# Teaser: how to do it

- Main muscles: abs, hip flexors
- Also works: lower back
- Equipment: yoga mat
- Level: advanced
- 3D demo (side view): https://media.trainaq.com/exercises/teaser/4926be7004/side-m-720.mp4

## Steps

1. Lie on your back, lift your legs straight to about 45°, toes pointed, arms overhead.
2. Breathe in, float your arms up and roll up one vertebra at a time, reaching for your toes.
3. Balance just behind your sit bones in a V, chest lifted, arms parallel to your legs.
4. Breathe out and roll down one vertebra at a time, keeping your legs still.
5. Do 3–5 slowly.

## Cues

- Legs stay still; the spine does the work.
- Lift your chest at the top.
- Roll like a wheel, up and down.

## Common mistakes

- Using momentum: bend your knees until you can roll with control.
- Dropping the legs: lift them higher or bend your knees.
- Rounding at the top: lift your chest and lengthen through the crown.

## The version in our demo

Teaser I as Joseph Pilates set it out (Return to Life) and the Balanced Body mat manual teaches it: the legs held up at about 45° while the spine rolls up into a V balance and back down.

## Starting position

On the back, legs straight and together, lifted to about 45°, toes pointed; arms overhead.

## The movement

Breathe in and float the arms up to the ceiling; roll the spine up off the mat one part at a time, reaching the arms to the toes, until you balance just behind the sit bones in a V, chest lifted. Hold. Breathe out and roll down one part at a time, the legs staying where they are; the arms float back overhead.

## Breathing

In to roll up (Pilates: "inhale slowly while raising"), out to roll down.

## Tempo

7 s: arms up 0.8 s, roll up 2.5 s, hold 1 s, roll down 1.9 s, and the arms float back overhead over 1.4 s as the back lands (5.6–7 s). The roll is paced by the path of the head, chest and pelvis together, so the body moves at an even speed (no stop at a key, no surge); the arms follow the clock. Real practice: 3–5 slow reps.

## Form in numbers

- Legs straight (knees 4°), together, 45° above the mat throughout.
- Curl first: the spine rounds 55° before the pelvis rolls.
- The V: trunk 66–69° above the mat, spine long (6°), the angle between trunk and legs 66–69°, balanced just behind the sit bones (hip joints 8 cm up); arms parallel to the legs (within 6°), elbows 11°.
- Lying: arms overhead 4–5 cm above the mat.

## Sources

1. J. Pilates and W. J. Miller, Return to Life through Contrology (1945), "The Teaser".
2. Balanced Body, Pilates Mat instructor manual

Source: https://trainaq.com/exercises/teaser