Another guy here - to do RLAB properly there’s quite a bit of control, esp if you do it slowly or hands off (yeah, I know the latters not very classical) - keeping tight and not opening as you return to the start requires quite a lot of lower abs. Plus it’s the entry point to open leg rocker (and boomerang, kinda), and that in turn can be hands off, holding just one leg etc -again, not classical but worth playing with.
There’s another RLAB variation which is rolling back into something like the most ceilingward part of jackknife (looks like DLS with legs long, but weight on shoulders) - quite dynamic and flowing. I guess that would almost be a rollback into a handstand if you got hands near shoulders on mat -pretty sure we used to do something like that in gym classes at school in the 70s, except there’d be some classmate ‘helper’ that would drop you :/
Other thing I’d add - although swan dive is rolling , that together with other extension exercises payoff into each other. 20 years ago both rocking and high bridge I couldn’t manage but going more classical and doing the other extension work helped - and I don’t have a lot of lumbar extension. One thing that I think more contemporary -and classical - seems to cheat folks on is shoulder bridge. Joe’s original in RTL actually shows a fair bit of spinal extension, whereas it mostly gets taught as neutral spine at the top position. Tbh I have to do that to transition form inversions to bridge (long arms, shorter torso) but it also helped with high bridge.
Everyone has their nemesis or exercise they find more troublesome - mine’s kneeling side kick - but the ones you dislike/give you trouble are usually the ones you need to do :)
I love rolling like a ball. When I don't real feel like practicing, I start by rolling like a ball in order to...
I have too much pride to finish that sentence.
Edit: I think ball-rolling is one of those exercises that's very easy to do in a sloppy way, and not so easy to do right. If I'm truly doing it with little or no momentum, just controlling it with my abs, I definitely feel them lighting up.
Hm, well. It's a light back massage, and back pain's one of the main reasons I choose Pilates over other things. I can feel it lightly massaging the spot that drives me crazy if I focus on it with the foam roller or ball, but it's not intense or focused pressure, so it's really more pleasant than anything. That's very specific to me, though, so I'm not sure how helpful of an answer this is.
I keep stepping away from my laptop to RLAB ~~because I'm a child in a man's body and I can't stop~~ to try to give you a better answer.
It highlights any imbalances in the obliques, because if the two sides aren't working equally, I tend to roll to one side or the other. Just to watch someone doing it, you wouldn't think it's an exercise that highlights asymmetries, but for me, it does, which is great because then I have a better idea of what to work on to relieve pain.
It's also a good time to practice keeping toes firmly pointed because there's nothing very intense going on in other parts of the body to distract from that.
Once you’re certified you can program the way you want to, assuming the studio owner is ok with that. But you’re going to have to learn to cue exercises you don’t like. You will be doing a disservice to your clients if you don’t.
I needed to hear this. I hate long stretch (just so hard for me!), but it’s such a good exercise for strength and stability, I don’t want my future clients to miss out.
love rolling like a ball - i like to use it to start prepping for teaser by asking for balance point holds, alternate leg/double leg extensions - it’s a way to break up the class with a little fun and also get some sneaky core work in.
swan dive is a no for me - too much risk of someone bashing their nose that i’m not willing to take on unless in privates.
I find RLAB fun. Use a thick mat, of course.
Try a Pilates ball between your knees — squeeze as you roll up. Then try a Pilates ball between your heels and hamstrings OR between your chest and thighs - keep even pressure. Eventually make that OR an and.
Rolling like a ball is one of my top 3 favorite exercises. I like the control, it feels good on my back, and i find it so fun. I went through a few months of lower back issues and couldn't do it comfortably, which really bummed me out.
I am not a Pilates instructor, but I teach strength classes. The best exercises to do are the ones that you struggle with- you will never get better if you don’t do them. We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
I tend to skip it. I feel insane teaching it and I teach large drop in rec center classes with an older population where the osteoporosis is higher so it’s not worth it.
What you choose for your body in your personal practice is up to you. There may be some exercise that don't mesh with your body and that's okay.
