Roll Up Support

Hi. I'm Ashley Hoffman, and in this tutorial, we're gonna be talking about that client that can't do a roll up. Their low back is super tight or they have weak abdominals. We're gonna discover the reasons why they might not be able to do a roll up, which is a pretty difficult exercise if we're being honest for most people, and ways to just really open up, create that articulation through the low back. And Katie's here to help me. I just wanna talk a little bit about that curvature of our lumbar spine, that lordotic curve. So our low back doesn't really want to round, but we can get more range of motion to create more movement through in addition to strengthening the abdominals to find it. But there's lots of little spots that we need to address and feel Okay.

Where's the tightness? Where's the the strength needed? And then also using that eccentric contraction that we have so often in Pilates to help open the hamstrings, open the low back, find what is tight. To then strengthen what is weak. So we'll start with a rollback. She's going to face to the tower and place her feet against the tower bar's knees with a nice bend because the more bend the knees are that's gonna just facilitate that movement of the low back.

So she's grabbing the bar from the outer edges. And nice and slow. She's gonna roll down trying to create, like, each vertebra at a time is touching. Creating space through the vertebra. Her knees can stay bent at the bottom because we're gonna use that for the way up. You've got control of the bar.

I'm gonna let go. At the bottom, she gets to breathe in and open through her chest. And then I'm coming in for that really tight client in the low back. I'm gonna brace here to help her feel that as the bar assists her abs to help her roll up. She lifts the chin, the chest, we're coming up together through that low back. Excellent until she's sitting up tall again. Let's do that one more time. So she's going behind the tailbone, pressing the low back into the mat.

She's not gonna feel like her whole low back connects to the mat because, again, that lordotic curve won't allow that. But just as much as she can create that rolling through her spine. The bar is there to help her. Such an ingenious tool. She's curling up.

And yeah. So if they need that and don't be afraid to to get that clearance and then provide that hands on even on the way back down. Let's just do one more. So you can do three to five of these, and I'm creating length as she rolls. And then, yeah, she can just like squish my hand down there. There is a space. We have these natural curves we need to honor in our back, but we can build the muscle around it.

And we want them to be flexible, but strong. She's letting the bar pull her her knees are bent so she can roll through excellent until she's all the way back up to the top. We'll add some pulses in. So she's gonna roll back and I'll ask where that sticky spot is or if she doesn't know, I know because I can see in her body right about there. She's pulsing back and up about an inch of movement, bringing her bottom rib to the mat. It's always that space between the the pelvis and the bottom rib, right? That gets a little stuck And after three to five pulses, I'm gonna have her go all the way down so that we can just get that nice moment of the spine being long and the legs helping as she pushes her feet into the bar, she pushes her heels down, and then let's the bar pull her up with lots of length all the way to the top. Another great part of opening the low back is stretching the side.

So we'll go into a side stretch scrubbing the bar in the middle with one hand, and the other hand on top. And she's rolling down all the way. When she gets to the bottom, her right arm comes up and she's bending to the left, legs can straighten at this point. And if this feels good, she's gonna add the right leg crossing over the left. The bar is just pulling.

She's got a good grip on it. You can give a little push. This is this nice opening of the QL that quadratus Laborum at the low back, which is such a stabilizer for our pelvis. Now I'm gonna have her press her right palm into mine as she brings her arm back down. She's using her lat She's staying flat on the mat.

Once she comes back, she could open the leg and square herself off to roll up as center as she can. She might need to bend the knees here to come back through the spine so she doesn't feel stuck in that place between the hip flexors and the low back pulling you up. We'll do the other side. So you can do one set of these, three sets of these. It's really about finding that movement of the side body and using that, yeah, her arm comes up over, the leg comes across.

And she's trying to connect her back into the mat. Yes. Breathing into that space. And then I'm giving her this resistance of using her lap as she pulls her arm down. Yeah. Push me. Push me. Push me. Great. Hand comes over the opposite legs open. So she's in this nice, solid position.

Little bend of the knees as she pulls the abs in to assist in that roll back up. So go back to the wide grip for let's go for a full roll up, but with the bar. So she's bringing her legs together. You might have to shimmy back a little bit and legs are straight and together feet flexed. Yeah. Why not?

