Zombie Roll Ups
Zombie Roll Ups
Muscle Group(s) Stretched: Back
Range of Motion Stretched: Spinal Flexion (Rounding)
Type of Stretch: Active Dynamic
Difficulty: All Levels
Suggested Prerequisites: none
This is one of my favorite back stretches to do after a bunch of backbends - but you could do this anytime you want to stretch out the muscles of your back. This drill can be tailored to be more, or less “active” depending on the challenge you’d like.
How To
Step 1
Start standing with knees slightly bent, arms relaxed (either dangling by your side, or crossed in front of your belly)
Step 2
Slowly start to round your spine, starting with your neck: drop your chin towards your chest to round the back of your neck, then let the wait of your arms start to round your upper back as your chest starts to lower. Try to reach your chest towards your belly/hips (this will feel like a bit of a squeeze in the abs) as you continue to lower down, rounding into the low back. Roll all the way down until you are in a relaxed dangle-y forward fold - you can bend your knees as much as you want to make this more comfortable on your hips.
Step 3
Then we’re going to reverese the movement - rolling up to standing one vertebrae at a time. To make this more active, we’re going to try to keep ourselves in a compact round ball as we go. Starting with the hips, tuck the tailbone towards the floor to round the low back and lift the belly. Keep your chest reaching towards your thighs/hips as you lift your belly button, then chest, then shoulders, and finally your neck and head roll up last.
That’s one rep (down-and-up), repeat for 3-5 slow reps.
Modifications
Make it easier:
Bend the knees more to avoid this feeling like an intense hamstring stretch - we want to focus more on being able to round the back
Make this more passive / less active by relaxing the torso as you lift and lower (as opposed to actively curling into a compact ball)
Make it harder:
Add light weights to the hands (10-20lb total) to turn this into a Jefferson Curl
Related Content
Flexopedia: Angry Toddler's Pose
Blog Post: Back Stretches for Full Spinal Flexibility