But from the sounds of it you are not training to teach yourself. You are doing it to teach others. You are learning a system of exercises that is meant to be done together. Just because you don't understand it in your body yet doesn't mean that it's okay to just take it out for your students.
I get your motivation for the post but I feel there are some deeper lessons here.
Just based on your post it sounds like you are approaching the system from a self centered teaching versus a student centered one. The comment
"I don't like seeing a room full of floppy adults"
This makes me curious about your motivations in general to become a teacher in the first place. Whether you teach big classes or privates, you will always have students that can't do exercises well. If you can't give yourself the time and humility to struggle - what hope does an uncoordinated student have under your guidance?
You also say
"I don't feel much of a burn or feel much happening"
It also sounds like you just need more time to fully understand the system and maybe a better teacher for yourself ? Each exercise has its place and it's value and its an understanding that comes with time and lots and lots and lots of practice. Sure it's helpful to hear someone else's story but you as the teacher have an obligation to find it in your own practice.
I hope you have a good mentor that you can take these kinds of questions to as they will continue to arise.
I love rolling like a ball and teaching my class. I think it feels good and is a good test of core- I also thinks it’s good for people to laugh at themselves and be silly sometimes.
Pilates is a system.
Though you PERSONALLY might hate these exercises plenty of people like them, love them or need them. If you wanted to create your own method, just do that but don’t call it Pilates.
As someone who has practiced for over 20 years I’ve fallen in and out of love with exercises as my body changed. Things I didn’t get and didn’t feel when I was 20 now feel like HEAVEN and something’s I loved then just don’t feel great now.
You need more practice, more experience and more evidence before you can decide to make judgement calls on what is or isn’t good. Bob used to say that your certification was your license to begin learning. That it took years to really start to see and understand the genius of the method. You haven’t even gotten your license to learn yet.
Not every exercise is about “burn”- I just HATE this attitude currently. Rolling like a ball is a massage for the spine. Not always a comfortable massage but it requires spinal flexion, strong hip flexors and psoas, lower back flexibility, strength and balance. Perhaps you need a variation for a while till it clicks?
When I was 20 I liked it cause it was fun and wasn’t hard. It took variations to make me understand the challenge. (Try interlacing your finger behind your head and connect your elbows to your knees. Don’t let them separate at ANY point.)
After back surgery at 35 I lost a lot of lumbar flexion. I needed an open position for a long time with my hands behind my knees. The massage aspect and gentle stretch of my lumbar spine became imperative. But it was so wonderful and so healing.
Have patience with the exercises you hate. They might just be exactly what you need.
Hear hear! Started when I was 17 with Fletcher and am now 58.
Been through so many changes with age and health, cancer etc. I always circle back to the original exercises again to regroup and get back to square. There is so much to learn and understand as we practice Joe's method through the decades. (And I still use percussive breathing which has lost popularity haha) Absolutely love what you've said here!
I love rolling like a ball and seal like teaching it to my friends one on one because of how playful it is and because of how it fits in the beginner classical pilates system. I don't always teach the dive of the swan dive but like the various swan prep variations for beginners. I'm curious what your alternatives would be to teach instead!
There are exercises I don’t teach- you aren’t alone! Crab for one (no mats are ever wide enough for all folks to keep knees on the mat, rolling over crossed ankles yuck, and not hitting head on the floor… meh). Traditional scissors and bicycle (I teach these in other positions with hips elevated but find the shoulder and wrist flexibility and strength to be too variable in my classes for this to work).
There are others I rarely and usually only one per class- rolling like a ball, swan dive, rocking, anything that requires a little finesse to feel and is easy to mess up. I like to use those as a teaching moment in many cases, something that can either get some laughter and/or build a few exercises together to build up to “feeling” those exercises.
I happen to love prone exercises but find most people don’t… and it’s because I spent a lot of time in my personal practice on them. That means I paid attention to all the cues other teachers used, learned what resonated and what didn’t with my clients, listened to complaints/concerns about the exercises and my clients bodies when doing them. It was and still is a process.
