I read a Frederic Delavier’s book « Strength Training Anatomy » and I learned good stuff.
Suspended at the fixed bar with the hands apart and with a pronated grip (thumb inwards) :
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Inhale and exhale slowly focusing on the relaxation of your body. This allows you to relax your back and rebalance the pressure inside the intervertebral discs (the discs that connect the vertebrae to each other).
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When you feel your muscles relaxed, lower you head forward to try to touch your sternum with your chin. This allows you to stretch the middle and the top of your back.
To increase the stretch, you can ask a person to grab your hips and pull you slowly down or you can swing slightly.
This stretching is essential. When you do it regularly at the end of deadlift, squat or other exercise that compresses the spine, this allows you in the long term to limit the deterioration of your intervertebral discs. This means that this stretch reduces the risk of spinal disc herniation.
Variant
With a tight grip, you stretch more the latissimus dorsi and teres major.
Note
When you do this stretch, it’s possible that you hear cracking of the spinal column followed by a pleasant sensation of release and relaxation of the back.
Don’t worry, these crackles have no gravity. It’s because of the relaxation of the paravertebrale muscle that allow the brutal decompression of the small intervertebral and costovertebral joints. This make the same effect as a suction cup that you take off.
Share this article if you think it can help someone you know. Thank you.
-Steph