headstand and superman static hold -- does anyone here do them like this?

[JosephDredd]

From deadlifts to KB swings to Kono curls, things that should work the entire back never seemed to do much for my upper spine and much of my fitness training has been struggling to keep my kyphosis in check.

Recently my kyphotic spine has improved in leaps and bounds and it feels like someone is taking an anchor off of me. And most of this improvement came from two specific moves that are simple and basic, but I never had much use for them until I realized I had never done them correctly.

Headstand - head and hands on floor, knees on elbows. I always thought this was a limited activity that didn't do much, but that's because I was always pressing with my shoulders. Turns out the thing that turned this into a magic bullet for me was to stop pushing with my shoulders and to try to lift my knees off my elbows by contracting my upper spine, as though I was trying to move my lower spine into a totally vertical position. This immediately changes the entire exercise, directly strengthening my problem areas and, somehow, making my shoulders work harder than if I was simply pressing with them.

Superman hold - after learning how gymnasts do these, I'm pretty sure no one here has ever done these correctly. If you're flexing your lower back at any point, you're doing it wrong. The lower body is relaxed at all times. The upper body comes off the floor by contracting the mid-back and above as though you're wrapping your spine around a basketball, vertebrae by vertebrae. The lower body comes off the floor with you flexing your ass, not tilting your pelves with your lower back. The ROM of the lower body depends entirely on your hip extensors and it might not seem like flexing your ass is a difficult static hold, but trying to hold straight legs in a previously unused ROM for the hip extensors is surprisingly challenging. And the ultimate goal is, with straight arms and legs, get your head as high off the ground as you can... and then get your hands and feet even higher.

I think these two moves have taught the muscles in my upper back how to fire properly. I don't know what they were doing before, but they were just kind of along for the ride. I had to share because this discovery has been huge for me.

 

[miaou]

Superman hold - after learning how gymnasts do these, I'm pretty sure no one here has ever done these correctly.

Lol.

What a silly thing to say!

 

[JosephDredd]

Lol.

What a silly thing to say!

I said it. What are you going to do about it?

 

[MandirigmaFit]

Remember, the thoracic spine is meant to be kyophotic. It's during movement that we need to make sure that it doesn't become hyperkyphotic or "flat." Neutral is good, but the posterior aspect of the ribcage is rounded to provide a good platform for the scapula to move upon and to allow the organs within the ribcage proper spacing, not hyperextended, giving it a flat look.

But who the hell cannot do Superman Holds?

 

[JosephDredd]

I like your kyphotic note, but mine was causing me legit problems.

But who the hell cannot do Superman Holds?

In fifteen years of fitness training I have never seen it taught or written about like this before. It was always done as a lower back flexion that had limited ability to progress unless you added weights to or tried to turn it into a GHR.

The way the gymnasts train it, with zero lower back flexion, is amove that can take years to master and frequently involves assistance work to strengthen the obliques.

has anyone else here trained it like a gymnast? Was I just really out of the loop until now?

 

[Samuel Reynoso]

I'll give these a shot. I've always skipped that headstand variations, and I do superman holds everyday, but I knew I was doing them wrong.

 

[JimRussel]

You only listed three exercises in your OP. There are a lot of other exercises that work your upper back.

 

[MandirigmaFit]

Remember, to build strength, the muscle fibers need to have a very high stimulus. That doesn't change just because of a "style" of exercise, i.e.: static holds vs good mornings.

 

[Marfa]

What about hollow rocks and planches?

 

[JosephDredd]

You only listed three exercises in your OP. There are a lot of other exercises that work your upper back.

... thank you?

Not sure what you're getting at here. Do you want a list of all the things I've tried before I'm allowed to be happy that I found something that worked? Is there some reason I should not share this information with the forum?

 

[JosephDredd]

Remember, to build strength, the muscle fibers need to have a very high stimulus. That doesn't change just because of a "style" of exercise, i.e.: static holds vs good mornings.

Not sure what you're trying to say, either. I'm saying that these exercises, done as I describe, have my muscles activated and firing normally, which has helped out immensely with a strength deficiency I have struggled with for a long time. Good mornings, as an example, did not activate the musculature in my problem areas in any significant way. This is something that I don't think is uncommon when you have significant muscle imbalances. I have read many rehab books that talk about the common need to repattern muscles after chronic or sudden inuries.

What part of my post do you find fault with?

 

[JosephDredd]

What about hollow rocks and planches?

Those were much easier for me to do and never helped my upper back. Those are mostly core work, as far as I can tell.

 

[JosephDredd]

I'll give these a shot. I've always skipped that headstand variations, and I do superman holds everyday, but I knew I was doing them wrong.

I'd love to hear what you think of them

Doing superman holds this way are very, very humbling. They were originally part of the Gymnastic Bodies Foundations level 1, but it was taking people years to master them even though it was supposed to b the first baby step. The combination of torso, shoulder and hip flexibility required, upper back control required and oblique strength required stopped most people in their tracks. Now they've moved the Superman holds up a few levels and the first levels are dedicated to building the physical requirements to even start working the holds.

At one point people had divided the holds up into easy-medium-hard variations

easy: legs bent, arms by your sides
medium: legs almost straight, arms held out sideways
hard: legs straight, arms out ahead of you like Superman

Really concentrated on flexing your ass, relaxing your lower back, and contracting every single vertebrae from your mid-back up (as though around an invisible basketball). Get your head as high as you can and, on the hard version, your feet and hands even higher.

It's literally a totally different exercise than a lower back Superman hold.

 

[Samuel Reynoso]

I'd love to hear what you think of them

Doing superman holds this way are very, very humbling. They were originally part of the Gymnastic Bodies Foundations level 1, but it was taking people years to master them even though it was supposed to b the first baby step. The combination of torso, shoulder and hip flexibility required, upper back control required and oblique strength required stopped most people in their tracks. Now they've moved the Superman holds up a few levels and the first levels are dedicated to building the physical requirements to even start working the holds.

At one point people had divided the holds up into easy-medium-hard variations

easy: legs bent, arms by your sides
medium: legs almost straight, arms held out sideways
hard: legs straight, arms out ahead of you like Superman

Really concentrated on flexing your ass, relaxing your lower back, and contracting every single vertebrae from your mid-back up (as though around an invisible basketball). Get your head as high as you can and, on the hard version, your feet and hands even higher.

It's literally a totally different exercise than a lower back Superman hold.

I didn't notice a huge new feeling in my upper back with the superman holds. Although I never had a problem with t-spine extension. The hard part for me was keeping the scaps retracted and depressed with full t-spine extension. I'll probably use superman's to self evaluate, but not as a exercise.

 

[JosephDredd]

I didn't notice a huge new feeling in my upper back with the superman holds. Although I never had a problem with t-spine extension. The hard part for me was keeping the scaps retracted and depressed with full t-spine extension. I'll probably use superman's to self evaluate, but not as a exercise.

Very cool.