Back Extension Tips

Hi, and welcome to my tutorial on spine extension or back extension. I am assuming that you are already a well versed pilates student or pilates teacher because being on your stomach is one of the hardest positions there is for your body to really have strength in your powerhouse. When you first start off doing pilates, we always lie down flat on our back and that allows gravity to help pull in our powerhouse and to deepen that connection. And then when you get a little more advanced, then we'd lie you on your side and we start doing side kicks and things like that. And then the ultimate is being on your belly, which is what we're gonna be going over in detail today.

So hopefully, you are a well versed Pilates student or teacher, and you're not just jumping into this. And again, this is a tutorial, not a mat class or a workout. Okay. So we are gonna start off on your back. I just wanna share a few things that I know about your spec, and hopefully it is going to allow you to to develop some great back muscles that we really need to have to stay healthy and strong as well as to not compress in our lower back. So we're Monica start today building awareness with our pelvis. And, pelvic clockwork, which I love to do.

So I want you to think about your pelvis like a clock and that would mean that your belly button would be where 12 is and then your right hip bone would be where three o'clock is and then 06:00 would be your pubic bone or your tailbone. 09:00 would be your left hip and then 12:00 would be your belly button. So we are going to right now, my heels and my hands are gonna be on my hipbones, and I'm gonna point towards my pubic bone. And as I feel it, I'm a little bit tilted in my pelvis Monica my fingertips are a little higher than the heels of my hands, and I want today for it to be even. So I'm going to make sure there we go.

I'm not tilted towards or away from me. Okay. Now I'm gonna allow myself to tilt my pelvis towards me. The heels of the hand should go down. The fingertips should go up higher like a seesaw. On the reverse. Fingertips are gonna try to go down.

That's a really hard one. A lot of us do more extension with our upper back than our lower back when we do this. And we're gonna go the other way. I'm doing pelvic clockwork to start because when we do an upper back extension, when we're on our belly, we don't want it to come from our lower back and go the other way. We wanna stabilize with our powerhouse and stabilize with our lower back.

Rather than moving it. So now let's go just to neutral where your fingertips are the same height as your heels of your hands, and I'm going to want you to tilt your pelvis all the way to 12:00 to do that clockwork. So we're Monica tilt your, curl your tailbone towards you, curl it, curl it, curl it, curl it, and you should be very aware that your waistband is flat on the mat and that your bottom's a little lifted. Your tailbone's a little lifted. And we're gonna roll through our lower back and go down with the right hip and the left one's up.

It says if there's a seesaw right here and this person is down on the ground and this person's their little legs are hanging up off the floor. And now we're gonna roll through our back of our pelvis down to our tailbone where 06:00 is rolling through the left lower pelvis over to 09:00. So now the left hip bone's down. The right one is up, and we're gonna pull our belly in more than clench our hip flexors to get back to 12:00. Monica, I didn't let my knees just completely flop to one side. They do move a little bit, but they don't need to they're not Monica go lead.

They're not gonna lead. Let's go the other way. So we're gonna go to 09:00 rolling through our lower back. The left hip bones down. The right ones up.

We're gonna roll down through our to our tailbone, which is 06:00. We're gonna press through our lower pelvis onto the mat as we go over to the right hip bones down, the left one's up. There's a little seesaw, and we're Monica pull back in to 12:00. Hopefully, not by pushing the feet so much, but by pulling in your belly, maybe using your bottom a little. Let's go one more each way.

To the right we're Monica circle to your right hip bone down through to your tailbone over to your left hip bone and center. This is pelvic clockwork going over to your left hip bone down to your tailbone. Just an awareness exercise here. Right hip bone and back to your center. Great.

So just awareness so that when we flip over onto your stomach and gravity is no longer on our side. I want you to be aware of what your pelvis is doing because Most likely, you're actually going to have your tailbone like this where you're dumping if you're pushing your pelvis away from you and your lower back There will be a big tunnel here and your belly is going to kind of be pushing into the mat and we want to be doing almost the opposite where we're pulling our belly into our back, maybe even create space in a tunnel underneath our between our belly and the mat. And you wanna feel like you're squeezing your pubic bone down into the mat when we're flipped over. So we're gonna revisit this right now as we turn over onto our stomach. And do the more challenging work, more advanced work that I was telling you about.