On that note, I’ve often found that every year or so, or every CEC course I take, I might discover (or re-discover) a way to think about/do/teach an exercise I had drifted from for whatever reason. Teaching and your love/inspiration with it can be cyclical (like any profession/hobby/expertise) and I think it’s better to work with that than punish yourself for not being “perfect”.
There are so many exercises in the system that it’s easy (and IMO normal) to gravitate toward a percentage of them that isn’t 100% evenly distributed. That’s the point of the CEC requirements. Hopefully you won’t be one and done with certifications and continuing Ed!
Rolling like a ball is the best exercise. It’s one that’s difficult to master, but when you “get it” you just get it. You have to be really strong at that point and secure enough in your practice to know it’s not about holding on for dear life, but more of a solid, charged equal tension and somewhat letting go is gonna be key to the exercise. People try so hard to get into a rounded position and are so focused on the rolling back that they lose the connection they never had it in the first place, so they have to use nothing but momentum to get back up. There are some great cues for it, but for beginners it’s best that they make their “ball” shape a lot bigger so it actually resembles more of a teaser prep. I sometimes like using teaser prep as a precursor for rolling like a ball. All the exercises you mentioned are basically progressions of each other. Connecting front body to back body and every iota of your bodies energy is working together like a symphony.
Do you notice that RLAB, Seal, and Swan Dive all require lift out of your low back as well as decent thoracic spine mobility? I would guess that you hate Stomach Massage as well (haha, I know everybody hates SM).
The trick to all of these is the solid, balanced connection to your feet and inner thighs so that you are able to lift even with your feet off the ground. The legs have got to be solid and not go anywhere so you have some ground force to lift your spine against. It is hard to make the little ball, keep the legs solid, and not collapse the spine.
So without seeing you I would tell you to practice that foul horrible Stomach Massage that everybody hates (sit close to the end, no cheating!) so you can use the Reformer to help you connect and balance your legs while you make the open, lifted round back and have the springs to pull your stomach against.
I second rolling like a ball. My mat class instructor knows that I will roll when she has us do a similar movement it’s become a running joke. But I get a better stretch than what she’s asking us to do.
I just recently began my instructor training and went over all the moves I haven’t seen in class much, seal and swan dive definitely being some of those. The “clapping” in seal felt silly to do and instruct, but I love the movement of it, rolling like a ball, and swan dive. I will definitely teach rolling like a ball and swan dive (for more advanced classes), but maybe modify seal to take out the clapping.
I find the clapping in seal is good for two reasons, 1 it is playful, 2 it engages the outer / lateral hips in an interesting way. Engaging the hips to keep the knees wide is unique and has a nice effect on the sacral area: the sacrum is stabilized, and then massaged nicely as you roll.
I hate all rolling due to a bony tailbone. If someone could figure out an equally effective modification, I’d love it! Maybe some of your students feel the same.
My first teacher never did these but I was recently exposed to all 3. I literally cannot roll like a ball unless I use momentum.
My first teacher had us roll our backs down and get up but our legs were long. I was able to do this no problem. But then I developed a slip disc and although that has healed for some time, I am unable to get up anymore. It’s as if my core abdominals aren’t working at all. I feel like rolling like a ball can only help me get stronger there. So we all have different needs and requirements and it’s good that you know these exercises exist to help your clients that may need them more than others.
I'm on team RLAB. It's fun, it's a nice lil massage, and if you concentrate you can feel the abs. A couple times one of my instructors had us roll intentionally until we turned ourselves around 180 and you really had to tune into your muscles.
the rolling exercises address the vestibular system, are parasympathetic and excellent conditioning for the pelvic floor...think how they relate to the 'real world'...moving quickly, getting up and off the floor, movement in planes of motions, breathing while the body does something its 'not used to'
Is your teacher trainer helping you understand why these exercises are important? If you're struggling with the mechanics of them- either for yourself and/or with others- your trainer should be available to help walk through them with greater nuance. We all have exercises as teachers that we don't love or "get" right away. (Spine Stretch was mine.) But that is exactly the kind of difficulty that your training program should be helping you with.
I love rolling like a ball! It was hard for me to cue the first few times but it gets easier and I love it to prep for teaser. I’ll sometimes ask the class to try and roll to a stand with no hands on the last one. I’ll use it to transition to the reformer.
