back flexibility for walkover

[Alessandro Mainente]

hi to all, my problems is concerned with backwalkover e frontwalkover...

i have a great bridge where my hands are very near to the ears and the shoulders/chest directly over the hands and this is wonderful for my handstands extension. but seems that my back is not very flexibile..what can i do in oder to make it more flexible? i usually do bridge wall walks but i can't bend it to much! do the front walkover and the back is vert difficult, i have to use a lot of strength in the kicking movement!

any tips?

thanks to all

[Cole Dano]

Alex is there any chance you could make a video of yourself attempting to do walkovers and wall walks, plus your bridge?

From there I could get a better idea of how to help you out.

[Alessandro Mainente]

ok Cole, i'll do it this afternoon

[Blairbob]

One person's spinal flexibility to another varies but in general there is less you can do about this than shoulder flexibility.

With good shoulder flexibility, you shouldn't have too much of a problem with walkovers unless you have very poor splits. Especially since you are not trying to do BWO on BB.

[Cole Dano]

It does take a boat load of work to improve spinal flexibility, and I suppose there are some natural limits, but if work at it consistently it can be improved.

I know my own spinal flexibility was virtually none when I started, and albeit with a ton of work, I got to where I could touch my toes to my head.

[Alessandro Mainente]

hi cole...this is my bridge, unfortunately my parents are on holiday so i can't use the video camera for bridge wall walk.

sometime i usually go 2-3 cm more on the left but is only a week that i have recovered from by back problem..so i'm careful..

[Blairbob]

Probably about as much as I have got. Look at my video in my youtube to be sure.

[Cole Dano]

Hi Alex -

First and foremost, take care of your back.

It looks like your self assessment was correct. You have good shoulder extension, but your spinal extension has room for improvement.

What worked for me was a combination of active and passive techniques.

A big part of spinal flexibility is in the upper back and this is very often the weak link.

Here are a few basic examples of how you can work.

Passive work -

Gymnastic Ball / End of a bed etc

Lay over a gymnastic ball and roll over the upper back. You can get creative with this but the main thing is to let yourself be as relaxed as possible. On a bed, sofa or chair, you slide off.

After dynamically rolling, do some statics, simply staying in one spot for 30-seconds to a minute and then roll a little further and repeat.

Bench -

The hard edge of the bench will give you more to leverage over and help pinpoint the section of your spine being worked.

Do the static work as above, but more consciously trying to form your spine over the edge of the bench. Start very high on the back almost at the neck. In forming think the part of your spine on the edge is lifting off the edge.

After the static, reach over head and grab the legs of the bench use your arms to help leverage the stretch. Be careful here, it's not unusual to hear some interesting pops.

Active

Wall leveraged bridge -

Do bridge as you are but with your hands on the floor right next to a wall. The wall will allow you to exert much more leverage into the spine and let your legs press forward into the wall.

Doing this, apply what you learned about the spine in the passive work. Strongly life the pelvis, and entire spine UP towards the celling. Try to lift off of your shoulders. Once you have maximum lift, press with your legs towards the wall, think you are trying to touch the spine of the upper back to the wall.

Active Wall Walks / Drop Back -

This can be done with a wall and / or with a raised surface, panel mat etc. eventually all the way to the floor.

Stand a comfortable distance from the wall or mat, press the hips forward and actively extend the spine starting from the lower back to the upper back to the shoulders. Actively stretch the hands down and begin to curl from the upper back down. Lightly touch the wall or pad. Reverse the curling movement and lift up on your own power.

Try not to fall on the wall or pad going down or push on the way up.

At the wall, you walk any amount down, but make sure you come up on your own power. Think you are curling around a high bar in order to go down.

[Alessandro Mainente]

wooooooow thank you Cole, very helpful.

i noticed that the spinal is the problem, usually i do some handstand position (inverted planche) where i go oout with shoulder and i can reach the horizzontal position with legs but the pressure over the back under the parallele line is to much...i'm locked...

for the bridge..ideally if i try to extend the legs i can improve the spine mobility?

[Cole Dano]

for the bridge..ideally if i try to extend the legs i can improve the spine mobility?

Yes, using the wall keeps your hands from sliding and gives more leverage, still be as active as possible with your spine so it's helping the action not just getting crushed.

It's also important to feel that as you extend the legs the pressure goes to the upper back, think middle of the shoulder blades level.

In yoga bridge is called upward facing bow pose, I always liked that name, because when you bend a bow the pressure is spread through the bow. Extend the legs, put pressure on the opposite side...

[Nic Branson]

I've never heard upward facing bow. Think I will steal that, very very good one.

[Sailor Venus]

hi cole...this is my bridge, unfortunately my parents are on holiday so i can't use the video camera for bridge wall walk.

sometime i usually go 2-3 cm more on the left but is only a week that i have recovered from by back problem..so i'm careful..

Put heels on the ground. Stretching your quads and hip flexors helps your bridge.

[Cole Dano]

Though that's true, the reason he's lifting his heels is to help get over his wrists. This is sort of like doing it on a very low platform and a perfectly valid method of working shoulder and thoracic flexibility.

Doing it this way, once you've hit your max. stretch, it is a nice addition to drop the heels, while maintaining the same shoulder flexion.

[Sailor Venus]

When I do my own bridge, my arms can't bend backwards far enough. I reckon its to do with the poor flexibility in the latissimus dorsi that stops me from doing a bridge properly. The bridge itself doesn't help, I have to stretch muscles individually.