Here is something nice for your lower back after heavy deadlift days.
Donnie Thompson demonstrates various back stretches using rubber bands.
You don’t even need to be fully suspended. I sometimes attach a band to a pull up bar, wrap it around my lower back while I lay on the floor. Or, another way to do is to just load up a dip belt with some plates and hang from a pull up bar. Feels awesome.
For more rehab drills see Mobility101.
Update: Dmitry Klokov also does some Spinal Decompression. Not with bands, but with a special apparatus.
We have a poshmachine here; no idea, who brought it here, but we use it on a regular basis, it’s really cool. You’ve seen that I do deadlifts on a daily basis. Due to that the muscles are so toned-up, that they don’t let the backbone stretch, to space the vertebrae, and let them take the proper position. Massage or hanging on a horizontal bar ease up this condition, but this exercise this machine really helps you feel how vertebrae go into the proper position.
Update: The Chinese also like to do it. Read Larry’s Chinese Weightlifting Experience.
Update: Another method from Russia.
Just like in the latest batman movie too…”your spine is sticking out, let me push it in place, hang you from a rope and leave you there for 3 months” 😀
Good stuff. Here’s another alternative. Just balance yourself on gymnastic rings for a minute with your arms straight, shoulders down, whole body straight without touching the floor with your feet. Don’t let the arms rotate inward. This may not be as good of a stretch than hanging from a pullup bar, because you must have some tension on the shoulders/chest/back and core to balance yourself, and at least without added weight you don’t feel the stretch much, but it’s much better for the shoulders.
And the best decompression is of course just lying on your back, but that’s usually taken care of every night =D
What kind of band is that?
PL band?
Gregor, I use lifting straps to really lock myself onto the pull up bar when I do my decompression hangs. Makes it easy to go for minutes at a time.
Klokov is just using an inversion table. You can buy them at CostCo and many sporting goods stores or online.
Where do I get a band for this? What specs are the band?