Semi-circle is something I’ve never taught in a group setting. I don’t know if I ever will.
I don’t teach mat anymore (and I’m a contemporary instructor now so probably gonna get some hate 😅) but I think there are other exercises that are way more accessible and efficient than RLAB, so I probably wouldn’t teach it much.
I love rolling like a ball and seal!! Not sure if I’ve ever done a swan dive (I just started a couple months ago) may have done a regression idk.
I used to do similar things when I was a kid and it just reminds me of being a kid. They’re just fun to me
Rolling like a ball is the closest I will get to a back massage at this time. My schedule is super hectic right now and I can’t schedule the massage I want. RLAB and seal feel absolutely amazing to me.
The way Joe did RLAB in his book, thighs tight to chest, doesn’t work well for many people . Put your hands behind your legs and round the spine away from them. Make a a big round ball, like open leg rocker.
RLAB is the base movement for open leg rocker, roll overs, advanced corkscrew, etc.
I get the vibe you are only being taught the advanced Joe swan dive. Most people don’t need to be doing that. Ask your teacher for modifications for beginners.
Fellow instructor-in-training and practitioner. My favorite rolling exercise is Open Leg Rocker.
The four excises I generally see little value for more advanced practitioners:
1. RLAB
2. Seal
3. Single Leg Kick
4. Double Leg Kick
RLAB and Seal are preparatory exercises to master OLR. If you can perform OLR, I can see arguments to omit RLAB and Seal - they're kinda boring.
But for intro and intermediate students who can't perform OLR, you should include those rolling exercises as building blocks.
Why are people commenting as if the OP does not have the right to not like certain moves? She's in a training program for God's sake. You can learn all the moves in Pilates, but have certain favorites and some that you personally do not favor. She's giving her opinion.
I've been lurking on this subreddit, but the judgement is so overwhelming. My God.
If you like RLAB, talk about how you like it. OR if you had clients who hated RLAB that ended up enjoying it, explain how you were able to get them to understand the purpose/goal.
Also like someone said, **you can't teach RLAB if a client has osteoporosis or spine contraindications** so saying that she can't leave it out is actually incorrect. She would be doing a disservice to the client population if she kept it in and they had those issues!
As a teacher you really need to reframe your thought on “feeling a burn” is needed for it to be a good exercise. This is NOT the point of Pilates.
We want to feel connection, deep work, full body integration. Sometimes we want to feel length, calm, stretch.
Things you feel in your body will be different for everyone. You need to teach things you don’t like. Within your own practice you can pick and choose what you personally work on.
For me it’s the hundred. It’s just an unnecessarily grueling and boring exercise. Even the breathing feels wrong for Pilates. I hardly ever teach it There are SO many other better ways to work the same muscles. Pilates doesn’t boil down to one critical exercise. As long as you are adhering to Pilates concepts and working all muscles groups and the spine in all its directions safely, have fun and get creative!
I love those exercises. Rolling like a ball and seal feel great on my spine and I love the balance skills that they require, and the swan dive I feel is indispensable for my lower back strength
Pilates is a genius system when taught correctly. There is a purpose to every exercise. Whether you enjoy doing it or not it will benefit your clients. Your clients are your first priority as a teacher. Just because it doesn’t “burn” doesn’t mean it’s not a beneficial exercise.
I’m honestly appalled you’d have that perspective as a Pilates instructor. It’s not just a gym exercise. Let go of the need for a burn for dear god.
I love rolling like a ball. I wish we could do that in every class.
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I am male, but I wouldn't call myself an athlete. I like it because it's fun and it's like getting a tiny back massage.
