Joe Pilates famously said,
You're only as young as your spine is flexible.
And in the classical mat order,
You will find quite in the beginning an exercise called spine stretch forward.
And this exercise is definitely an invitation to explore the flexibility of your spine.
Today,
I will show you three variations to hopefully help you explore your flexibility of your spine.
So let's get started.
Let's start with the traditional spine stretch forward.
You sit in the center of your mat,
Your legs wide open.
Sit as tall as you can.
Lift your arms,
Shoulder height in front of you.
Take a deep breath in and as you exhale,
Bring your chin to the chest,
Your head between the arms and then reach with your fingertips forward.
You want to round the spine forward in a beautiful C shape.
Then inhale,
Come back to center.
Again,
You reach not only with the arms forward,
You also push the heels forward.
Imagine that your belly button is pushing back as the top of your head is reaching forward.
Inhale to come up and exhale to stretch forward.
Think more of an elongating of the spine,
Not a folding forward.
It's more a reaching up and over.
Very nice.
For this variation,
We use the wall for some feedback.
Sit down with your entire back against the wall.
If your hamstrings are very tight,
You can always bend your knees.
But if you can,
Keep your legs straight.
Lift your arms shoulder high.
Before take a deep breath in and as you exhale bring your chin to the chest and reach with the fingertips and the top of your head forward,
But this time keep your lower back against the wall.
As you inhale,
Come back to center.
And with your next exhale,
Again,
Stretch forward as far as you can without moving the hips and without moving the lower back.
Inhale to come back to center.
And exhale to reach forward.
Keep your legs active.
Send energy through your legs,
Pushing the heels forward.
From this angle now,
You see it even better.
I give my best to find lengthening in my spine and then chin to the chest,
Reaching forward,
But my lower back stays against the wall.
I even try to lift my chest forward to get a deeper stretch,
But my hips and my lower back are not moving.
Again,
Deep breath in.
And as you exhale,
Stretch forward without losing that stability from the hips.
One last time.
Deep breath in.
And as I exhale,
Reaching forward,
Finding lengthening in the spine.
For this third variation,
We still use the wall for feedback,
But this time the other way around.
Bring your feet against the wall in the same position,
But now grab the elbow,
The opposite elbow in front of you.
As you exhale,
Chin to the chest,
Reach forward.
Imagine the elbows reaching forward to the wall in front of you.
And as you inhale,
Come back to center again.
Exhale to reach forward and inhale to come back to center.
Try to notice,
Try to observe how the very same exercise can feel very differently depending on the position we are.
And this is a big thing in Pilates.
You always want to explore what works for your body and what helps your body to find connections.
It's not so much what is the most difficult,
What is the easiest.
It's not about being perfect.
It's about understanding how your body works.
Here again from a close-up where I give my best to push my heels against the wall.
But as you see,
Actually the previous position allowed me to get a better feedback from my lower back.
So try to explore,
Try to find your spine stretch forward,
And I'd love to hear which variation feels best for you.
