hey guys it's anna and today we're going to be doing a stretch routine with the best
stretches for improving your back bend along with this routine i'm giving you a two week
stretch challenge which is to do this routine daily for two weeks to see how much your back
bend can improve and i've also created a playlist with a few of my other stretch routines that will
also help improve your back bend that you can add on to this one if you would like for a chance to
be featured at the end of one of my videos you can share your back then transformation with
the hashtag annamcnultychallenge on instagram or take top in order to improve your backbend you
obviously need to know how to get into it first so before we get into the stretches here's a super
quick tutorial on how to do a back bend to get into the back bend there are two main ways either
pushing up or falling back the easiest way is to push up so to do this start by laying on your back
and then bend your legs and arms so that your hands and feet are flat on the ground once you're
in that position just straighten out your arms and lift up your hips to go into the back bend
to fall into a back bend stand with your arms by your ears and then simply arch back until
your hands reach the ground while falling backwards make sure that you're keeping your
arm straight and that your weight stays in your feet i know falling back can be
scary at first so to start I recommend walking your hands down a wall into the back bend then
once you're comfortable with walking down the wall try falling onto a higher surface
and slightly lowering the surface until you can do it all the way to the ground if you're not
sure what to do this on some household items that could work are a bed or a couch to start
then after you could do it on something shorter like a couch pillow if you already have a good
amount of back flexibility but are just afraid to fall backwards another way you can practice
is by falling back on your knees now that you know how to do the back bend let's go ahead and
get started with the stretch challenge so that you can make it even better first we're going to
stretch it our arms starting by pulling one arm overhead now pull that same arm across your body
and switch arms starting with pulling it over your head again
now pull that arm across your body
next place your hands together behind your back and then reach forward placing your arms
in front of you to feel a good stretch in your hamstrings and your shoulders
it's important to have a good amount of shoulder flexibility to have a good backbend
so that's why we're doing this stretch it's totally fine if you can't go as far forward
as i'm demonstrating in this stretch just go as far as it takes to feel good to you
go into a downward dog pushing your chest towards your legs again to stretch out your shoulders
I know a lot of you always ask about the outfits i'm wearing so this one is the
new adapt ombre from gymshark and i'll leave a link to their website down in the description
now go on to your hands and knees arching back as far as you can if you can't go as far back
as i'm demonstrating that's completely fine just go as far as it takes for you to feel the stretch
and now contract and we're going to repeat these two motions two more times
you can now arch back again contract
arch back
and contract for the last time
lay down on your stomach and then try to straighten out your arms
if you can get your arms completely straight without too much of a stretch try to arch back
even farther until you feel a good stretch in your back if you can't
arch back further or straighten out your arms don't worry just stay where you are
and the more often you stretch your back you should be able to get further back
eventually
now we're going to go back up into a downward dog again pushing your chest back
now reach towards either your feet or your knees depending on how flexible
you already are and then roll back up to standing
for the next few stretches you're going to need to stand a few feet away from a wall
once you're at a wall place your hands up on the
wall and then push your chest down to feel a stretch in your shoulders
staying a few feet away from the wall turn around so that your back is towards the wall
and then reach up and arch back until your hands touch the wall
we're only going to hold this here for 10 seconds so i believe in you you got this
next try to walk your hands even further down the wall if you don't feel ready to go further
down the wall yet then just stay where you are and the more you do this routine the further down you
should be able to get now if you can walk your hands all the way down the wall until you reach
the ground again if you don't feel comfortable with that just stay at the level you were just at
i know we've been upside down for a long time now so we're going to take a quick 10 second
rest so you can either lay down on the ground or stand up from where you are
go back into either the full back bend or the wall assisted back bend
whichever you can currently do and we're going to hold it for 20 more
seconds
we're going to take one last 10 second rest before moving into the next stretch
and we're almost finished the routine so no point in stopping now you've been doing great so far
this is the final stretch of this routine so don't give up now we're going to go back
up into the back bend either with or without the wall and this time i want
you to challenge yourself even further if you can by walking your hands down the wall
or walking your hands and feet closer together if you're in the full back bend
then every day that you do this routine try to walk your hands even further
but even if we're far apart i hope you enjoyed this stretch routine and
decide to do the two week challenge along with it if you liked it make
sure to give this video a thumbs up and also subscribe to my channel and here's
another routine you can do if you'd like to stretch for longer see you back tomorrow