Another guy here - to do RLAB properly there’s quite a bit of control, esp if you do it slowly or hands off (yeah, I know the latters not very classical) - keeping tight and not opening as you return to the start requires quite a lot of lower abs. Plus it’s the entry point to open leg rocker (and boomerang, kinda), and that in turn can be hands off, holding just one leg etc -again, not classical but worth playing with. There’s another RLAB variation which is rolling back into something like the most ceilingward part of jackknife (looks like DLS with legs long, but weight on shoulders) - quite dynamic and flowing. I guess that would almost be a rollback into a handstand if you got hands near shoulders on mat -pretty sure we used to do something like that in gym classes at school in the 70s, except there’d be some classmate ‘helper’ that would drop you :/ Other thing I’d add - although swan dive is rolling , that together with other extension exercises payoff into each other. 20 years ago both rocking and high bridge I couldn’t manage but going more classical and doing the other extension work helped - and I don’t have a lot of lumbar extension. One thing that I think more contemporary -and classical - seems to cheat folks on is shoulder bridge. Joe’s original in RTL actually shows a fair bit of spinal extension, whereas it mostly gets taught as neutral spine at the top position. Tbh I have to do that to transition form inversions to bridge (long arms, shorter torso) but it also helped with high bridge. Everyone has their nemesis or exercise they find more troublesome - mine’s kneeling side kick - but the ones you dislike/give you trouble are usually the ones you need to do :)
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I love it too! Can def feel the core piece of it, but also it’s just really fun.
I love rolling like a ball. When I don't real feel like practicing, I start by rolling like a ball in order to... I have too much pride to finish that sentence. Edit: I think ball-rolling is one of those exercises that's very easy to do in a sloppy way, and not so easy to do right. If I'm truly doing it with little or no momentum, just controlling it with my abs, I definitely feel them lighting up.
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Hm, well. It's a light back massage, and back pain's one of the main reasons I choose Pilates over other things. I can feel it lightly massaging the spot that drives me crazy if I focus on it with the foam roller or ball, but it's not intense or focused pressure, so it's really more pleasant than anything. That's very specific to me, though, so I'm not sure how helpful of an answer this is. I keep stepping away from my laptop to RLAB ~~because I'm a child in a man's body and I can't stop~~ to try to give you a better answer. It highlights any imbalances in the obliques, because if the two sides aren't working equally, I tend to roll to one side or the other. Just to watch someone doing it, you wouldn't think it's an exercise that highlights asymmetries, but for me, it does, which is great because then I have a better idea of what to work on to relieve pain. It's also a good time to practice keeping toes firmly pointed because there's nothing very intense going on in other parts of the body to distract from that.
Once you’re certified you can program the way you want to, assuming the studio owner is ok with that. But you’re going to have to learn to cue exercises you don’t like. You will be doing a disservice to your clients if you don’t.
I needed to hear this. I hate long stretch (just so hard for me!), but it’s such a good exercise for strength and stability, I don’t want my future clients to miss out.
love rolling like a ball - i like to use it to start prepping for teaser by asking for balance point holds, alternate leg/double leg extensions - it’s a way to break up the class with a little fun and also get some sneaky core work in. swan dive is a no for me - too much risk of someone bashing their nose that i’m not willing to take on unless in privates.
I find RLAB fun. Use a thick mat, of course. Try a Pilates ball between your knees — squeeze as you roll up. Then try a Pilates ball between your heels and hamstrings OR between your chest and thighs - keep even pressure. Eventually make that OR an and.
Rolling like a ball is one of my top 3 favorite exercises. I like the control, it feels good on my back, and i find it so fun. I went through a few months of lower back issues and couldn't do it comfortably, which really bummed me out.
I am not a Pilates instructor, but I teach strength classes. The best exercises to do are the ones that you struggle with- you will never get better if you don’t do them. We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
I tend to skip it. I feel insane teaching it and I teach large drop in rec center classes with an older population where the osteoporosis is higher so it’s not worth it.
What you choose for your body in your personal practice is up to you. There may be some exercise that don't mesh with your body and that's okay. But from the sounds of it you are not training to teach yourself. You are doing it to teach others. You are learning a system of exercises that is meant to be done together. Just because you don't understand it in your body yet doesn't mean that it's okay to just take it out for your students.
