Monday Move

A No-Equipment Move That Seriously Challenges Your Abs

Bonus: a (still-hard!) modification

Images by author

In the traditional Pilates sequence, a group of five movements known as the “ab series” comes immediately after four other moves that also work the core. (I always laugh when I tell students, “It’s time for the ab series!” and they say, “Wait, what did I just do?!”) One of the most challenging of these pre–ab series ab moves is the roll up.

The roll up is a bit like a more deliberate, precise, and spine-friendly sit-up. You begin fully supine, with the arms at a 45-degree angle (next to the ears), and then roll all the way up and over until your torso is hovering over the legs, then return back down to the mat with control. It mobilizes the entire spine and challenges basically every part of the core: the rectus abdominis, transverse abdominis, and the internal and external obliques. It even stretches the backs of the legs while you’re at it.

It’s also really freaking hard to do, and if you give it a shot and find yourself hoisting yourself up using momentum, take it down a notch and try the half roll down instead (more on that below). The roll up — like so many things in life and in fitness! — is only worth doing if you can do it correctly.