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Set-up: Lie face-down with hipbones and pubic bone on floor. Place hands under shoulders, elbows along your sides, legs parallel and together, reaching down from the hips. If you have tight shoulders, hold your hands wider and turn your arms out to a comfortable position.

Collect yourself: Contract your abs and back extensors to support your trunk before the trunk extends.

Begin the movement: Inhale and lift your eyes to gaze forward and lead the movement of the spine.

Lengthen and move: Concentrate first on lengthening the entire spine along the mat, maintaining axial reach through the crown. Then focus on sequencing the spine up, vertebra by vertebra, while maintaining axial reach as the spine extends slowly and fluidly from the floor. Try to keep the breastbone down for as long as possible to get maximum length in the upper spine. Continue drawing in the abs from the pubic bone to the ribs, while the back extensors lace up the back. Extend to where hipbones are still on floor and elbows are bent.

Hold the position: In this lifted position, feel the collarbone widen, the front ribs soften and the shoulder blades glide down back. Take care not to hike shoulders up to ears.

Important points:

• Concentrate especially on softening and lengthening the thoracic spine between the shoulder blades as the spine extends. This corresponds to keeping the breastbone on the floor for as long as possible. It’s especially important for those with rounded upper backs.
• Don’t use the arms to push up. Place the hands lightly on the floor, as though they’re on eggs that you don’t want to break as you extend into Swan. This will ensure that the back extensors extend the spine, instead of trying to lift the spine by pushing off from the shoulders and chest.
• Use the inhale breath to come into the extension, and imagine the breath filling the columns of the back as the spine lengthens and sequences into the movement. Exhale to lower sequentially one vertebra at a time with the same fluidity and control.
• The pelvis and legs stabilize as spine extends. Reach the legs long and down from the hips as the spine extends sequentially forward and up to maximize stretch and stability.
• Make sure to move through all spinal segments, maintaining a long arc from lower back to crown. Don’t hyperextend the neck; instead, think of balancing the extension through the spinal segments. The key is to maintain length, sequencing and fluidity through the movement. It is not about how high you can go.
• When done correctly, the Swan feels fantastic. Like the wind inflating the sails of a boat, your breath supports and helps your spine float up into the position.

This article appears in its entirety in the May 2007 PilatesStyle Newsletter

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