Watch these videos and read the article about contrast and flow below.
This is such an important part of the Pilates sequencing and it can be hard to know when and how to introduce these principles. This information will help your clients connect the dots of the work.

Swan Rock

Rolling Salutation

SKILL BUILDING TO ROCK

by Casey Marie Herdt

Of all the mat sequencing, the exercises that garner the most quizzical looks always involve rolling. Most adults haven’t “rolled like a ball” in a very long time, and the exercise is often met with a giggle and a lack of understanding. These are the moments when we should encourage our clients to lighten up, just go all in, and give it a try. The best thing we can do in the work and for ourselves is to find a sense of play, and encourage our child body to come out to take a spin.

This type of motion is not often visited in the body, so it’s no wonder that our clients look at us funny when we ask them to do seal! Here are some preliminary things that you can do to help your clients roll on through these sequences.

• Roll out the back with a foam roller:
  • Clients who look more like a tree falling than a ball rolling need this immensely. The back body is so tight that it can be impossible to open up the kidney space to roll on. Finding release in this area is primary.
• Child’s pose breath work:
  • Once the back is opened up manually, you can start to introduce the idea of the rolling breath in child’s pose. Here they are stationary and can focus on the expansion of the ribcage, especially the tight low back. Watch them do this. And tap with your fingertips anywhere that needs more opening to send a signal to that area to unlock.
• Roll downs at the wall:
  • Roll and articulate the spine in an easier venue like the wall. Get the client familiar with moving segmentally, always returning to the breath to find more space.
• Make it small:
  • Start with rolling like a ball as small as you can make it. Without the momentum of the full exercise, it is easier for clients to understand and feel the necessary ab control, breath cycle, and openness in the back body to perform the exercise in its entirety.

Laugh a lot! This is supposed to be fun! Be encouraging and understanding, and try to evoke a sense of childlike curiosity in your clients. This is what the fountain of youth is made of!

The rolling sequences are fun and challenging. Know what you are cueing and why. Break the exercises down and illustrate the parallels between the exercises and how the rolling sequences prepped them for this work. And when your classes get the seal right, throw some Swedish Fish at them as a reward for a job well done!

Make sure to initial and date that you have completed Session 39 in your Master Log.