Lower back, hips and shoulders
Supported Forward Fold: Wall
Hands on the wall create the most spine-friendly standing forward fold, keeping your back completely neutral while stretching your hamstrings and hips.
How to do it
- 1
Stand facing a wall, about an arm's length away
Feet hip width, knees softly bent. This version keeps the spine level and supported by the hands, so it asks very little of the back.
- 2
Place your hands on the wall at hip height
Arms long. Press the hands into the wall so the arms are actively holding, not just resting against it.
- 3
Walk your feet back until the torso is horizontal
Hips stack over the ankles and the back settles into a long, flat line from the hips to the head. The length is felt in the backs of the legs, not in the spine.
- 4
Hold 30 to 60 seconds, then walk the feet in
Keep pressing the wall away throughout, which is what holds the flat back in place, and walk in slowly to come up.
What to watch for
Letting the hips drift behind or in front of the heels, which loses the flat back this version is built around. Stack the hips over the ankles, keep the knees soft and keep pressing into the wall. If the back starts to sag or dome, walk the feet in a little.
If this one is too much today
Try the gentler version instead. It asks less of you and does much the same work.
Other ways to do this movement
Every version below is the same movement set up differently, so one of them usually suits. See all Supported Forward Fold versions in one place, ordered from gentlest to strongest.
Before you try it
Move within a range that stays comfortable. Stop if this brings on sharp pain, dizziness, or symptoms that travel down an arm or a leg, and speak to a clinician before repeating it.
One movement is a start. A session is the thing.
A few questions about your body and how it is today, and Vinys builds a session around it, including which movements to leave out.
Start your first sessionFrom the clinically authored Vinys movement library.