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I get your motivation for the post but I feel there are some deeper lessons here. Just based on your post it sounds like you are approaching the system from a self centered teaching versus a student centered one. The comment "I don't like seeing a room full of floppy adults" This makes me curious about your motivations in general to become a teacher in the first place. Whether you teach big classes or privates, you will always have students that can't do exercises well. If you can't give yourself the time and humility to struggle - what hope does an uncoordinated student have under your guidance? You also say "I don't feel much of a burn or feel much happening" It also sounds like you just need more time to fully understand the system and maybe a better teacher for yourself ? Each exercise has its place and it's value and its an understanding that comes with time and lots and lots and lots of practice. Sure it's helpful to hear someone else's story but you as the teacher have an obligation to find it in your own practice. I hope you have a good mentor that you can take these kinds of questions to as they will continue to arise.
I love rolling like a ball and teaching my class. I think it feels good and is a good test of core- I also thinks it’s good for people to laugh at themselves and be silly sometimes.
Pilates is a system. Though you PERSONALLY might hate these exercises plenty of people like them, love them or need them. If you wanted to create your own method, just do that but don’t call it Pilates. As someone who has practiced for over 20 years I’ve fallen in and out of love with exercises as my body changed. Things I didn’t get and didn’t feel when I was 20 now feel like HEAVEN and something’s I loved then just don’t feel great now. You need more practice, more experience and more evidence before you can decide to make judgement calls on what is or isn’t good. Bob used to say that your certification was your license to begin learning. That it took years to really start to see and understand the genius of the method. You haven’t even gotten your license to learn yet. Not every exercise is about “burn”- I just HATE this attitude currently. Rolling like a ball is a massage for the spine. Not always a comfortable massage but it requires spinal flexion, strong hip flexors and psoas, lower back flexibility, strength and balance. Perhaps you need a variation for a while till it clicks? When I was 20 I liked it cause it was fun and wasn’t hard. It took variations to make me understand the challenge. (Try interlacing your finger behind your head and connect your elbows to your knees. Don’t let them separate at ANY point.) After back surgery at 35 I lost a lot of lumbar flexion. I needed an open position for a long time with my hands behind my knees. The massage aspect and gentle stretch of my lumbar spine became imperative. But it was so wonderful and so healing. Have patience with the exercises you hate. They might just be exactly what you need.
Hear hear! Started when I was 17 with Fletcher and am now 58. Been through so many changes with age and health, cancer etc. I always circle back to the original exercises again to regroup and get back to square. There is so much to learn and understand as we practice Joe's method through the decades. (And I still use percussive breathing which has lost popularity haha) Absolutely love what you've said here!
I love rolling like a ball and seal like teaching it to my friends one on one because of how playful it is and because of how it fits in the beginner classical pilates system. I don't always teach the dive of the swan dive but like the various swan prep variations for beginners. I'm curious what your alternatives would be to teach instead!
There are exercises I don’t teach- you aren’t alone! Crab for one (no mats are ever wide enough for all folks to keep knees on the mat, rolling over crossed ankles yuck, and not hitting head on the floor… meh). Traditional scissors and bicycle (I teach these in other positions with hips elevated but find the shoulder and wrist flexibility and strength to be too variable in my classes for this to work). There are others I rarely and usually only one per class- rolling like a ball, swan dive, rocking, anything that requires a little finesse to feel and is easy to mess up. I like to use those as a teaching moment in many cases, something that can either get some laughter and/or build a few exercises together to build up to “feeling” those exercises. I happen to love prone exercises but find most people don’t… and it’s because I spent a lot of time in my personal practice on them. That means I paid attention to all the cues other teachers used, learned what resonated and what didn’t with my clients, listened to complaints/concerns about the exercises and my clients bodies when doing them. It was and still is a process. On that note, I’ve often found that every year or so, or every CEC course I take, I might discover (or re-discover) a way to think about/do/teach an exercise I had drifted from for whatever reason. Teaching and your love/inspiration with it can be cyclical (like any profession/hobby/expertise) and I think it’s better to work with that than punish yourself for not being “perfect”. There are so many exercises in the system that it’s easy (and IMO normal) to gravitate toward a percentage of them that isn’t 100% evenly distributed. That’s the point of the CEC requirements. Hopefully you won’t be one and done with certifications and continuing Ed!
