Pilates Swan on the Roller - part of the women's fitness video series by GeoBeats.
Hi, I am Charlotte and this is Alice, and we are here at Streamline Pilates studio in Brooklyn Heights, New York. We are going to teach you how to use the foam roller to do your swan exercise on pilates mat work. Laying on your stomach, the roller is just past your elbows with your forearms resting on the roller. Your palms are facing one another and your arms are about shoulder distance apart.
Lets draw your legs together feeling your inner thighs connected and just do a little warm up. Shrugging your shoulders up into your ears and then drawing those shoulder blades down along your back widening across your chest. Inhale, shrug your shoulders up and roll the roll away from you, and exhale, draw those shoulders down along your back.
Just feel the range of motion that feels good in your shoulder and stretch that out a little bit. This is just something that should feel good. When you are ready, taking an inhale through your nose, draw those shoulder blades down along your back, scooping your stomach. Gently peel your spine up like you are wrapping your spine around in an imaginary gym ball that is resting on your back. And rolling yourself back down again.
Inhale, shoulders down along your back, scoop your belly button back towards your spine and roll yourself up. Beautiful! Your chest is nice and open. And exhale, lay your spine down on the mat as if it could reach out through the front of your body. Inhale shoulders down and come up, and lets add a little swim kick to this if you want to make it harder.
So feeling the back of your thighs, rolling up into your twist, trying not to bend your knees. You are going to kick your legs as if you are swimming, as you continue doing the swan through your upper body. And remember, you don't have to get so high up off of the mat. Alice has beautiful extension, but not everybody's body is that flexible.
This is about keeping your stomach scooped and just getting a little bit extension through your spine, it does not have to be a really high lift. And relax after you have done 6 or 8, and you are relax for the next exercise.
