TABLE OF CONTENTS
Table of Contents ............................................................................................................................ 2
DISCLAIMER AND LEGAL ................................................................................................................. 3
WHY YOU SHOULD LEARN to BACKFLIP .......................................................................................... 5
WHY YOU NEED BACKFLIP TRAINING, NOT JUST A TUTORIAL ....................................................... 7
WHAT SHAPE TO BE IN TO LEARN A BACKFLIP ............................................................................... 8
WHY A FIT PERSON WOULDN’T BE ABLE TO BACKFLIP ................................................................ 10
OVERCOMING BACKFLIP FEAR ...................................................................................................... 11
MANUAL OUTLINE ........................................................................................................................ 12
BACKFLIP TUTORIAL ...................................................................................................................... 15
FIND A PLACE TO TRAIN THE BACKFLIP AND SCHEDULE A VISIT .................................................. 39
BACKFLIP STUDY & VISUALIZATION WORKOUT ........................................................................... 44
BACKFLIP MOBILITY WORKOUT .................................................................................................... 49
BACKFLIP EXPLOSIVENESS WORKOUT .......................................................................................... 63
BACKFLIP AB WORKOUT ............................................................................................................... 69
BACKFLIP ATTEMPT WORKOUT .................................................................................................... 79
BEYOND THE BACKFLIP ................................................................................................................. 86
APPENDIX I – HOW I GOT MY BACKFLIP & MADE IT PERMANENT ............................................... 87
APP ENDIX II – SOME OF OUR BACKFLIP VIDEOS.......................................................................... 91
APPENDIX III – EXTRA BACKFLIP ACCESSORY EXERCISES .............................................................. 95
APPENDIX IV – FITTING BACKFLIP TRAINING INTO YOUR TRAINING.......................................... 105
APPENDIX V – WORKOUTS AT A GLANCE ................................................................................... 109
APPENDIX VI – CHECK BOXES FOR COMPLIANCE ....................................................................... 110
YOUR NOTES ............................................................................................................................... 111
QUESTIONS?................................................................................................................................ 112
CONNECT WITH ME .................................................................................................................... 113
DISCLAIMER AND LEGAL
In reading this document you, and any you teach, understand and agree to the following
terms: that you/they will not hold the author and his affiliates responsible for any direct,
indirect, incidental, consequential, special, exemplary, punitive, or other damages, under any
legal theory, arising out of or in any way relating to your use of this document and its
information, or the content, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.
The author shall not be liable for any physical, psychological, emotional, financial, or
commercial damages, including, but not limited to, special, incidental, consequential, or other
damages. The information contained herein is meant to be used to educate and entertain the
reader and is in no way intended to provide individual medical advice. From time to time I
endorse third-party products or programs, and often there is some compensation or
commission for that endorsement.
MEDICAL DISCLAIMER
Like almost any activity, the training techniques in this program pose some inherent risk.
Before practicing the skills described in this program, be sure not to take risks beyond your
level of experience, aptitude, training, and comfort level. It is your responsibility to assess your
safety, know your limits, and obtain expert medical advice from a qualified accredited health
professional if any doubts exist. You agree to take full responsibility for your decisions and
actions.
Consultation with a doctor and/or physical fitness instructor is recommended prior to
attempting these techniques if any doubts exist. Doing so after you have had an accident
would ruin the purpose of the consultation.
All diet and supplement advice in this program is not intended as a substitute for the medical
advice of qualified medical practitioners. The products, supplements, and services mentioned
in this document are not intend-ed to diagnose, treat, cure, alleviate or prevent any diseases.
The statements in this document have not been reviewed or evaluated by the Food and Drug
Administration. The information is not a substitute for medical, psychological, or professional
advice, diagnosis, or treatment. All content in this document are the opinion of the author who
does not claim or profess to be a medical professional providing medical advice. Advice from
your professional medical advisor should always supersede information presented in this
document.
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AFFILIATE DISCLAIMER
In this program, the author recommends or endorses products or services that are not his own.
If he recommends it, he has used it personally and/or continues to use it. In some cases, the
author is compensated via a commission if you decide to purchase the products or services he
recommends. ALWAYS do your own due diligence before purchasing anything.