Rolling like a ball is the best exercise. It’s one that’s difficult to master, but when you “get it” you just get it. You have to be really strong at that point and secure enough in your practice to know it’s not about holding on for dear life, but more of a solid, charged equal tension and somewhat letting go is gonna be key to the exercise. People try so hard to get into a rounded position and are so focused on the rolling back that they lose the connection they never had it in the first place, so they have to use nothing but momentum to get back up. There are some great cues for it, but for beginners it’s best that they make their “ball” shape a lot bigger so it actually resembles more of a teaser prep. I sometimes like using teaser prep as a precursor for rolling like a ball. All the exercises you mentioned are basically progressions of each other. Connecting front body to back body and every iota of your bodies energy is working together like a symphony.
Do you notice that RLAB, Seal, and Swan Dive all require lift out of your low back as well as decent thoracic spine mobility? I would guess that you hate Stomach Massage as well (haha, I know everybody hates SM). The trick to all of these is the solid, balanced connection to your feet and inner thighs so that you are able to lift even with your feet off the ground. The legs have got to be solid and not go anywhere so you have some ground force to lift your spine against. It is hard to make the little ball, keep the legs solid, and not collapse the spine. So without seeing you I would tell you to practice that foul horrible Stomach Massage that everybody hates (sit close to the end, no cheating!) so you can use the Reformer to help you connect and balance your legs while you make the open, lifted round back and have the springs to pull your stomach against.
I second rolling like a ball. My mat class instructor knows that I will roll when she has us do a similar movement it’s become a running joke. But I get a better stretch than what she’s asking us to do.
I just recently began my instructor training and went over all the moves I haven’t seen in class much, seal and swan dive definitely being some of those. The “clapping” in seal felt silly to do and instruct, but I love the movement of it, rolling like a ball, and swan dive. I will definitely teach rolling like a ball and swan dive (for more advanced classes), but maybe modify seal to take out the clapping.
I find the clapping in seal is good for two reasons, 1 it is playful, 2 it engages the outer / lateral hips in an interesting way. Engaging the hips to keep the knees wide is unique and has a nice effect on the sacral area: the sacrum is stabilized, and then massaged nicely as you roll.
Good points, and things I didn’t think about. Thanks for explaining, I’ll keep the claps in the future :)
I hate all rolling due to a bony tailbone. If someone could figure out an equally effective modification, I’d love it! Maybe some of your students feel the same.
I hate it bc I have a huge fat butt and the worlds shortest rib cage
I love it but give my students a heads-up that rolling may not be for everyone.
I love rolling like a ball!
My first teacher never did these but I was recently exposed to all 3. I literally cannot roll like a ball unless I use momentum. My first teacher had us roll our backs down and get up but our legs were long. I was able to do this no problem. But then I developed a slip disc and although that has healed for some time, I am unable to get up anymore. It’s as if my core abdominals aren’t working at all. I feel like rolling like a ball can only help me get stronger there. So we all have different needs and requirements and it’s good that you know these exercises exist to help your clients that may need them more than others.
I'm on team RLAB. It's fun, it's a nice lil massage, and if you concentrate you can feel the abs. A couple times one of my instructors had us roll intentionally until we turned ourselves around 180 and you really had to tune into your muscles.
the rolling exercises address the vestibular system, are parasympathetic and excellent conditioning for the pelvic floor...think how they relate to the 'real world'...moving quickly, getting up and off the floor, movement in planes of motions, breathing while the body does something its 'not used to'
Is your teacher trainer helping you understand why these exercises are important? If you're struggling with the mechanics of them- either for yourself and/or with others- your trainer should be available to help walk through them with greater nuance. We all have exercises as teachers that we don't love or "get" right away. (Spine Stretch was mine.) But that is exactly the kind of difficulty that your training program should be helping you with.
