We did a piece on The Core Hold a short while ago, where we talked about how it helps you activate the anterior chain, which is a fancy way of saying ‘the front of your body’. The perfect complement to this is The Superman Hold, which is something we also build into all our warm-ups.

The Superman Hold activates the muscles in your posterior chain, which is basically the entire back of your body. This movement activates the muscles that help stabilize and organize the spine, hips and shoulder girdle. Performing The Core Hold and The Superman Hold before a workout is an easy way to make sure your body is fired up and ready to handle more load and intensity as the workout progresses.

In addition to helping you warm up before a session, The Superman Hold is also a fantastic exercise for improving your posture. Slouching over a cell phone or computer can cause the muscles in the back to get lazy. To make matters worse, if you don’t remind your spine that it’s healthy to straighten out and extend fully, it starts to stay locked in that hunched-over position, which is obviously not a good idea for long-term health.

The good news: getting your dose of The Superman Hold every day will counteract some of the adverse effects of slouching too much.

0:04 – T Variation
0:15 – W Variation
0:23 – L Variation

The variations of The Superman Hold shown in the video explore different angles of activation for different segments of the spine and shoulder girdle – play around with the positions and pay attention to the subtle differences in feel. As always, if you have any questions or are unsure about the technique, talk to a Coach!

Be Brave,
The Ritual Team