Rolling Like a Ball is a fundamental exercise that everyone does in their mat. Even though it is a very basic exercise, rolling can feel strange and maybe even frustrating at first, and that is very normal!
Let’s delve into the purpose of this exercise, and then talk about how we can take your Rolling Like a Ball from frustrating to fun!
Purpose is Important!
Every Pilates exercise has a very specific purpose that works together with the rest of the mat to help us develop our muscles in a uniform way. For Rolling Like a Ball, the purposes are mainly to focus on breathing and to massage the spine.
Breath is obviously essential both for circulation while exercising and for living every day as a human being! Intentionally focusing on breath during this exercise can help you feel your powerhouse more deeply, help you get back up to your starting position, and even help you feel grounded both physically and mentally.
Spinal massage is a very important aspect of the exercise because our lower backs become so tight! With our angry backs in mind, sometimes it can be more beneficial to do the exercise purely to massage the spine instead of trying to perform it perfectly and with maximum control.
Common Challenges
Not surprisingly, this exercise can come with a lot of challenges. The most common complaints are struggling roll back up to the starting position and thudding on the mat instead of rolling with control. To help you get back up, try exhaling deeply on the way down and getting your hips as high to the ceiling as possible. Breathing will help you engage your powerhouse and flex your spine, while emphasizing the hips high gives you more momentum to get back up.
To quiet your descent, try tipping back on your pelvis and slowly rolling back. Additionally, try to roll through every part of your spine instead of skipping portions of it on the way down. If you are working on being quiet, you might not make it back up, and that is okay! Sometimes we have to work on one thing at a time.
Lastly, keep doing the rest of your mat! Building strength in your abs and trying to find more muscular flexion in your spine in other exercises will help immensely with your rolling.
What Does Rolling Help Us Build?
We are not doing all of this for nothing! Rolling Like a Ball is really good for building powerhouse strength, which is essential both for Pilates and for life without pain! Specifically, this exercise helps us learn to initiate with our powerhouse and use it to stabilize in a very precarious starting position.
Rolling also teaches us how to control our momentum, as well as help us get more comfortable moving backwards and upside down, both of which are present in other Pilates exercises and in life outside the studio!
What Our Teachers Have to Say!
Alicia– I really love Rolling Like a Ball for the fun and challenge that it can bring to a workout. It is also so good for releasing that low-back tension we all have!
Kimberly– Make sure you don’t throw your head back to get down! It makes it so much harder to get up, you lose the benefit of having an even flexion throughout the spine, and it takes away some of the powerhouse challenge.
Robert– My favorite way to help clients do this exercise is with the magic circle outside their knees. The magic circle helps them to activate their adductors while muscularly pulling the legs towards the chest. This helps my clients keep that ball shape and not kick to come back up.