Back Extension with Roman Chair question

jman0

You know these back exercises you do with a roman chair, or a decline bench.
Like this:
http://www.exrx.net/WeightExercises/ErectorSpinae/WtBackExtension.html
My question is, are you supposed to just lift yourself til horizontal?
Or, is it ok to lift higher, arching your back?

Hanley

Pretty much as per the video.

Any higher and you risk hypertension and nasty back injuries!

Colm_OReilly

In that video it's mainly hip flexion but you can see a degree of lumbar flexion/extenion throughout the movement.

Kelly Starrett of CrossFit San Francisco (who has a PhD in physical therapy) gave a great talk on midline stabilisation while I was at the OCFA cert.

He started Nicole on the Roman Chair/Glute-Ham Developer with her hips supported and had her work on lumbar flexion/extension. Flexing from the neck down and then extended from the sacrum up.

Once you get this down, working on hip flexion, while keeping the trunk rigid was the next progression (you're hips are now past the support). Hugely impressive display of body control.

Once these two things were mastered, working with both hip flexion and trunk flexion were the next order of duty. He noted this could take months, if not years to reach, but was so well worth it as when anybody thinks of trunk or "core" they're all about the abs and forget the spinal erectors.

I hope they recorded and will publish this gem as it was hugely informative and impressive. Now K-Star didn't mention going into a high degree of extension at the top. It never occurred to me to question this but I'd echo Hanley's thoughts on it for the moment.

Hope this helps,
Colm