Looking for a great waist? Work your obliques. Your oblique muscles compress, forward bend and rotate your trunk opposite your pelvis. In this oblique exercise, we put all of those actions together and add a weighted toning ball (optional) for a little extra challenge and feedback.
This exercise builds on Pilates exercise the roll back.
Sit Tall with Toning Balls
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- Sit on the mat with your legs together, knees bent enough to let your feet be flat on the floor.
- Press down into the floor with your sit bones to help lengthen your spine as you reach the crown of your head toward the ceiling.
Use this move to feel an engagement of the pelvic floor and to pull your abdominal muscles in and up. - Inhale: Slide your shoulder blades down your back as you lift the toning balls in front of you, chest height, with straight arms.
Rotate the Upper Body
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- Exhale: Lift up out of your hips as your abdominal muscles scoop in to rock your pelvis back off your sit bones.
- As you roll back, your upper body rotates to the right as the right arm opens to the side. Go as far as you can while keeping your pelvis stable, facing front.
Make sure this is a lift to roll back, not a collapse into your low back. It's a lifted curve. The abs in, lift, and turn action that makes this a great exercise for the oblique muscles.
Control and Lift to Return
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- Inhale: Use your inhale and a press through the feet, and lift through the inner thighs, pelvic floor and abs to lift and rotate your spine back to sitting. You might feel a natural sequence in undoing your rotation as you press down to lift.
Your arm will come with your shoulder. It does not move ahead or drag behind it.
More Oblique Exercises
(c)Marguerite Ogle
Add to oblique exercises workouts with these Pilates exercises:
