I think stretching in pilates is overlooked, a lot of people like to concentrate on core work, but I think stretching is important also as it helps align any imbalance in the body. It is important to work all the 'planes' of the body as mentioned in technical terms below, which is forward, back and side to side, so stretching helps with this.
Sagittal Plane: Cuts the body into left and right halves. Forward and backward movements.
Frontal Plane: Cuts the body into front and back halves. Side-to-side movements.
Transverse Plane: Cuts the body into top and bottom halves. Twisting movements.
I personally like the standing roll up and down, as it stretches the hamstrings, spine and also the neck. The feet are hip distance apart, and always ensure you drop the chin towards the chest, and focus on rolling down through each vertebrae of the spine and and slowly rolling back up through the spine to gain full benefit. The core would of course be engaged, to help protect the spine.
Please be careful if you have back issues, so you would gently bend through the knees as you rolled down and up. You could stand with your back to a wall, feet slightly away from the wall to help protect the spine, or you could even do this sitting in a chair with the feet hip distance apart.
I have noticed its much more common on younger people, or people who do a lot of running, to be very stiff and they can rarely touch their toes, but like everything, practice makes perfect, so even doing 3 or 4 roll up and downs every day for a couple of weeks would help with flexibility. As with most things, don't force the stretch, it will come.
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