Neck Pull

Let's talk about the neck pull. The neck pull is a spinal articulation exercise in the pilates mat work similar to the roll up with some slight differences and certainly some additional challenges. And what the challenge is when people experience challenge mostly in this exercise could be one of two things. One would be either weak abdominals or very, very commonly, people who have very tight lower back extensors and have a difficult time finding flexion, particularly against gravity when the body is down on the mat and are unable to print their spine from when coming from down to up will have a difficult time getting off the ground and up from this exercise. So rather than explaining here how I might modify that, what I'll do is just show you after I demonstrate the neck pull as is for you.

So let's do that now. In this exercise, the neck pull, the legs will be out stretched with the feet plantar flexed and the legs actively adducting together. The hands are behind the head and the body reaches as far forward as it can over the legs and spinal flexion. Now for this person's body, that's about it. I'm trying my best, but if someone is more flexible than I, they might be able to go quite a lot lower. So, don't let my shape restrict your shape. From this starting position, The first thing that happens is the body comes into an upright straight position.

Now the spinal shape comes into a hinge. So now I'm behind my sitting bones, keeping that same straight orientation. The next thing that happens is the pelvis begins to rotate so that the body can come down through that imprinting process and all the way down onto the mat. It's easier on the way down than it is on the way up. The way back up, we inhale to find the imprint and then we exhale rolling all the way up and back over the legs into the starting position.

Inhale to extend the spine and hinge. Pressing my head into my hands. I have my elbows wide. Exhale to roll the spine all the way down. Try not to push the head forward, keeping the head with the hands.

Inhale, lift the head and chest. Exhale roll up trying to keep the elbows wide. That's not as easy as it may here, if it appears easy at all, and then coming back. So what you could do to modify if someone has that challenge in the spinal extensors that I spoke of is the hinge will be a non issue. But then as the spine flexes, if it feels too hard to have the hands behind the head, which is really just more of a gravitational load, you could reach your arms back in front of you similar to the roll up and then bring the hands back as they come down.

As the head comes down and then you could reverse that. So if you find yourself stuck here with nowhere to go, which is what will happen to people who feel challenged here, they just won't be able to lift. We can reach forward we can then flex the spine or even reach for it and bend the knees and assist. Get past the part where you feel like there is no movement capacity and then try as soon as you can as you're coming back up. To come back into the shape of the movement. So to summarize, it's a difficult spinal articulation exercise because of the gravitational load with the hands behind the head specifically for people who have a trouble articulating that lower spine.

But it's a beautiful exercise. I really love it, but more of a high level movement than the roll up. The neck pull.