INDEMNIFICATION
You understand and agree that you will indemnify, defend, and hold Jon Call, its creator,
harmless from any liability, loss, claim, and expense, including reasonable attorney’s fees,
arising from your use of our his program/products, or your violation of these terms and
conditions. Jon Call assumes no responsibility for the exercises, practices, or behavior of any
kind, or implications of them, described herein.
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WHY YOU SHOULD LEARN TO BACKFLIP
The backflip is awesome! It is very much worth learning! No acrobatic skill has a higher return
on investment than the backflip, and the difficulty of it is grossly overestimated. In fact, in
tricking culture (freestyle acrobatics), there is an inside joke among us to describe the
frustration we get when outsiders spectate our more difficult skills. It goes like this:
We do a complicated combo: 540 kick > master scoot > s/t > gainer flash > s/t > cork illusion
twist. Incredible! And yet, so often, an outsider will comment something almost exactly like
this.
“Cool! But can you do a backflip?”
WTF?! I JUST DID A GAINER FLASH’ED BACKFLIP SWUNG INTO A ONE-LEGGED
FULLTWISTING BACKFLIP WITH A SPREADING KICK. (gainer flash > s/t cork illusion) DID YOU
NOT SEE THAT I WENT UPSIDE DOWN TWICE?! OFF ONE LEG BOTH TIMES, AND
MANAGED TO THROW KICKS IN THERE TOO?!!! No. They didn’t notice.
For the most part, people only seem to recognize backflips.
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So, it’s in your interest to learn the backflip and forego every other acrobatic skill in existence.
I’m serious. Damn, it looks like I wasted decades learning dozens of invisible acrobatic skills
because the only thing people see are backflips. Yep, I should have just stuck with the backflip
the whole time since it is overvalued, over appreciated, and overestimated. LOL.
Aside from respect from other people, the backflip itself is an excellent exercise once you learn
it. It will build explosive strength in your abs and lower back, which carries over very well to all
forms of athletics and strength training. It’s also a fun way of training “jumps” without having
to limit yourself to a mere jump. You can rep backflips, say, 6 sets of 3 reps, and get a very
positive training stimulus.
All in all, the backflip is one of the most useful, fun and rewarding skills I’ve learned, and that’s
why I wrote this training manual!
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WHY YOU NEED BACKFLIP TRAINING, NOT JUST A TUTORIAL
There are a lot of technique tutorials on how to “do” the backflip on the internet. “Keep your
chest up, rotate around your shoulders, spot a target” blah blah blah. I, too, have prepared a
technical tutorial in this manual because this type of instruction is important.
However! Before you go get yourself into all the little technical details, you need to know how
to “train” to do the backflip. That is where this guide will differ from those technical tutorials!
Knowing the backflip technique by watching a tutorial is not enough! You need to know how to
PHYSICALLY TRAIN AND PREPARE your body so you can actually “PHYSICALLY” do it!
Additionally, I will help you determine how to fit backflip training into your existing training!
“I’M SO BUSY TRYING TO MAKE THESE GAINS! GROW THESE ARMS! GET MY LIFTS UP!
WHEN THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO FIT IN BACKFLIP TRAINING?!?!??!?!?!?!”
I’m gonna help you with that! This is an unmet need for a large majority of people. Many
people interested in learning the backflip are interested because they participate in physical
culture in some way and inherently value physical skill more. How can you fit backflip training
into a bodybuilding bro split, a week of SBD (Squat, Bench, Dead), MMA, sports practice, or
whatever else you’re doing? I’ll give you some help on how to do that in this manual! Check
APPENDIX IV for that information. Go ahead and skip there if you want. You can skip around
this manual. There is no problem with that!
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WHAT SHAPE TO BE IN TO LEARN A BACKFLIP
Before you start working toward a backflip, you need a reality check. Are you in “the right
shape” to learn a backflip? Here are some conditions that will improve your chances of
succeeding with backflip training.
•
•
•
•
Younger is better
Lighter is better
Active is better
Shorter is better
STATS?
