Correct Way to Curl the Neck or, "Chin to Chest"

Maintain the curvature of the spine, don't hang the head off of the neck.

The 5 Spine Shapes in Pilates

There are 5 spine shapes the we work with and through in Pilates:

Tall (often called "flat")
Round
Extension
Side Bend
Twist

All of the spine shapes work with an elongated spine. In Tall spine, think of your back against a flat surface, either lying on your back on the mat, or standing with your back against the pole on the Ped-o-Pull, or against a wall. In order to elongate your spine, pull your tailbone towards your heels. Be careful not to tuck the tailbone and curl the pelvis. You should feel your sacrum and tailbone flat against your surface (mat, pole, or wall) and your low back lengthening. Now draw your low abdominals into your body and back towards your low back. You should now be feeling more of your lower vertebra connecting with your surface. Next, scoop your abdominals so your belly hollows out by pulling your low abs into your spine and then trying to pull your navel up under your ribs. Now more of your lumbar vertebra should be connecting to your surface and you should feel a lengthening in your waist. Now "funnel" your ribs, which means to draw them together in the front and pull them down towards your waist. This activation lengthens and supports the mid spine. Keeping your ribs together, open your chest by pulling the shoulders away from each other like you are trying to touch the two

opposite sides of the room with your shoulders, and then allow the scapula, or shoulder blades, to fall down the back side of the body. Do not tuck the shoulder blades behind you. Remember that the neck is part of the spine so continue to lengthen the neck - not the throat, by drawing the bottom of the skull away from the shoulders. Any time your body is in  or moves through Tall spine, whether standing, sitting, or lying on either your back or your stomach, this is the position your body should be in.

In Round spine, we continue the elongation of the spine but now we curl forward so that the crown of the head (if your neck were to continue out through the top of the head, it would be going out through the crown) and the tailbone are trying to connect. It is important to maintain the length of the spine with everything that you activated in Tall spine so that you don't collapse in the low back or hunch your shoulders.

Rolling Like a Ball

Tree Front on the Reformer turned upside down on the mat and now called Balance Control

In Extension spine we maintain a Tall spine in the low and mid back and arch the upper back. 

Swan on the Ladder Barrel

Here it is important that you keep the neck and head in alignment with the spine and don't over arch the neck. The low and mid back stay long, the abdominals are lifting up to the breast bone, the ribs stay together, and the muscles of the back engage to open the front of the body.

This is a photo of what NOT to do in spinal extension:

In this photo, the body is arching in the low back while the mid and upper spine are flat. She is not drawing her abdominals in and up to support the low back and lengthen the spine, rather she is collapsed into her low back. The muscles of the back which lift the spine, open the chest, and draw the shoulder blades back and down are not engaged, causing her to hang in her shoulders. Ouch! :(

In Side Bending spine, again we start with Tall spine and then we arc the spine to the side bending near the solar plexus or lower ribs. Make sure that your hips and shoulders stay in alignment not only hip to hip and shoulder to shoulder, but also in the same plane as if you are side bending between two panes of glass. 

Side Arm Series on the Reformer

                                                                             Side Bend or Mermaid

With Twisting spine you want to think of spiraling up. As with all spine shapes, start with Tall spine, then rotate the ribcage working from the waist (not the shoulders). Continuously lengthen the spine up as you rotate. 

                                                                                Spine Twist

Snake and Twist mount