Pilates Ab Roll

Photo by T.Juco

It’s possible to be very strong in certain abdominal exercises and then be completely unable to perform others. This comes from NOT mixing up your ab workouts and challenging ALL the abdominal muscle fibers in a variety of movements. For example, if all you do are crunches, the top part of your abs could be rock hard and strong but you could have weak lower abs, or twisting movements (that rely more on the oblique or side ab muscles) may cause back pain due to muscle fiber weakness. This Pilates Ab Roll forces you to slow way down, work with your breath and allow every inch along your rectus abdominus muscle an opportunity to perform (or not). With this move you will quickly discover if and where any weak areas along your abdominals are, and then use this exercise to focus on strengthening those “sticking points.”

LET’S BEGIN:
Lie flat with arms overhead, legs extended and feet flexed. As you exhale, tuck your chin to your chest and slowly roll up or crunch relying entirely on your ab muscles until you come to a sitting position and reach forward over your feet.

Inhale here and as you exhale, slowly reverse the movement gently letting one vertebrae at a time touch the floor until you return to the start. Repeat this 10 -20 times.

Notes: Work with your breath; exhale as you roll up and again as you roll back, inhale between. Try not to jerk yourself off the floor or allow yourself to fall back to the floor – use extreme control and NO momentum. If there is a point in this movement that is extra difficult, this would indicate a weaker area which would be the point to slow down even more to allow those muscle fibers to work and strengthen. Unlike many ab exercises, this one calls for a curved back or forming a “C” with your spine as you move through it.

Easier: Do fewer reps. Only come up as high as you can, keeping the “C” curve in your back and pausing at the top of the movement before returning.

Harder: Do more reps. Slow down the movement even more so, using a count of 8 or 16 to come all the way up or all the way down.

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