So to start off with, I want you to straighten your arms and straighten your legs. And we're gonna start here with kind of a physical therapy more, version of swimming. So we have our box, a straight line from one shoulder to the other shoulder. We have our hip bones, and they form a box. I want you to press your arms into the mat and I want you to squeeze your pubic bone and bottom into the mat and create a tunnel under your back and release.

And I want you to press draw your shoulder blades back towards you. Pull your belly in, but squeeze your bottom down so your belly has something to pull up against and release. So now imagine you we didn't do that. We we have very good pelvic awareness. And the other version would be kinda like lifting your tailbone up like that, right? When we lift up our upper back. And it seems silly right now, what I'm doing, but you're gonna be tempted to do that. And instead, you need to stabilize whenever you lift up your chest.

By squeezing your bottom down, pushing the pubic bone down into the mat, drawing the belly button Wilson, and using that strong stabilization, that's what's gonna end up lifting you. So we're gonna end up regaining that position, but will lift up just the right arm. Okay? So my head's gonna go down, and I want you to draw the shoulder blades back as you press down into the mat. Squeeze your pubic bone down. Squeeze your bottom down into the map. Create a tunnel under.

Okay? Keep your pelvis like that. And we're gonna lift up the right arm and the head and down. And I want you to press your left arm into the mat, and we're gonna squeeze your bottom down, scoop your belly in, and lift up the left arm. Trying to say square and release. It's not easy. Maybe you can add lifting the opposite leg.

So we're gonna squeeze stabilizing that pelvis, scooping in and sliding those shoulder blades back to get length also. You really want not to have you wanna feel like you are lengthening your spine out the crown of your head and that opposition of pulling the mat behind you with your shoulder blades really helps. So let's squeeze down, scoop in, and lift the left arm, leg, and right arm, and down. And we're gonna press the right arm. Bottom belly, left leg, right leg lengthens, and we're gonna pull up.

And, yeah, this is a lot of work, a lot of muscles. And one more step. Scoop in while you press down. Okay. Pull those shoulder blades back, and we're gonna lift up the right arm as the left leg lengthens out and down. And one more time.

Pubic bone, glutes. Stomach, and we're gonna pull those shoulder blades back, and we're gonna use that feedback to lift, lift, lift, and down. Go ahead and round your back for a second. Give yourself a break. Sit on your heels if you can.

You can also grab back here. If you have bad knees, don't sit back too far. You can also add a stretch like this. Okay. We're gonna go back and now learn about neck roll. So I want your arms to be long by your side now.

And I want you to squeeze your bottom down into the mat. I want you to press your pubic bone down. I want your belly to try to create a tunnel. And I even want you to reach your thighs long out of your hips like a mermaid's tail. Okay. The arms are here.

Hold two, three, and release everything. So press the pubic bone down. Squeeze the bottom, lengthen as you pull the belly, not just in, but up at the crown of your head. And release. Now I wanna add the shoulders and opening the collarbones.

So we're going to press your pubic bone down, squeeze your glutes, lengthen out, scooping in. Now find a pencil between your shoulder blades and squeeze it. Now be aware of your pelvis and we're gonna pull your belly in to lift up your head, to lift up your upper back, nothing changes in your pelvis, and come down. Your lower back doesn't get shorter and compressed. It stays long because you're pressing your pubic bone down and squeezing your glutes and supporting with your stomach.

One more like that. Squeezing that down. Pressing, lengthening, tunnel, a lot of work going on. Squeeze a pencil and use your belly to lift your head. Use your belly.

Think of that swimming and come down. Now bend your elbows. And if you have a really flexible back, keep your hands right under your shoulders. I don't, so I'm gonna bring it a little forward and a little to the side. Okay. But we're still gonna do everything we just did.

