Why Overhead Exercises in Pilates Feel So Hard

Do you struggle with the overhead exercises in Pilates? You aren’t alone! Lifting your legs, rounding your back off the mat, and sending your butt to the ceiling is a big challenge. I often hear people joke that their butt is too heavy or that they just “don’t bend that way”. The truth is that there are many reasons why such exercises are so difficult, and all of them can be improved with practice. 

These exercises are really challenging because you’re working against gravity, and your success can be hampered by many things: 

1. Your legs act as a long lever, which means they are heavier and harder to lift – especially if you are taller. 
2. You aren’t using your arms, so other body parts need to do more work. 
3. If you’re tight through your back and back of the legs, it will be harder. 
4. You may need to build more strength in your core, back, arms, glutes, and even legs. 
5. These exercises take coordination and control, which takes time to learn in Pilates. 

All of these things come with time and practice. Pilates is a practice and we have plenty of exercises in the Pilates system that are going to help you to gain the strength, awareness, and opening to be able to start to execute these exercises.  

Yes, You Can Bend That Way

When someone says they can’t “bend that way”, I laugh a little, because in many cases, they have done a similar movement, just in reverse. They’ve bent top to bottom, instead of bottom to top. As your instructor, I know that you have the ability to bend, but now you’re working against gravity in a different way. A good example of this is doing a roll up: arms and head first rounding up to reach toward the toes. It’s the opposite of doing a roll over: feet, legs, and butt first to round legs behind you. 

Foundations Come First

Since Pilates is made for all bodies, there are many ways to work up to being able to do the overhead exercises. Yes, lifting the legs from the ground is hard! So we start from the very beginning in Pilates to help you get there. In the hundred, the very first mat exercise, you need to lift your legs a few inches off the mat. This isn’t possible for all people when they start Pilates, which is why we have pre-Pilates options to help them build their strength. 

There is also the foot work on the reformer, which puts your feet at the height required for the hundred. By learning to work with and against the springs, you build strength in the glutes, hamstrings, and core – all which help you to lift your legs up from the ground. 

These (and so many more) exercises around the Pilates studio should be taught first, so the client has a solid foundation. Another great option is to use the spine corrector as a starting point for the rollover, corkscrew, or jackknife. When you have set yourself up to do the leg series on the spine corrector, you are also in a great spot to rollover with a little bit of help. In this position your hips are elevated, so it’s no longer necessary to lift your legs then hips up; you have been giving some assistance.  

Knowing what to select as appropriate exercises to help yourself or your clients to choose the right exercises to build up to the rollover or jackknife on the mat is a challenge. One common mistake is to use the exercise short spine on the reformer to help a client. The truth is that the client might very likely be able to lift up with the aid of the reformer straps on their feet, but they can also get hauled up, which means that they are being potentially pulled into a position that their body is not ready for. A teacher did this very thing with my mom many years ago and my mom got hurt. The client needs the strength, control, and openness of the back line to be ready for the short spine.

It’s Full Body Exercise

Yes, overhead exercises in Pilates are very much a core workout, but even though you aren’t “using them”, your arms are taking part. So is your back! The way that you press into the mat with your full arm and back, or use the dowels or tower bars, will assist you in being able to invert. It also helps to build strength in those areas of your body. 

When your back line is tight, it’s very hard to keep your legs straight or lengthen your spine up and over into a C curve. This is where working on more foundational flexion exercises like the rollup, rolling like a ball, stomach massage round, elephant, roll back, and push through will all help you to open up that back line.

It May Take Time

We all start pilates at various fitness levels and stages of life. Often, clients come into Pilates with an injury or imbalance in strength. All kinds of factors are going to play into your need to build more strength in order to execute the more advanced exercises like the inversion/overhead ones. It’s not just needing a stronger core, legs, or arms. It’s all of the above – and more. This is why we continually practice the most fundamental exercises. It will help you with precision and control. These exercises, just like in any sport of dance foundational movements or drills, are the basis of all the more advanced exercises. If you do them haphazardly, you won’t gain anything. 

Joseph Pilates frequently emphasized precision over quantity, stating, “Contrology is not a system of haphazard exercises designed to produce only bulging muscles”. He believed in mindful, deliberate movement to build strength and flexibility, rather than chaotic, rushed, or sloppy training. 

Putting it All Together

The final piece is putting all of the parts together. Connecting all of the parts will help you to execute these exercises with smooth movement, flow, and control. When you first start Pilates, you’re thinking about breathing, understanding the teacher, and learning the names of equipment and exercises. Setting up strings, putting feet here and head here, and then getting up and down, etc.

In the beginning, I see clients use momentum to swing their legs or bodies, or they let the springs control them. It takes time to learn, and Pilates takes patience. It’s normal to not understand (or even be aware) of how your arms are connected to your back, or know when to maintain a flexed versus pointed foot. Soon though, the pieces will start to fit together and you will become more aware and integrated. 

It’s an individual process with no set timeline, so don’t feel pressured. I  know what it’s like to “get into your head” about some exercises. If I’m getting frustrated with an exercise that I find hard, I suddenly find myself not moving with as much control or mindfulness. This is when I need to decide to go back to something else related to the exercise to build myself up to it. And that’s what I love about Pilates: it’s challenging, but there are solutions to meet each challenge. Like the overhead exercises!