Back mobility and strengthening | Pilates Live

Gently stretch and mobilise the spine with this mat based class

This is a gentle paced class and so is suitable for most levels but as always please work to a level that you feel comfortable with. This class includes:

Arm openings in sitting
Roll down in long sitting
Half roll backs
Scissors
Leg stretch with abdo prep
Bridging
Modified swimming
Upper body rotation stretch in four-point kneeling
Child pose stretch
Swan dive
Cobra stretch
Opposite arm and leg lengthening
Glute and hamstring stretches
Sitting spine twist and mermaid stretches

We begin the class in sitting on the mat and warm up through our upper body with some arm opening stretches and engaging the muscles around our shoulder blades. We mobilise through the spine with some gentle roll downs in long sitting. In this position we then challenge our core and abdominals with some half roll backs before rolling down onto our backs to continue the class.

On our backs we work on strengthening our core a little more with exercises including scissors and bridging. Moving into four-point kneeling we bring in some neck movement with a modified swimming exercises and stretch through the upper back further with a rotation stretch. From here we drop down onto our fronts on the mat and work on strengthening our upper back with a swan dive movement before stretching our spines into extension with a cobra stretch.

We then move back onto our backs to begin to cool down with our opposite arm and leg movement, rotation, glute and hamstring stretches. Finishing the class in sitting with a spine twist and mermaid stretches.