Pilates Intel Online Newsletter for the Pilates Teaching Community

I love spine curls!

They are a fabulous foundational exercise that gives immense movement satisfaction whatever your level of expertise. Spine curls are like an onion – the more you practice them, the more layers you peel away to discover a new depth to the exercise. Clients love them for the spinal movement and how delicious they feel through the front of the thigh. I particularly love the subtle way such a simple exercise can introduce and facilitate a deeper understanding of the more advanced work to come.

But first…

What is a spine curl?

Different schools have different terminologies for this exercise, so for clarity: “Spine Curl” requires the client to be able to posteriorly tilt the pelvis, extending the hip joint and to lift sequentially through the spine from the tailbone to the tips of the shoulder blades. In this elevated position, the ASIS should be level with each other and with the pubic bone, creating a long diagonal from the knee through the hip to the shoulder joint. The pelvis is in a neutral position to the femur…as it would be in standing.

The term for this exercise without spinal articulation is “Bridge”. This is where the spine moves spatially between the hips and shoulders in one movement, but without movement between the spinal joints.

“Bridge” works well as a name for both variations as ultimately they have the same end point: the weight of the body distributed evenly between both feet and the upper back without compression into the neck and head.

It is this understanding of the movement and proprioception that makes the spine curl particularly effective for introducing the concept of the rolling exercises and spinal inversions.

Spine curls and Inversions: A tale of two exercises

Spine curls teach sequential movement of the spine from bottom to top and top to bottom, encouraging elongation through the spine. They strengthen the hip extensors while actively lengthening and opening the hip flexors. Teaching the client how to access the back of the body to help open the front of the hip joint and body.

Spine curls also teach the client how to transfer body weight from the support of the mat to being suspended between the feet and the upper back. This is the vital link between the spine curl and inversions: if both are executed correctly, there should have been no transference of weight into the cervical spine and head.

A way to check this in a spine curl is to try to lift your head off the mat while your spine is lifted from the mat. If you are unable to lift your head, then your weight is NOT evenly distributed into the feet and upper back (n.b. I do not recommend this as a test for clients!).

This is when we need to review the execution of the spine curl and correct any issue.

The exercise: A Review

Start Position

• Lying on their back semi-spine, neutral spine and pelvis. Knees bent, hip width apart and parallel

• Feet are aligned and the weight is even between both feet.

Movement

• Inhale to prepare

• Exhale to posteriorly tilt the pelvis, extending the hips and flexing the lumbar spine. Begin to roll the spine sequentially from the tailbone to the tips of the shoulder blades

• Inhale to maintain the lift of the spine and pelvis

• Exhale to roll the spine sequentially back to the mat

Tips to help the movement

• Any static misalignment will mean the movement will begin in misalignment

• Think of rolling the spine like links of a chain

• Opposition! Particularly while spine is returning to the mat, continue to think of lengthening through the crown of the head.

• Imagine rolling down from the back of the throat

• Think of the body weight going across the middle of the upper back and arms

What to look for during movement

When the client begins the movement, observe HOW they initiate and WHERE they initiate the movement. Here are some typical (and probably familiar!) ways that clients ‘interpret’ the exercise:

• The “fold in half”: this client ‘sinks’ into the waist band and then pushes up into chest and feet, without a sequential spinal movement

• The “thruster”: thrusts the lumbar spine up and causes movement higher up the spine than needed, shunting the weight into the neck and head and effectively pinning themselves to their mat

• The “shoulder rounder”: as they begin to lift their pelvis and spine, there is an associated rounding forward of the shoulders, indicating they are not creating a stable foundation in their upper body.

• The “caterpillar”: this client does some combination of the above and ends up migrating backwards on the mat until their feet are too far away from their bum and they often complain of hamstring cramp

• The “twister”: this client presses or pushes into one foot more than the other affecting the pelvis and spinal alignment, potentially rotating and/or laterally flexing the spine.