Rounding forward. Let's feel that hamstring stretch. And then from there with a little pressure into the bar, she's rolling all the way down to the mat. So the legs are straight. Much more difficult to articulate the spine with the straight legs.

When she gets to the bottom, thankfully, she has this bar to assist her back up. So she's breathing in. She's using an exhale still pressing the legs down, like she did while they were open and coming up, diving her head under the bar. So we really have this assistance to come through your full roll up. One more time rounding forward, heads reaching towards the bar, and then she gets to pull back here.

I really like to give the support here of what's moving backwards, and the bar helps them really get a nice slow articulation. Joe was a genius, wasn't he? Girl in and roll. And forward. Excellent. Let go here. So this might be where your client learns a roll up if it's just not available to them. For example, I couldn't do a roll up postpartum for about six months.

There just wasn't that connection. So we need to find ways to tackle that in our client's bodies as well as our own. So moving into a half rollback. So knees are bent a little apart, legs are, yeah, soft bend and holding behind the thighs. This would be a bigger advancement.

She doesn't have the bar now, but we're gonna let her have her hands to assist. She starts to roll behind her tailbone, drawing the abs deep, going to just the spot. She knows she can come back up from. So she takes a breath in there and rolls back forward. And again, so the advancement for this is just like less grip in the hands, right? How much are the hands helping?

Shorter bend of the knees is actually harder here because you don't have anything assisting you on the way back up. So let's add some pulses. Nice challenge spot and just little movements, exhaling as she comes up, lengthening in that roundness of her spine. The roundness, we'll call it because we know we're maintaining some of those curves and building the muscle around. She comes all the way back forward. How did that feel? Yeah. Nice movement.

An articulation lengthened by the abdominals. So we're gonna go into a teaser push through. And, this is another way to prepare you for teaser. I'll have you lie on your back. And not just prepare for teaser, prepare for your roll up.

Her knees are gonna be bent, and she's coming back down a little bit because we wanna make sure there's some good clearance. So grab this bar bend and just pull. We'll make sure it's not too close. It's a little close. Coming out the other way. Yes. Perfect.

These are together, feet are together. So as she bends her elbows, they're gonna try to be narrow if that's available to her. You've got the bar. I'm gonna let go. She's pulling it all the way through to a oh, a little close still. Yes. And then shoulder extension.

And we can let those shoulders lift because we want movement of whatever joint's supposed to have movement. Right? So shoulder blades get to lift. Then they get to pull down as the elbows are narrow. And when her arms straighten, now the bar is gonna assist her in her curl up. So headless, she won't be going forward. She'll just be going up pushing into the bar and stopping just behind her tailbone. So she's in that sweet spot. Now, this is a really kind of more advanced place to be where to have her slide her feet a little bit away and right there to create more space to roll.

Because now her arms are overhead, which is an added challenge. But also the spring is assisting her coming up. She bends her elbows. Whatever position is pain free for your client, narrow elbows just creates a bigger stretch through the outer shoulder. So bending, good grip into the hands.

When her arms straighten, she curls and rolls and lifts up. And then rolling down, I get to be here and feel each part having its moment. She's pushing up as she's rolling down, bending the elbows. Again, another safe space to find articulation and strength for the abdominals. One more time.

This time when she comes up, yeah, whichever way the elbows are able to really help the shoulder blades move. She's gonna pull back a little bit, and why don't we just do some pulses here also? So she's coming back down and a little lower. Down. In that sweet spot. Yes. And two belly buttons drawing in to keep all the length as she comes all the way down piece by piece. Such good work. One more push through just to let those shoulders come up opening the space of both sides of the waist and spine.

She brings the bar back up. I'm gonna take that from you and you can come and sit up. Excellent work. So finding ways for a client who can't do a roll up, but it's safe for them to articulate their low spine. A lot of times we're just tight and weak at the same time, but there's different ways to create that movement and it transfers. And you can really take the time to not push it.

You don't have to do a roll up in your first, second, third, fifth session, finding your clients range of motion and strength through these exercises.