body connection. It has long term benefits of a strong, healthy spine and powerful abdominals, all of which promote a pain free and injury free life. It can help you to develop a balanced shoulder girdle, well aligned posture, and healthy hamstrings if it is in its full form.
So we'll get into a little bit about precautions, modifications and progressions. Now, as I mentioned earlier, the roll up needs to be taught in stages. Even if you can do the full roll up, there is a good chance that you are cheating and compensating with other muscles, which, like I said earlier, in most cases is your back. Over the years, I have learned that the majority of people, even Pilates, instructors struggle with this exercise because they try to force their bodies to achieve the exercise when their body is not ready to progress.
It really takes time, and in my opinion, the goal should not be to achieve the full roll up ever. It should be to actually do the movement in whatever modified version your body needs so that you can reap the benefits of the movement by beginning to get the movement into your body. That's what's most important. The exercise is very challenging in and of itself, and you want to be able to start here and then learn to connect to your body slowly.
The first stage of the roll up should be done seated with your hands underneath your thighs as you learn to roll back, trying to stay connected to your scoop and your breath getting movement in the spine. You only need to roll back until your arms are extended. It can also help to squeeze a ball between your knees in order to allow for a deeper connection to your center and your scoop. The next level I teach is by using a thera band around the ankles or you could use a stretch strap and beginning to go back only as far as your body feels comfortable without any strain or compensation.
The full roll up takes tremendous control and should not be forced. It is very individualized and it drives me crazy seeing people force this movement, which happens to be all of the time and normally leads to injury. So it takes time for our spine to become more flexible and our centers to become strong enough to support the movement.
Before we finish today, I will leave you with this quote, which I love from Joseph Pilates "If your spine is inflexibly stiff at 30 years old, you are old. If it is completely flexible at 60, you are young. The only real guide to your true age lies not in the years or how old you think you feel, but by the degree of natural and normal flexibility enjoyed by your spine throughout life." Well, I think that sums it up. Spinal movement and flexibility are not only key for pain free movement and injury, but how we determine our true age.
So just to recap, today we talked about the Pilates exercise called the roll up. We talked about its benefits and went through a safe and proper progression method that works without inducing injury, as well as a few tips for the movement. I hope you all enjoyed this episode and found it helpful. Remember, we do new episodes every week on Wednesday and I look forward to having you join me then. Bye.