Pilates Plus Magazine July 2017 July 2017 Monthly Magazine | Page 5

How To Master Rolling
Ae you someone who has always struggled with rolling, especially The Rollup? It’s most likely
due to one or more of the following not being developed or mastered in your body.
Flexibility
Ah, yes here it is again! If you are not dedicated to stretching and maintaining flexibility in your
muscles, especially the hamstrings (back of the thighs) and the hip flexors (front of the thigh)
rolling will always be a challenge and result in a “clunking” of your spine on the way down,
rather than a roll.
Abdominal Strength
The inward contraction of the abdominal muscles in the correct way is what drives The Rollup
movement. It creates “space” in the front of your body and takes the spine in to a curved shape
that allows it to rollup effortlessly. If you don’t use the abdominals correctly, you will “brace”
and push the abs out making your body stiff and unable to roll.
Breath
This is the foundation of rolling. Correct breathing will enable the abdominals to contract in the
correct way and will release tension and stiffness. You will never be able to master rolling if you
do not master the breath. This actually applies to all pilates movements but in particular The
Rollup. There is no point in trying to force a rollup without breathing correctly, you are not cre-
ating functional movement, you are “just doing an exercise for the sake of doing it”...not the
Pilates way!!!