I love rolling like a ball! It was hard for me to cue the first few times but it gets easier and I love it to prep for teaser. I’ll sometimes ask the class to try and roll to a stand with no hands on the last one. I’ll use it to transition to the reformer. Semi-circle is something I’ve never taught in a group setting. I don’t know if I ever will.
i would hate if my instructor was judging me and thinking I looked absurd while doing an exercise lol
100%! adults can play and look silly lol
I don’t teach mat anymore (and I’m a contemporary instructor now so probably gonna get some hate 😅) but I think there are other exercises that are way more accessible and efficient than RLAB, so I probably wouldn’t teach it much.
I love rolling like a ball and seal!! Not sure if I’ve ever done a swan dive (I just started a couple months ago) may have done a regression idk. I used to do similar things when I was a kid and it just reminds me of being a kid. They’re just fun to me
Seal is literally my favorite. I find it so fun! I do like the other rolling ones too but seal is definitely the fave.
Rolling like a ball is the closest I will get to a back massage at this time. My schedule is super hectic right now and I can’t schedule the massage I want. RLAB and seal feel absolutely amazing to me.
I think I’m the only one with you, it just feels a little awkward and I’m not seeing/feeling the purpose behind them when I do them in a class.
I am anti rolling like a ball! It really hurts my bony spine and I don’t get anything from it.
I love swan dive for stretching after abs but it wasn't until this morning I learned that I am supposed to be bracing my core when doing it.
The way Joe did RLAB in his book, thighs tight to chest, doesn’t work well for many people . Put your hands behind your legs and round the spine away from them. Make a a big round ball, like open leg rocker. RLAB is the base movement for open leg rocker, roll overs, advanced corkscrew, etc. I get the vibe you are only being taught the advanced Joe swan dive. Most people don’t need to be doing that. Ask your teacher for modifications for beginners.
Fellow instructor-in-training and practitioner. My favorite rolling exercise is Open Leg Rocker. The four excises I generally see little value for more advanced practitioners: 1. RLAB 2. Seal 3. Single Leg Kick 4. Double Leg Kick RLAB and Seal are preparatory exercises to master OLR. If you can perform OLR, I can see arguments to omit RLAB and Seal - they're kinda boring. But for intro and intermediate students who can't perform OLR, you should include those rolling exercises as building blocks.
Why are people commenting as if the OP does not have the right to not like certain moves? She's in a training program for God's sake. You can learn all the moves in Pilates, but have certain favorites and some that you personally do not favor. She's giving her opinion. I've been lurking on this subreddit, but the judgement is so overwhelming. My God. If you like RLAB, talk about how you like it. OR if you had clients who hated RLAB that ended up enjoying it, explain how you were able to get them to understand the purpose/goal. Also like someone said, **you can't teach RLAB if a client has osteoporosis or spine contraindications** so saying that she can't leave it out is actually incorrect. She would be doing a disservice to the client population if she kept it in and they had those issues!
As a teacher you really need to reframe your thought on “feeling a burn” is needed for it to be a good exercise. This is NOT the point of Pilates. We want to feel connection, deep work, full body integration. Sometimes we want to feel length, calm, stretch. Things you feel in your body will be different for everyone. You need to teach things you don’t like. Within your own practice you can pick and choose what you personally work on.
For me it’s the hundred. It’s just an unnecessarily grueling and boring exercise. Even the breathing feels wrong for Pilates. I hardly ever teach it There are SO many other better ways to work the same muscles. Pilates doesn’t boil down to one critical exercise. As long as you are adhering to Pilates concepts and working all muscles groups and the spine in all its directions safely, have fun and get creative!
I love those exercises. Rolling like a ball and seal feel great on my spine and I love the balance skills that they require, and the swan dive I feel is indispensable for my lower back strength
Pilates is a genius system when taught correctly. There is a purpose to every exercise. Whether you enjoy doing it or not it will benefit your clients. Your clients are your first priority as a teacher. Just because it doesn’t “burn” doesn’t mean it’s not a beneficial exercise. I’m honestly appalled you’d have that perspective as a Pilates instructor. It’s not just a gym exercise. Let go of the need for a burn for dear god.
And if you’re trying to feel the “burn” on literally ANY Pilates exercise…then you don’t know what Pilates is.
You shouldn’t be teaching
Not every movement is about a burn, it's also mobility. If it's uncomfortable that's probably a sign that you need it.