Pilates Open Leg Rocker 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 Open Leg Rocker from pilates mat work.

You are going to lay on your back on the mat with your knees bent and the roller resting across your thighs. Bend your knees into your chest and lets straighten your legs up towards the ceiling. Infact, lets do a little abdominal prep for this exercise.

Lets straighten your arms out, pressing the roll into your shins. Taking an inhale through your nose, exhaling through your mouth, scoop your belly button back towards your spine, bring your chin to your chest and roll your head up, and inhale lower back down and exhale back up. Your arms are straight, the roll is only rolling up as you curl up as far as you are able to press it up with your straight arms, and coming back down as you lower your spine back down. Lets do 10 of these.

This is a great way to just open up your spine a little bit, get those abdominals connected. Shoulders are down along your back and your legs are stretching up towards the ceiling, your thighs are feeding in to your pelvis. Now we are ready for Open Leg Rocker.

Taking an inhale through your nose, exhale scoop your stomach and press the roll into your legs to roll yourself forward. And keeping your abdominals scooped roll yourself back again one piece of your spine at a time. Great, so your hands are pressing into your shins, your shins are pressing into the roll, and this gives you a little dynamic tension as you roll out through your spine one vertebrae at a time, and forward, one vertebrae at a time.

Keeping your stomach scooped, your chin is tucked, your ears are lifting up off of your shoulders, and you are balancing just behind your tail bone. And relax, and bend your knees, and get ready for the next exercise.