Years ago when I began blogging about the Pilates Method, I wrote this post for Pilatesology on the names of the exercises:
The original names are simple and direct: Spine Stretch, The Roll Up.
Names also come from what you look like (Roll Like a Ball, Elephant), what you are doing (Single Leg Pull, Spine Twist) or from what is required to accomplish the exercise (Control Balance).
Occasionally a name includes the promise of a ‘massage,’ but oh you’ve got to work for it: Short Spine Massage, Rolling Stomach Massage, and dare I say Long Spine Massage.
Generally, I find an exercise name to be either helpful or misleading.
I’d now like to include that eventually, a name can hit you in a full-on moment of A-Ha!
The Long Back Stretch
The Long Back Stretch is a name full of delicious promises, right? Few folkx would turn down the opportunity:
“Care for a long back stretch?”
Why, yes. Thank you!
Now if you’re thinking about the Reformer exercise, the Long Back Stretch, feel free to give those eyes a good roll. You’ve gotta put in countless repetitions and practice to mine Pilates nirvana out of this one. You may go years feeling the brunt of hard work you’re putting in and wondering…
WTF?
Where’s my Long Back Stretch??!
Take this one too fast and you miss out on the juiciness; done too slowly the Long Back Stretch is an endless exercise leaving you breathless and desperate for the Stomach Massage Series to save you.
Remember, Joe Pilates never leaves us unprepared. You’re not expected to arrive at the Long Back Stretch without all your other Long Stretch Series friends first.
And…you can also look around the studio for some assistance.
Never underestimate the power of exercises that all share the same name.
“A rose by any other name would smell as sweet…”
Hmmm…sounds obvious, am I right?
But when’s the last time you visited the Cadillac version of the Long Back Stretch with the same care and focus that you afford the one on the Reformer?
Long Back Stretch on the Cadillac
The standing exercises done on the Cadillac are challenging yet also wonderfully straightforward. You are in a standing position with hands attached to the apparatus (the Roll Back Bar in this case) and feet firmly planted into the floor (our frequent guest star playing the role of additional apparatus).
The whole body is lined up. You’ve got a straight shot from the top of the body all the way down to the bottoms of your feet. And this exercise demands your whole body. Especially when we get to the Reformer giving you a different body shape created in space with the “help” of a moving platform.
See? What could go wrong?
Long Back Stretch on the Reformer
The more I’m in a bent-at-hips position I find it’s hard to remember that all of my body is connected and working together. This is not a lower-body exercise or an arm exercise.
Moving the springs in this position also makes me want to get all pushy with my hips and pelvis. Frownie face…
Always remember you are MORE than just a pelvis.
You still have the luxury of standing on your feet, but it’s not normal standing anymore and often it’s easy to retreat back onto your arms and cling to the footbar for help.
Alas, those arms won’t help you, you’ll need your body. All of it. Thanks, Carrie Shanafelt for reminding me and stating it so simply and brilliantly.
If this sounds like you, check out this mini-workout to up your Long Back Stretch game.
The Long Back Stretch (Mini) Workout
Cadillac
- Lying Down Arm Springs
- Chest Expansion Kneeling
- Thigh Stretch
- Rolling In and Out
- Long Back Stretch Kneeling
- Chest expansion Standing
- Long Back Stretch Standing
Reformer
- Long Back Stretch
- Chest Expansion
- Thigh Stretch
- Leg Pull Back? Up? Front? Whatever the fuck…you know the one…
- Pull Straps and T Straps
10 Responses
Just brilliant! Thank you! A quick question if its ok- do you cue anything specific to help wrist alignment?
Hi Joanne,
Thank you so much for reading and for sharing your thoughts here. Welcome! Questions are always welcome as well. I don’t focus on the upper body as much in this exercise as I find it’s often hard for people to use their lower body to its full potential here. Often the weight of the body retreats onto the arms which can cause some to have misalignment and/or discomfort in their wrists, especially as the carriage is closing. So my corrections tend to be mostly about the lower body – stand on your feet throughout the exercise, especially as the carriage is moving. I hope this helps to answer your question 🙂 Keep up the good work xox
Love the mini-workout 🙂 Thanks A!! I kinda found help with LBS by putting a moon b on the carriage to move the shoulder rest “closer” to my feets! This keeps my back x-tra long (must not tuck even a centimeter🤭). Forever? I hope not! Still fiddling and figuring out how to make the system work for my “now” body w/o a ticket from the Pilates Police (I’ve def racked up a few parking tickets, LOL) 😝 (🙏🏼).
Hi there 🙂
I love your strategy for the LBS to make sure there is no shoving of the pelvis. I also like the one side at a time version – I find this helps to move the carriage from all of the body rather than just the low back and hips. I sometimes do this exercise on 1 spring so I don’t push – eventually the oppositional forces will elongate the low trunk area and make us unable to get all up in the pelvis about things… miss you! I hope we can see each other soon!! xox As always thank you so much for reading and watching and sharing your love of Pilates here with us in the comments 🙂
Andrea!! Oh I struggle so with LBS on the reformer!! I am going to add this mini workout to my Pilates this week and channel my inner Andrea, I have hope!!!
Teresa!!
Thank you so much for watching and reading and yes! See how the helper exercises work for the betterment of your Long Back Stretch! Have a wonderful holiday week and thanks for popping up here in the comments, my friend 🙂 xox I hope to see you in the Friday workout online…I will need. it. by. then. LOL
I’ve always wondered: why do we rotate the arms externally for standing LBS (fingers back) vs rotating them internally (fingers forward) for reformer LBS? Would love to hear your opinion on this!
Christine,
Thank you for this wonderful question. I’ve been thinking about it since you posted your comment so thanks for your patience.
Here are my initial thoughts for you, but I have to say this question made me think about the various exercises across the entire Pilates system that have our arms behind us and which way the fingers are facing.
Hmmm…
Here’s the ones that came up in my mind and I am sure there are others that you can add to my list:
Stomach Massage Series #2 – it’s optional fingers forward or backward
Long Back Stretch on Cadillac – fingers facing away
LBS Reformer – fingers facing the body
Leg Pull Up – fingers facing the body – some prefer fingers out to the side, but I don’t see fingers facing away from the body
Control Push up Back – fingers facing the body
Hip Circles on the Mat – both ways are possible
Reverse push Thru on the Cadillac – we do both directions
Seated LBS on Wunda – we do both directions
Arm Frog on Wunda – we do both directions
Teaser on Top of the Wunda – we do both directions
The common theme I found as a guide that also plays out across the Pilates System is that when the arms are not bearing the weight of the body, we have the fingers facing away or we do both facing the body and away. The exercises that have the arms supporting the weight of the body (some of the weight at least) do not have the fingers facing away.
I plan to confer with a few other colleagues on this topic to see what their thoughts are – I’m curious too – but these are my thoughts for now. I hope this makes sense and helps to answer your question. Thanks for that deep dive into the things in the Pilates Method that make you go hmmmmmm… 🙂 And thank you so much for reading and sharing your thoughts here with me. xox
I love this answer!
Yay!