The Pilates Spine Corrector, a small piece of exercise apparatus, also goes by the common names of step barrel and arc barrel. Shaped like half of a wooden barrel and covered with padding and leather, the Spine Corrector is a smaller version of a piece of Pilates equipment called the ladder barrel. All of these variations feature a curved surface with a flat, stable bottom, allowing for spinal extension and body support during exercise.
Adapted Matwork
Pilates matwork, originally called Contrology, includes dozens of exercises. Many of these body weight mat exercises adapt to the Spine Corrector, such as Double Bent Leg Stretch, the Teaser and Mermaid.
With the bottom of your hips in the swill of the Spine Corrector and your back up against the arc, tuck your knees in and wrap your arms around your legs, then extend all your limbs out in a 45-degree angle to do Double Bent Leg Stretch. Extend both legs and keep them at that angle while rolling back and reaching up toward your toes to complete the Teaser. For Mermaid, face sideways and bend both legs back at the knees, then reach arms over the arc while lowering and raising spine laterally, working the oblique muscles.
Traditional Exercises
The Spine Corrector provides a base for doing push-ups, sit-ups and back extensions when more traditional exercises make their way into a Pilates workout. Push-ups increase or decrease in intensity based on the foot or leg position used. Assist your push-ups by perching your thighs or shins on the arc. Advance them by moving down to your feet. Sit-ups take you back and over the arc for extra abdominal stretch. Back extensions allow you to drop your chest below hip level for extra flex on the way down.
Because the Spine Corrector offers stability and has no moving parts, the body can rely on support for the spine, pelvis or hip when working on it, making it good for therapeutic use. In an article in "Pilates COREterly," a quarterly publication for Pilates and other fitness professionals, authors Lindy Royer and Kristi Waldmann note that work on the barrel can "help facilitate needed spine articulation especially through thoracic extension, rotation and lateral flexion." Simple exercises that move patients through space on the arc include side stretches reaching the waist laterally across the barrel and Swimming, a downward facing limb-pumping exercise for deep stabilization and control.
Inverted Legwork
Legwork in the inverted position on the Spine Corrector helps relieve extra strain from the low back and back of the arms by lying back and over the barrel with the hips on top of the arc and the shoulder blades and head secure on a mat. Hip flexors stretch and flex while hamstrings lead the legs away from the center.
Use Scissors, Leg Circles, and Bicycles to form the base of your multi-directional routine on the barrel. Scissors move your straight legs back and forth in a cutting motion, Leg Circles bring the thighs open and around to the sides, and Bicycles extend and bend the legs in forward and backward directions.
References
- "Return to Life Through Contrology"; Joseph H. Pilates and William J Miller; 1945
- Pilates.com: Rehab Corner: Pilates for People With Parkinson's Disease
- Pilates Method: Arc Barrel & Spine Corrector for Pilates
- "PMA Pilates Certification Exam Study Guide"; Pilates Method Alliance, Inc.; 2005
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