I start and end every class I teach with this movement... but why?
Because it allows you to take a moment at the beginning of class to leave the outside world behind, centre yourself, find your breath and feel where your body is at, if there are nay sticky spots, how your range of movement is or if you're holding any tension.
I repeat it at the end as it shows you how far you've come in the space of one class. There is always a difference even in just one Pilates class, you always come out feeling looser, longer, lighter and stronger and the roll down is a beautiful benchmark to showcase this.
I highly recommend doing 3 - 5 roll downs when you wake up in the morning and before you go to bed at night. In the mornings, you get to move the spine in a safe and functional way before you start a day of walking, exercising, sitting, lifting, reaching, twisting... all the different movements we all complete in a day unintentionally. In the evening, it allows you to shake off the day in a way before you lie down, and potentially put the body in some weird and wacky positions, as you sleep for 7 or more hours.
The biggest movement faults I see are:
not breathing, holding the breath or not using the breath to guide you
throwing the body towards the floor as fast as possible and not focusing on any spinal articulation
trying to force the fingers to touch the floor even when the body clearly doesn't want to go there
This move isn't for everyone. If you have vertigo, low blood pressure or any acute head, neck or disc pathologies in the spine then this move may not be suitable for you or you may need a regressed version. I am more than happy to answer any questions about this if you would like some clarity via email - kelley@one-wellness.com.au
So, here's how it's done:
Find equal weight through the feet and a softness in the knees - this means that your knees aren't locked out but theres no need for them to be extremely bent either, its that happy medium of softness
Inhale to prepare
Exhale as you slowly and segmentally glide your spine, rolling through your head, neck and shoulders, folding the body forward as you peel one vertebrae at a time towards the floor, allowing your head and arms to gently and comfortable hang towards the ground. Remember, touching the floor is not a requirement for success in this move
Inhale at the bottom, maintaining a sense of softness through the knees and body
Exhale as you drawer the belly button to spine, activating the abdominals to assist you and segmentally roll the spine back up to standing from your pelvis to the crown of your head, the head being the last body part you should re-stack
Repeat this 3 - 5 times and aim to feel a sense of increased fluidity with each progressed movement
Some nice cues I like to think about are melting the body to the mat, scooping the belly towards the spine to get that sense of up and over as you roll both down and up, thinking of the ribcage a little but like a slinky that can segmentally move apart bit by bit and to just think of the whole move as letting go of any tension in your body.
Happy rolling!
💙 Kelley