So press your pubic bone down, squeeze your glutes, lengthen those legs. Pull your belly in and slide those shoulder blades down, right? And we're gonna start pulling up our head with our belly. Okay. Our belly is lifted off the mat right now, lifted. And now when you can't lift anymore with just your belly, add your arms, but you're still lengthening your energy out the crown of your head. We're gonna look to the right shoulder that they didn't move, circle down around, look over your left, and look forward.

The shoulders stay square and stationary as you look left, circle the head down, around right. I'm trying to keep squeezing my bottom and lifting my belly. More importantly, right now, I'm gonna lengthen my belly all the way up to the crown of my head and down. I even love to pretend my hands are like two big suction cups and I'm pulling the mat behind me as my spine lengthens creating space between each vertebra. One more time. We're gonna press down.

Squeeze the glutes. Right? Link them those beautiful legs. Draw the belly in. Pull the mat behind me and lift with my belly. When I can't lift anymore with my belly, I'm gonna keep lifting and lengthening my arms.

Let's look left first. Left, all the way around. Look forward a quick belly check. Is it in? Look right? All the way down.

Look left and forward now. Pull your mat behind you scoop your belly in your bottom still working, still working, and down. Ideally, your legs stay together too on that. One more child's pose since we detailed it so much, just go ahead and sit back and stretch. We're gonna do a little single and double leg kick just to throw it all together. Know that when you do a back extension, another factor is half stretched and flexible the front of your thighs are.

If you have really tight quads, it's Monica prevent you from doing a really good backbend too. So make sure you're stretching those. Alright. So because of that, we're gonna do single and double leg kick. So I'm going to shoot back out onto my elbows and I'm actually gonna push my knuckles together and heels, my elbows down on the mat. I say shoot back out because in Romanas Pilates, this transitions really quick And it's very effective to making sure you stay your belly scooped in and your bottom pressing down rather than just kinda giving into the mat and then regrouping. Okay. So on the count of three, we're gonna shoot back out.

We're gonna go one, two, and Three, so we're here already, pubic bone down, squeezing your glutes, lengthening your legs, belly in, pull those shoulder blades, lengthen your chest out. Let's keep the legs lengthening How's your pelvis? Did you switch it? Is your pubic bone still down? Length in your right leg to pull it in for one, two reaching the left. One, two. Now, I don't squeeze my one cheek, not the other, both are squeezing down. Bellies trying to lift up off the mat.

Lifting up off the mat. Maybe even lifting the thigh and knee up off the mat. Lifting off the mat. Both cheeks squeezing down the lengthening one more and right facial cheek on the mat. I'm not able to talk much on my right cheek. So I want you to I'll start on my left end. So I'm gonna start with my left cheek to explain. Everything is Wilson relaxed, right?

Because we're in a tutorial. But ideally, when you transition, you wanna make sure you're still engaged. What are we gonna do? Squeeze that pubic bone down. Squeeze your seat, lengthen your legs, create a tunnel. All of this is very active stabilizing, helping us get a stronger back.

Hands, one over the other, behind your back elbows as down as you can. And we're gonna lengthen the that mermaid tail and three kicks. Notice how much I'm pushing my pubic bone down. Notice how much I'm working my seat as I squeeze. Two, three. No light under my hip bones.

And now I'm gonna reach long those legs as I pull my arms long and try to lift with my stomach. And switch. And press the pubic bone down, lengthening up. See, I'm pushing my pelvis down to lift up my upper body. One more set. Bend the elbows. Press your pubic bone down.

Squeeze your bottom, lengthen that mermaid tail and kicking one two three. Notice I didn't even bounce forward. For three counts. You pull into the mat, into the mat, into the mat, right? We're gonna go into the mat, into the mat, into the mat, and then that presses down into the mat to use our belly. And one more time, And press the pelvis down to lift, lift, lift with your belly.

Round your back, sit on your heels, That was a lot of detailed work and I hope you had a better understanding of how you can stabilize with your pelvis to use your belly to lift up your chest, and that is how you should be getting your back extension. I'll see you at my next tutorial.