Active Back Flexibility with a Body Wheel

Active Back Flexibility with a Body Wheel

As I’ve written before, my body wheel is one of my favorite flexibility props. It’s a nice way to get some support in stretches - particularly for your back and shoulders.

As I’ve harped on before, a large component of getting more flexible is getting your muscles stronger while they’re in a stretched position (that’s that “active flexibility” all the cool kids are talking about these days). The wheel is great for this because it supports rounding active back exercises in a comfier way than yoga blocks ever can. Here are some of my favorite drills:

1. Puppy Pose Roll-Outs

How-To

• Start kneeling with your arms extended straight out in front of you, palms pressing together and forearms on the wheel

• Let your chest drop allowing you to arch into your supported puppy pose

• Then press your forearms into the wheel, engaging your abs by sucking your belly button in towards your spine, trying to pull your chest away from the floor (maybe even to the point of slightly rounding your back)

• Then release, relaxing back into your arched puppy pose

Breathing Option: I like doing these “cat-cow” style just rounding and arching a couple of times breathing any way that feels natural, but if you want a more intentional breathing pattern you can:

• Inhale as you round (sucking belly button in, pressing into forearms, knitting ribs together, engaging your whole front core), then hold at the top. Go through another round of breath (exhale and inhale) keeping your abs sucking in

• Then use your next exhale to relax and melt your chest back towards the floor

2. Fish Arm Drops

How-To

• Lie back on the roller, resting the back of your head on the roller to avoid straining your neck. (If you are a yoga person, think of this as a funky fish pose!)

• Reach your arms back overhead, palms facing in (thumbs towards the ground)

• Try to keep hands shoulder-width apart as you lift your arms up over your chest towards the ceiling, then drop them backdown overhead towards the floor. If you’re having a hard time keeping your hand placement, grab a yoga block and hold it between your hands the whole time

• Repeat for 8-15 reps

Make it harder: Want an extra muscle-y challenge variation? Instead of squeezing your arms together (keeping your hands shoulder-width apart in the air or holding a block), take a LIGHT resistance band or strap between your hands and pull your hands away from each other while holding the band as you lift/lower your arms. If using the band, still try and keep your palms facing in towards each other and your hands shoulder-width apart.

3. Backbend Crunches (AKA Abs! Abs! Abs!)

I LOVE this drill for helping students learn to engage their abs while in a backbend, which is absolutely crucial to protecting your low back while in a backbend).

How-To

• Start with your butt on the floor, leaning back into the wheel (the exact placement on your spine doesn’t matter a ton, you can try it in a couple of places and pick the one that feels the most comfortable for this exercise)

• Interlace your fingers behind your head for support, and pull your elbows towards each other towards the front of your face (basically do what everyone tells you NOT to do when doing crunches on the floor). By hugging our elbows forwards, we’re helping slide our scapula towards the side of our ribs and out of the way of the wheel for when we backbend

• Before you even think about backbending (don’t get ahead of yourself, partner) engage your abs. Suck your belly button in towards your spine

• Then once your core is engaged, slowly start to let the back of your shoulders drop back towards the floor - maintaining that strong sucking-your-belly-button-in-toward-your-spine the whole time. The goal is to learn how to keep your abs engaged without having to think about crunching (which is the opposite of the backbending shape we want!)

• Once you’ve leaned back as far as you comfortably can keeping your abs engaged (which may not be fully the whole way back on the wheel), use your strong abs to lift your back up to your flat-back starting position

• Repeat 8-15 times

4. Booty Drops

From a bendy-ness perspective, this is an extremely similar exercise to the backbend crunches above (you’re hinging through your upper/middle back), only this time we’re moving the lower half of our body.

How-To

• Start lying back on the wheel, with the wheel at the base of your shoulderblades

• Interlace your fingers behind your head and point your elbows up to the ceiling (to slide your elbows away from your spine and towards the side of your chest - this will help keep them from smooshing too much into the wheel)

• Keeping your head/neck supported with your hands, suck your belly button in (there’s those abs again…) and try and curl your tailbone down towards the floor. It’s not “just” about dropping your hips, it’s about trying to use your back muscles to drop your hips and pull them in closer to the wheel

• Press into your feet to push your hips back up to start

• Repeat 8-15 times

Make it harder: Start near a wall. Instead of using your hands to support your head, relax your head back and reach arms overhead, pressing your palms (fingers down) into the wall. The wall will help maintain your shoulder stretch while you try and drop your butt down toward the wheel. You may need to start with the wheel a little bit higher up on your spine to give your butt room to drop for this one.