•
•
•
•
•
•
Ages 6-36 are ideal. Younger than 6 is unpredictable. Older than 36 is less common.
Weight 130 lbs – 220 lbs (60-100 kg) are ideal for teenage and adult males.
Weight 100 lbs – 150 lbs (45-70 kgs) are ideal for teenage and adult females.
Having suitable fitness and being active daily is better than being sedentary.
5”2 to 6”0 height (157 cm to 183 cm) for teenage and adult males is ideal.
4”10 to 5”8 (147 cm to 172 cm) height for teenage and adult females is ideal.
If you’re out of any of those ranges, it doesn’t mean you’re doomed. However, if you’re out of
all of those ranges, you’re going to be fighting an uphill battle. Here are some imaginary
examples to illustrate how these ranges play out in the real world:
A very lean and fit 18 year old male who weighs 150 lbs (68 kgs), is 5”7 (170 cm) tall, and is
active and jumps every day: this is near ideal for men. For women a little lighter and shorter
than that would be ideal. You can just imagine this type of person and confirm “yeah, they’re in
the right shape to backflip.”
Contrast that to this:
A soft looking 38 year old who weighs 240 lbs (109 kgs), stands at 6”2 (188 cm) tall and is tired
all the time, and never exercises. This guy shouldn’t be trying to backflip; he should be getting
in shape first! That’s not to say he couldn’t backflip if he got into shape, though!
You can’t change your age or height, but you can change your weight and activity levels! And
those alone might be enough to put you into the right shape to backflip! Therefore, if you’re
fat, then lose that fat. If you aren’t jumping, start jumping! Jump over a box, jump up onto a
porch, jump rope! JUST JUMP!
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Here’s another example: A 25 year old male bodybuilder who weighs 220 lbs (100 kgs) who just
lifts weights and is 5”10 (177 cm). I’ve seen one land a backflip on the first try! The conditions
aren’t ideal, but they don’t need to be! There are other conditions at play that spell backflip
success!
I’ve seen 6”6 guys (198 cm) learn backflips. I’ve seen people in their late 30s land the backflip
for the first time. I’ve seen my friend Antoine Vaillant do backflip VARIATIONS (more
challenging style backflips) at 290 lbs (132 kgs) in his backyard on slippery grass. I’ve seen
videos of 60 year olds backflipping online. There are outliers like these to encourage and
motivate you. Still, you don’t want to be delusional or negligent: don’t put stock in the outliers.
Put the conditions in your favor!
There is no way around it. The backflip is work, and most of the work that’s going to take time
for some people is getting into the right shape to backflip BEFORE dedicating time weekly to
train up to it.
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WHY A FIT PERSON WOULDN’T BE ABLE TO BACKFLIP
Aside from being too old, too big, or too out of shape, the main things that hold people back
from success with a backflip are:
1) overestimating the difficulty of the backflip.
2) being scared of it.
Overestimating the difficulty of anything is a common problem throughout our human living
experience. Overestimating the difficulty of going for a walk when you’re tired, overestimating
the difficulty of a homework assignment, overestimating the difficulty of starting a website or
a business, etc. – all of these overestimations for projects and activities of different scales do
nothing more than offer an opportunity to do nothing and procrastinate! We overestimate the
difficulty of all sorts of things, like the backflip! Then we procrastinate.
Much of maturing, growing, and improving as a human being is nothing more than recognizing
procrastination’s presence throughout all the parts of our lives and learning strategies to stop
doing it.
I mean, we’ve all experienced the surprise of doing something easy that we previously
overestimated in difficulty! Procrastination from overestimation isn’t pragmatic. When you
determine the backflip is something you want, having respect for the skill is essential. BUT!
Overestimating the difficulty does you no good! Stop doing it.
Confidence and physical preparedness go hand in hand, and you need both to do a backflip.
I’ve found that the most physically capable, brave people can still be scared to do the backflip!
They get stuck in a cycle of failure when learning a backflip because they don’t do the thing
that actually gets rid of the fear (which we will address shortly)! They overestimate the
difficulty of overcoming the fear and stop trying.
Don’t procrastinate or be fearful! LET’S GET AGGRESSIVE AND BEAT FEAR!
