Pilates Projects: Swan Edition

Hello, my Pilates Mat experts!

We’re halfway through this month of March MATness.

If you’re reading this in real-time, it’s nearly Neck Pull Day.

My condolences.

You’ll persevere. Fingers crossed.

Do you have any goals for this year’s March MATness?

Maybe a few goals all around the studio too?

My goals for 2023, the Mat exercises, and most certainly the foreseeable future can be summed up in one word:

Swan.

Ok, sometimes 2 words:

Swan. Dive.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves…

What makes a Swan a Swan?

The Swan on the Mat – or anywhere in the Pilates studio – is technically a hyperextension of the back, an arched shape.

Optimally, the length of the front of you doesn’t compromise the length of the back of you. The arch shape is distributed evenly along your entire back, not all dumped into one spot.

For many individuals, myself included, this evenly arched back shape is a challenge. For years my Swans and other backbends compressed in my low back. I was doing my best.

Over time I’m learning to find integrity in my back in arch-shaped – hyperextended – positions. It’s still a struggle to maintain equal length in the front and back of me though, so Swan on the Mat in particular is not yet a favorite.

The Cadillac: A Nice Swan

It’s arguable that no Swan is that nice, but I would classify (one of) the Swans on the Cadillac as…approachable, and perhaps kind and (hopefully) helpful.

The Cadillac has a nice, horizontal Swan as well as a couple of big and decidedly vertical Swans.

The nice one is my go-to for finding a Swan with length.

Can you have a Swan without length?

You can, but I don’t recommend it.

Pro Tips for Nice Swan:

• Maintain the space between the base of your trunk a/k/a your butt and your hands.
• Don’t allow the bar to push at you. It’s trying to compress you. Don’t let it.

Next Stop: The Wunda Chair

It started out so nicely, how did we get to the Wunda?

The Swan-in-Disguise that is the Flying Eagle is the almost-vertical-but-not-quite-yet next step on your Swan pilgrimage.

Your seat and low back get a running start up the hill of your back to your hands on the pedal.

• In the starting position, hold yourself together even though your body may be up off the Mat.
• Lift your seat and low back long toward your hands on the pedal.
• The pedal doesn’t need to arrive at any special position for now.
• Just have fun thinking about your Swan, feel the spring and pedal help to support your lift.
• Enjoy the light, lengthening feeling on the way back to the Mat.
• Now do what you did on the way down, on the way back up for the next one.

The Standing Swans: Barrel, Box, and High Chair

For the record, I’ve never been a big fan of the Swan on the Ladder Barrel.

But it’s a good one.

Even the Ladder Barrel can’t make a cozy Swan…

And the Swan on the Long Box on the Reformer, especially if you like it, can be thrilling.

I can’t believe I prefer it over something done on a Barrel.

Press Ups on the High Chair – Oh noooooo!

This exercise just popped into my head as perhaps *THE* Swan moment to elicit more ooomph out of all my other Swans that can’t seem to take flight.

My Swan often feels like a faceplant.

Faceplant mit Style?

So I also must include the Press Ups on the High Chair in this category.

Wha??

You get to have the experience of your whole body alive and well, ‘standing up’ and doing the Swan.

This trifecta is my Swan on the Mat’s wildest fantasy.

The High Chair is wonderful for creating strength and power in the lower body. Foundational exercises on the High Chair give you solid support to have good posture in sitting and standing.

You’ve achieved the strength of extension: holding yourself upright.

Next stop: Swan (hyperextension!)

It takes considerable strength to achieve any Swan, to find integrity in your LIFT into hyperextension.

And on the High Chair, the only way to go with this Swan is UP!

The Shape of Things

Now’s your chance to grab any barrel you fancy: the Spine Corrector, Small Barrel or Ladder Barrel.

Use your Barrel exercises like a template for a long and strong Swan upside down as you do the Arm Series:

• Circles
• One Arm Up/One Arm Down
• Hug
• Breathing

Who doesn’t love a round apparatus?

They’re all the rage when it comes to arches and backbends.

The Pilates System has a Barrel location just for you.

See what works best for your Swan(s).

Swans On the Move

Over the last few years, my focus has been integrity: sustaining my body’s connection to my center and creating a long and strong, arched position for all the Swans in the studio.

Enter the Swan Dive to put this connection to the test. This new challenge will also build stamina for future Swans and other back-bending exercises.

Historically, my Swan Dive plan was to hurl my body at the Mat and hope for the best.

Not a great plan.

Now I’ll work to use all my integrated lower body as the engine for this Swan-on-the-move.

So I work on how to teach my body to do this.

Many. Years. Pass…

Swan Dive on the Wunda Chair

Swan on the Wunda Chair finds you on the tiniest of mats.

This is good news and bad news.

Also, you have a spring!

That’s always good news.

Use the spring to give more support to all of your body that is not your arms. Even if holding this position together means you cannot move the pedal.

Take the win.

As you work your Swan exercise here on the Wunda, much in the same length-inducing way as the Nice Swan from the Cadillac, you’ll build in more strength and control in your whole body.

As you connect to the pedal with this new integrity, you’ll build your Swan Dive.

Your range of motion may start small and build over time.

No hurling yourself at the pedal, please.

Swan Dive on the Spine Corrector

In much the same way as you found yourself on the Wunda Chair, the “surface” of the Spine Corrector – balanced on the apex – is not spacious.

But it’s round!

And it’s conducive to rocking your body more “comfortably” than that hard edge of the Wunda. It’s not comfort you’re after tho, or you’d be off somewhere Rolling Like a Ball.

Swan, Swimming, and Rocking can all play a part in bettering your Swan Dive.

Perhaps the best news is that here on the Spine Corrector especially, but also on the Wunda, you’ve got a great new friend to help you.

She’s been with you all along, but she is never nice to you.

She’s not been helpful to you on the Mat, that’s for sure.

Gravity is now your new best friend.

She’ll teach you how to rock gently back and forth with control (or land on your face).

What a great motivator she is!

Enjoy today’s High Chair workout with Swan and back extension on the brain!

Further Swan Reading:

• The Power of the Down Stretch: A Swan Primer
• A Brief Tutorial on the Down Stretch

Next Stop in this series – Pilates Projects: The Up Stretch!