Exercise – Shoulder Stretches and Back Kicks
Shoulder Stretches and Back Kicks is a dynamic exercise for shoulder, lower back, and hamstring flexibility as well as a warm-up drill in our tricking curriculum. It helps to condition the muscles for common movements in tricking and is used to prepare the body for kicking and tumbling.
Stand facing a wall, place both hands on the wall. Keep your base leg flat on the floor for maximum flexibility benefits and begin swinging one leg backwards towards the back of your body, letting your shoulders open and letting your hamstrings stretch as you kick backward. Then let the momentum take your leg down while you control it and pull it back again. Your hands to your knee should form a straight line and the goal should be to stretch the bottom leg as much as possible, so letting your knee bend a bit is totally fine. Your back, your glutes, and your hamstrings work together in this movement. Be careful not to kick the wall and don’t forget to switch legs and do both sides!
After using the Shoulder Stretches and Back Kicks, you can work towards one of the following:
- Do them without a wall to challenge your balance
- Work on your basic kicks on the ground
- Work towards a cartwheel, a handstand, or a butterfly kick