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How to Do the Pilates Roll Up Exercise
By Marguerite Ogle
Updated March 27, 2016

The roll up is one of the classic Pilates Mat exercises. Roll up is a great challenge for the abdominal muscles, and is well known as one of the Pilates flat abs exercises. It has been said that one Pilates roll up is equal to six regular sit ups, and is much better than crunches for creating a flat stomach.

Lots of people have trouble with the Pilates mat exercise, the roll up. Issues like trouble getting up at all, rolling up but having the feet fly up, and coming up with momentum (a jerking motion) instead of strength are common frustrations.

But with these instructions and tips, you can learn to perform the Pilates roll up with great form to strengthen your core.

Step-By-Step Instructions for the Pilates Roll Up
Lie on your back on the floor with your legs straight. Let your belly drop down toward the floor and make sure your shoulders are relaxed and away from your ears. Take a few deep breaths as you check your alignment and tune into your body.

When you are ready, leave your scapula anchored in your back and your ribs down, as you bring your arms straight up over your head and back so that your finger tips are pointing to the wall behind you. This will be your beginning position.

This first move is the Pilates Arms Over.

Inhale: Leave your scapula down as you bring your arms up over head. As your arms pass your ears, let the chin drop and the head and upper spine join the motion to curl up.

Exhale: Continue in one smooth motion to curl your body in an "up and over" motion toward your toes. This is the "moment of truth" for many. Pull in your abs in and deepen the curve of the your spine as you exhale. That's what gets you up (not momentum).

Finally, keeping the head tucked, the abdominals deep, and the back rounded, reach for your toes.

Ideally, the legs are kept straight throughout this exercise with energy reaching out through the heels. However, a modification would be to allow the legs to bend, especially as you come up and reach toward the toes.

Inhale: Bring the breath fully into your pelvis and back as you pull the lower abs in, reach your tail bone under, and begin to unfurl, vertebrae by vertebrae, down to the floor.

The inhale initiates this motion until you are about half way down.

Note: Be sure to keep the legs on the floor and don't let them fly up as you roll down. Check that your shoulders are relaxed and not creeping up.

Exhale: Continue to set one vertebrae after another down on the floor.

Keep your upper body curve as you roll down slowly and with control. The arms are still outstretched and following the natural motion of the shoulders as you roll down.

Once your shoulders come to the floor, the arms go with the head as you continue to roll down to the mat.

The roll up is one continuous, controlled and flowing motion. Try to synchronize with the breath.

What's with My "Flying Feet?"
One frustration of the roll up is when the feet and legs want to fly up off the mat in response to the upper body lift. The reason for this is that some of the muscles that help the upper body bend forward are also muscles that flex the hips, the infamous hip-flexors.

Abs in, ribs down and in, and a big curve of the spine are crucial parts of roll up; and that is what the transversus abdominis does. The transverse muscle compresses the abdomen and bends the trunk forward in flexion. It also helps close the ribs toward the midline. Other abdominal muscles will be working in the roll up. But if you focus on the action of the transversus abdominus, it will help take the focus off the hip flexors and result in less "flying feet."

Stabilize Your Pelvis
One of the most tempting mis-alignment of the pelvis is the overly tucked position. If you do tuck your pelvis though, it will make it much harder to get up in a roll up. All your energy will be directed down into the lower part of your body and your feet will probably want to fly up off the mat instead of your upper body!


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