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OVERCOMING BACKFLIP FEAR
To overcome a fear of backflipping, you just need to build familiarity with the skill's actual
mechanics. To do a backflip, you have to not only understand how it works but FEEL that
understanding in your own body.
To start that process, read the backflip tutorial in the upcoming pages. Then you will begin
visualizing yourself doing it. There are kinesthetic drills you can also do to help connect the
study and visualization with the skill's feeling. Building this familiarity is how you will diminish
backflip fear enough to begin making quality attempts at landing it!
To round out this manual, there are other workouts you have to do to get your body and mind
in the place it needs to be for backflip success.
As a slight aside, one of my favorite analogies for physical training is the HARDWARE &
SOFTWARE paradigm of skill acquisition. Your computer consists of hardware. Silicon mazes
of pure potential ready to run the software you need to create and manage things. A computer
25 years ago couldn’t run modern digital creation suite software packages: the architecture
isn't powerful enough. Alternatively, a modern computer would be rather useless if you needed
to do some heavy computing with outdated or bug-ridden software.
In other words, you could have the perfect body (hardware) for backflipping, but without study
and visualization of the backflip (installation of the software), you’ll never be able to run that
software. And you could understand everything about the backflip and be a master of it in
theory, but if you are in abysmal physical shape (hardware), you won’t be able to run the
"backflip software!"
WE NEED BOTH! YOU MUST HAVE THE WILLINGNESS OF BUILDING YOUR BODY UP TO BE
CAPABLE OF BACKFLIPPING AND BE DILIGENT IN STUDY AND VISUALIZATION OF THE
SKILL IF YOU WANT TO ACHIEVE IT!
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MANUAL OUTLINE
The training in this manual could probably be done in conjunction with your existing training or
programming (adjustments may need to be made; check APPENDIX IV for more information).
Here are the 5 different workout routines for training up to a backflip:
The backflip study workout is not physically taxing. You will need to do this “workout” daily
for 15 minutes for up to 4 weeks before you get results. It will become dull and tiresome in its
repetition, but you must invent ways to stay interested!
The backflip mobility workout will not interfere with your existing training; it’ll likely help it
out a lot! This workout will be done 3 times per week. It takes less than 25 minutes. A good
time to do it is in the morning or before training as a warmup extension.
The backflip explosiveness workout should be done when you are fresh. This one should be
done every 5 days or approximately 5 times in a month. You can definitely do this right
workout right before a “leg day” workout. If you decide to do this, remove 1-2 working sets of
any heavy exercise you may already be doing (sub max squats or deadlifts) and probably 1
accessory exercise (lunges, step-ups etc) from your planned workout. You CAN NOT do the
backflip explosiveness at the end of a typical “leg day” workout or the day after! Speed &
Power must always be trained 1) first in a workout before Strength and Stamina and 2) first in a
week of workouts.
The backflip abdominal workout should be done 2 days per week or 8 times per month. You
can add this to most other types of workouts you would do, but you have to do it at the END of
that workout, not the beginning. Just like the backflip explosiveness workout, if you’re going to
be stacking this workout with another you’re doing, be sure to remove at least 1-2 working sets
of any heavy exercises and probably 1 accessory exercise, too, so you can make room for the
extra energy and time it takes to do the ab work in this routine.
The backflip attempt workout will only be done 1-2 times a month. Why? Because you will
want to accumulate plenty of time studying the backflip, plenty of time doing the mobility
work, and have logged some progressions in the explosiveness and abdominal training
BEFORE YOU EVEN ATTEMPT THE BACKFLIP! After you’ve improved your conditioning, you
will still need to be 100% fresh and feel freaking amazing any time you would attempt a
backflip. You probably only feel that good every 7-14 days. I mean, I feel “good” to train as I do
almost every day, but I only feel “REALLY GOOD” a couple times a month. So only attempt the
backflip when you feel REALLY GOOD.
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BACKFLIP TUTORIAL
Before we go through the workout routines, you will need a backflip tutorial first! It’s a
tradition, of course! Here I made a video for you with a quick overview.
