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All The Benefits of Pull-ups -- Easy & Available for Everyone! Strengthen, Stretch & Protect Your Back! For Athletes & Everyone Else!

Have back problems? Need to strengthen your lower back?

Stretch & Strengthen your lower back with the Back Stretch Strap -- it's better and easier than pull-ups!

The Back Stretch Strap is for everyone!

* Athletes o Sprinters who need to strengthen their shoulders, biceps and lats o Runners who log 15-30 miles a week or more o Athletes who exercise with heavy weights o Basketball and volleyball players and others who do a lot of jumping -- putting pressure on their backs * The Back Stretch Strap gives you the benefits of pull-ups but is better & easier! * Anyone with back problems -- it gives you a good stretch and strengthens the lower back! * Anyone who has difficulty doing pull-ups -- your feet never leave the ground!

The Back Stretch Strap lets you stretch & strengthen your lower back in ways not possible with any other stretches or exercise equipment. And it's simple to use: just attach it to an overhead beam or slip it over a door to do the exercises.

_____________________________________________________________________________ How To Use

This adjustable strap is unique in that it allows you to stretch the lower back in a manner not possible with regular stretching. It has a dual attachment so that it can be attached high on a door jamb or to an overhead beam or post. Because your feet never leave the ground, it is also excellent for people who have difficulty doing pull-ups. The handles can be grasped in a neutral, supinated or pronated grip. It is especially helpful for individuals with back problems who need a good stretch and for strengthening the lower back muscles.

The Back Stretch Strap for Runners and Other Athletes

To get in shape, runners and other athletes are often advised to do exercises such as pull-ups, push-ups, crunches etc. Of these, pull-ups is a very important one since it not only helps strengthen the shoulders but also the biceps muscles, which play an important role in holding the elbow angle in running and the latissimus dorsi which is especially important for sprinters in driving the arm down and in other actions. However, as good as the pull-up exercise is, very few people can execute more than a few repetitions especially if they are somewhat overweight.

In addition, many people have had negative experiences with pull-ups when they were in school and had to do them in their physical fitness tests. Of all of the tests that are typically administered, most youngsters fail in the pull-up (chin-up). Note that in the pull-up you typically use a pronated grip, i.e. with the palms facing away from the body while in a chin-up you use a supinated grip with the palms facing the body when you do the exercise. For these and even other reasons many runners and athletes are reluctant to do the pull-up exercise.

However, there is now a way that pull-ups can be done that allows you to do a greater number of repetitions and get excellent benefits for the shoulders and arms. In addition, it helps stretch the lower back. This latter benefit is especially important because if you run anywhere from 15-30 miles a week or if you lift heavy weights, you experience compression forces on the spine. To relieve the pressure and get other benefits you should do pull-ups with the back stretch strap. This strap which I developed mainly for people with back problems can be attached to an overhead beam or simply slipped over a door in order to do the exercise.

To do the back stretch exercise adjust the strap so that the hands are approximately chest high when you are in a standing position facing the door or directly under an overhead attachment. Then inhale and hold your breath as you go into a squat until the arms are fully extended at which time you exhale and relax. The feet remain fully on the ground and you must keep the lower back in its normal curvature. This allows you to stretch the back in a manner that is not possible with the typically recommended back stretch exercises such as lying on the floor and bringing your knees up to the chest, etc.

When you do this exercise you assume a neutral grip, i.e. the palms of the hands face one another. In this position when you reach the lower-most point you effectively stretch the lower latissimus dorsi muscle which is not stretched when you use a pronated (palms away) grip as occurs when you grasp a horizontal bar. There is some stretching of this muscle when using a supinated (palms facing you) grip but most effective is the neutral grip.

Stretching the lower latissimus dorsi is very important as it plays a major role in some lower back problems. All too often we concentrate on the erector spinae but ignore the latissimus dorsi. This is why this stretch is so much more effective than many of the other back stretches. In addition, when you maintain the normal curvature of the spine, you stretch out the entire lumbar vertebrae column as a unit. This is needed to evenly relieve the pressure that builds up on the discs. When you have a rounded back and stretch you only relieve the pressure on one aspect of the discs not through the entire core section of the discs. This is another reason why this stretch is recommended above all the others.

After reaching the bottom position, hold for a few seconds and then stand up by pushing with the legs and pulling with the arms. As you do this stretch over a period of time you will find both your legs and arms getting stronger. You can then begin to emphasize pulling more with the arms rather than the legs. Thus you gain the ability to pull yourself up more with the arms making it even more effective for development of the shoulder and arm muscles.

As you become proficient in this exercise adjust the strap so that the hands are a little lower so that when you go into the squat you are lower than you were previously. With every further increment you get additional stretching of the lower back as long as you still maintain the normal curvature of the spine. This is very important to ensure full stretching of the spinal vertebrae support structures.

Note that as you go deeper you also gain greater strength of the muscles when pulling yourself upward. In time you will then be able to do a pull-up (chin-up) on a high bar. If you do not use the neutral grip when doing this exercise use a supinated grip. It would be effective, but not as effective as when you would have the straps in order to have the neutral grip in each hand.

It is recommended that you do this stretch after a heavy weight training session, a long run, or playing a sport that involves considerable jumping as for example, basketball and volleyball. Depending on your level of fitness, such stretching is often recommended after a typical weight training session, especially when holding weights on the shoulders as when doing a barbell squat. It helps to relieve the pressure on the spine and helps ensure a fully functional mobile spine. See the product section for availability and cost.