WATCH A VIDEO BACKFLIP EXPLANATION
Next, I created a picture by picture backflip tutorial! #tbt #throwback The thing that started
my internet presence was writing tutorials for tricking skills like the backflip and posting them
online way back in 2002. Back then, I’d combine picture slides with text to explain a skill piece
by piece. These were important for us because we would often print them out on printers and
take them with us to the gym or the park to practice. We didn’t have smart phones, and
laptops were cumbersome and expensive, so we relied on pictures while training “in the field.”
Since then, video uploads and editing have become exponentially more accessible and easier,
but there is still some value and fun in a frame by frame explanation in a document you can
carry with you. Whether you’re viewing this digitally or have purchased the spiral booklet
version of this manual, I hope you enjoy this old school tutorial presentation.
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Stand with feet shoulder width apart. Keep your eyes focused on something
in front of you. I don’t like looking directly ahead. I recommend you look at
something slightly below eye level, like you’re looking at someone’s crotch in
front of you.
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Again, look where I’m looking. It’s not directly down, it’s not directly in front
of me, it’s about 45 degrees down. Now I’m going to crouch down quickly and
swing my arms back behind me.
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This is the bottom position. Notice how it resembles barbell squats (aside
from the arm’s position). The back is not hyperextended or bent over. You
don’t need to crouch below parallel with your hips and knees. Again, notice
where I’m looking. Where you look in the backflip and all acrobatic skills is
extremely important to be mindful of.
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A lot of explosive, elastic energy has been built up with the quick descent into
the bottom of the backflip position. Now we’ll release it upward. Swoop your
arms up and push fast to initiate the jump—keyword: FAST. In sport, the
intention of SPEED usually results in the expression of STRENGTH. This is
why when someone is squatting or pressing heavyweights, I cue them by
saying, “PUSH FAST! FASTER!” because telling them to “PUSH STRONG!
STRONGER!” doesn’t work the same way. With jumping, your intention
should be SPEED! Less “foot-ground” contact time.
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Notice the difference between this slide and the last one: my arms have
traveled quite a lot, but my legs are extending slower. That’s because we’re
slinging the arms up FAST! JUMP FAST!
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This is the critical part of the backflip. Notice I’m STILL looking at the same
spot I started with. My arms are now above me and, with commitment, will
go BEHIND me. As that happens, my abdominal wall will stretch, my lower
back with extend, and my feet will leave the ground while my body is slightly
leaning back.
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The biggest mistake I see people make when “attempting” the backflip is not
throwing their arms up. This is a problem of fear. To combat the fear, you
have to do study time for backflip technique, visualization, and exercises (all
covered in this manual). Once you do your homework, you’ll be able to
override your body’s natural defense instincts and just “chuck it” all
backward. At this point, it’s your preference if you want to look backward or
keep your head forward. I’m a fan of looking backward if it helps you
overcome fear and get quality attempts and reps in. You can always fix it later
if you want a proper “back tuck” with head neutral like I do here.
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When you’ve reached a maximum height with your arms and the feet have
left the ground, you will feel a slight “pull” on your legs. This is because you
jumped and leaned back slightly, allowing your legs and knees to follow! At
this point, you must crunch your knees into your chest.
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Pull your knees into your chest and crunch into them. Turn into a ball! Grab
the front of your shins with your hands.
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Now we’re rolling! Here we go!
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Now my knees and hands have made contact. At this point, I want to stay
tightly, wound up, and become a big ball of muscle. Ball up! The more of a
ball you become, the faster you will rollover out of the flip into a position
where you can land. As a side note, some people tuck behind by grabbing
their hamstrings. That is ok. And while I learned my backflip that way, I
personally don’t recommend it. This recommendation is based on 20 years of
observation and experience: most people have better success and backflips
when they tuck in the front.
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This is a point where a lot of people fail as well. A lot of people will release
their tuck early to anticipate their landing. NO! DON’T DO THAT! You’ll crash
short, stub a toe, bang your knee, fall forward and FAIL where you otherwise
would’ve completed the rotation and landed your backflip! So, when you
reach this point, stay tight. Don’t think about “when” to land. The landing
will happen. Don’t worry. Your goal is to stay tucked tightly. Keep driving
those knees into your body and use your hands to assist with that. Wait for it.
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Notice here I’m at my tightest position! I’m still tucked tightly into a ball,
even more so than before. That’s because I’m still trying hard to tuck even
tighter! The job hasn’t finished yet!
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Still tucked.
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Now at this point, the tuck releases, but we’re not done. Stand up and get
your arms up. A lot of people flip and keep their hands low to catch
themselves if they fall. Unfortunately, that keeps them from standing up, and
they often land low and have to put their hands on the ground—kind of like a
“self-fulfilling prophecy.” The safeguard of keeping your hands where you can
catch yourself is indeed an obstacle that will get in your way of landing
without using your hands to catch yourself.
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Airtime.
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My feet have touched the ground now. Look where my hands, shoulders, and
arms are.
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Stick the landing.
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Backflip completed.
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REMINDERS:
Feet shoulder width apart.
Keep eye gaze forward and slightly down. Not straight up or down.
Don’t jump backward. Jump UP and rely on your arms to get you into the “leaning” position
necessary to start the flip.
USE YOUR ARMS! THROW THEM UP!
Don’t tuck too early. Wait for the peak position created by your arms and jump.
SOME SPECIFIC PROBLEM ADVICE:
If you can’t even get yourself to jump to begin the flip because you’re scared, be sure that you
have put in the necessary time to study and visualize the technique. Also, be sure you’re using
a spotter in a safe environment (we will talk about that soon). Study time and safety cannot be
underestimated! They are the keys to getting yourself to commit to a backflip even if you crash
or bail.
If you bail a backflip mid flip, stay calm (bailing means jumping up and freezing before rotation
happens). Being able to jump up and bail is still better than never leaving the ground. Be sure
you’re using a spotter in a safe environment! Ask your spotter for feedback. Did you use your
arms? Did you look straight backward before you even jumped up? What happened? Video
feedback is always helpful; you should film your attempts.
If you land short onto your knees or have to catch yourself with your hands, you probably
aren’t using your arms to their full potential and aren’t jumping high enough. The irony is if you
commit to a powerful, fast jump, you’ll be safer than if you timidly try to sneak a backflip by
limiting your height. Limiting your power seems to make sense at first: if you put less power
into it, you won’t jump as high, and thus, when you land on your neck, it won’t hurt as bad.
LOL! No, but seriously: that’s precisely the kind of fear-ridden logic we have to work to
eliminate because you’re working with a logic dictated by the belief you’re gonna land on your
neck! Don’t reason with this logic; you MUST JUMP HIGH - USE YOUR ARMS - AND COMMIT!
If you’re getting frustrated after some time of crashing backflips, you have to stop. Try again
another day. Few people get their backflip on the first day they attempt it. Don’t hold yourself
to that standard. Reflect positively on your efforts and build off of them for next time!
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QUICK MENTAL TRICK FOR THE BACKFLIP:
My favorite mental hack for “leveling” the backflip in your headspace is by language
substitution. Substitute the word “flip” for “roll” when you think about it. The backflip is not a
technically advanced skill; it’s a simple jump with a quick “roll” over at the top of the jump. The
word “flip” tends to intimidate a lot of people. I’ve seen some “aha!” moments in people’s faces
when I tell them this language substitution trick: it’s really just a maximal jump with a little roll
at the top.
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FIND A PLACE TO TRAIN THE BACKFLIP
AND SCHEDULE A VISIT
One of the first things you should do if you want to learn moves like the backflip is to find a
gymnastics or cheerleading facility you can train at once per week. These gyms have several
amenities that will keep you safe and your training productive. The thing these gyms have that
fitness centers don’t have is a plyo floor.
Plyo floor is usually constructed of stiff springs, foam, plywood, and carpet. Plyo floors vary in
quality from gym to gym, but any plyo floor will work for learning a backflip. These floors are
also housed in steel buildings with environmental controls; don’t try to learn to backflip outside
on wet grass, hard ground, or in cold temperatures. You need to find a gymnastics or cheer
gym for optimal training conditions.
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FINDING A GYMNASTICS OR CHEER GYM
Gymnastics and cheer gyms are everywhere. Cheerleading is becoming very popular and
gymnastics is one of the oldest and most popular Olympic sports practiced all over the
world. Just as martial arts has become commercialized by western culture with the advent of
McDojos, so have cheer and gymnastics gyms! I’ve stumbled upon these facilities in some of
the smallest towns in the rural US. THESE TRAINING FACILITIES ARE EVERYWHERE!
Gymnastics and cheer gyms have limited times to train
Unlike most fitness centers, gymnastics and cheer gyms are not open to the public during
regular hours. You can’t just walk in and start doing stuff. They make their money off of
running classes, so unless you want to enroll in classes, you’re going to have to ask about “open
gym times.”
Open gym just means the gym is open to anyone. These gyms are not in the business of
advertising their open gym times because they have these time slots allocated for their
students to get extra practice time outside of classes. Open gym is usually limited to 1-3 hours
or so and most gyms only have open gym times once or twice a week. Open gym times are
often not posted on their websites. This means you’ll have to contact the gym and talk to staff
to determine whether this is an option.
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GETTING A SPOTTER
Once you find a gym, there are always coaches or staff present that should be willing to spot
you for your backflip. All are trained and should be very helpful, they would be your first choice.
It’s also just fine to get a spotter with no idea how to spot because teaching someone to spot is
easy. Make sure you get a spotter that is strong enough to spot you. If you’re a 240 lb (109 kgs)
dude, don’t get your 11-year-old little sister who weighs a third of you to spot you.
Suppose you’re still in the “bailing” stages of doing a backflip. In that case, I highly recommend
you get a stronger spotter because if you bail, the spotter will have to do a lot of work to save
you. Ultimately, the best spotter is someone experienced with a backflip because not only do
they already know how to spot, but they also know what to look for to give you feedback.
Be sure you get someone to spot you who has plenty of time to help you. You’ll need your
spotter for at least 20 minutes. You don’t want to be rushed, and you don’t want to
inconvenience someone. This isn't like asking someone to spot you on the bench press; you
need more hands-on help than that. Again, this is where gym staff is an excellent choice
because they might have nothing to do except be extra helpful while getting paid to be present
at the gym during operation hours.
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If you’re going to recruit the help of someone that’s never spotted before, then show your
spotter some videos of people being spotted, so they know what to do. I don’t recommend the
“shirt grab” thing you’ll see some spotters do in some videos. This is common in cheer sport.
The spotter will “pluck” the shirt off the lower back of the person attempting the backflip
before jumping. I think it’s distracting for the person flipping and the spotter (who should be
focused on your flip and assisting you, rather than holding onto your shirt).
Here’s a video we did with our friend Travis. Watch him land his first backflip with our help. See
how I spot him.
FIRST BACKFLIP ATTEMPT WORKOUT FOR TRAVIS
Tell your spotter to stand next to you on one side. Whichever side is most comfortable for you
and your spotter. Have them crouch down just a bit with a stance slightly wider than shoulder
width apart. Why a wide stance? Because this gives them some power to shift you around in
the air if they need to.
Have them have one hand ready behind your hamstring and one hand ready behind your lower
back. Be sure they keep their hands out of your way when you dip down to initiate the flip, so
your arms don’t hit their arms.
When you begin flipping, they will put one hand on your back and use the other to assist you by
grabbing your hamstring and “twirling” you around. The hand on your back cannot do much to
support you unless you have a stronger spotter, so most of the work is done on your hamstring.
Finally, ask for feedback. The best way to do this is to give them one thing to look for before
you flip. Ask them whether your arms are going all the way up, how high you’re jumping, what
your knees are doing, etc. You should also film yourself so you can analyze your technique
yourself. Don’t set your camera on the plyo floor; it’ll shake the camera. You have to set your
camera on a hard surface off the floor, so you don’t quake it when you jump.
TRAMPOLINE PARKS? NINJA GYMS?
Trampoline parks and Ninja gyms can be great places to work on your backflip, too. I
recommend avoiding peak times, so you don’t have a rush of children swarming around you.
The noise of crazy children will affect your ability to concentrate on not landing on your neck.
And kids will run right behind you when you are pacing up and down, ready to flip. Whatever
place you find, be sure you have the tools, the people, and peace to focus!
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BACKFLIP STUDY & VISUALIZATION
WORKOUT
The thing most people neglect when learning the backflip is spending time studying the
movement. I can take 20 minutes of my time and teach and demonstrate to you all the
nuances of doing a backflip, and your brain will know how to do it, but just because your
brain knows it doesn’t mean your body feels it. There is a lag between what your brain knows
and what your body feels. So just because I’ve explained the backflip and you’ve watched me
do a bunch, it doesn’t mean you will be able to make your body do what your brain says to do.
What you’re accomplishing with study time is laying down the fundamental building blocks of
“coordination” - the ability to use different parts of the body together smoothly and efficiently
based on what you tell it to do with your brain. I’ve heard coordination been described by
sports scientists as “somatic intelligence;” it’s when your body has a knowing of something the body FEELS the knowledge.
The backflip is a sequence that happens very quickly. Coordinating the dip, jump, lift, and tuck
together with the right timing takes programming time. It doesn't feel it right away from one
or two study sessions. We can also expand on the Hardware-Software analogy I previously
touched upon: study/visualization time is akin to installing software. Sometimes software
takes time to install. When it's installed, you'll be able to start using the software. In this case,
studying/visualizing the backflip takes your brain time to install the "backflip software" – The
typical “installation” process for a backflip takes weeks. When you've studied and visualized
enough, the installation will be complete, and you will be able to start exploring the software
(meaning, you'll be able to make productive attempts at landing it.)
Because the backflip is a scary skill, you can’t build coordination with attempts. If you can’t
even get yourself to commit to a good rep, how in the world are you going to progress?! The
answer is to diminish the fear enough to where you can begin achieving committed repetitions
which progress to landing your first backflip. So how do you diminish fear? BUILD
FAMILIARITY! Familiarity kills fear. Build familiarity and lay down the building blocks of
coordination by studying and visualizing the backflip! I simply can't say it enough ways! YOU
HAVE TO STUDY AND VISUALIZE YOURSELF DOING THE BACKFLIP IF YOU WANT IT!
You will know you are ready to backflip when you wake up one day, and instead of fear, you
feel excitement, and you just sort of “feel” you can do it throughout your whole body. It's a
very unique experience. Until you experience this yourself, you won’t know what I’m talking
about. Just take my word for it, you cannot skip these studying and visualization workouts, and
you have to do a lot of them. For me, it took about an hour every day for 3 weeks of obsessing
over the backflip before I felt that “body knowing feeling” come upon me. That’s
approximately 21 hours of spaced psychic effort to change how I felt about the skill. Which isn’t
very much considering we’re talking about learning something as badass as a backflip.
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THE ROUTINE
STEP 1: QUEUE BACKFLIP VIDEOS IN YOUR BROWSER
Find some backflip videos. Slow motion and normal. See APPENDIX II for some of our backflip
videos. Here are a handful from APPENDIX II that are good to watch.
3 of my best grass flips - https://www.instagram.com/p/CDHeYLjHNa9/
Slowmo backflip from different angles - https://www.instagram.com/p/B_iR2IGntv0/
Slowmo backflip in gym - https://www.instagram.com/p/B4iFwYQn8ba/
Original deadlift backflip clip - https://www.instagram.com/p/_EG56pscrk/
First backflip I posted on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/p/sqFeRQMcvv/
Remember to check out APPENDIX II for more backflip videos. Aside from my videos, you
should YouTube search for others! Search terms like:
“Slow motion backflip montage”
“Slow motion backflips”
“Backflip montage”
You need to study both slow motion clips and normal speed clips. You need to watch both
because if you only study slow motion, you will not pick up on the rhythm and timing of the
trick, which is essential for your body to eventually feel the trick. So be sure to watch both.
Also, watch from different angles, not just the side angle! Take notes like you are in school.
STEP 2: REMOVE DISTRACTIONS AND GET INTO THE ZONE
Once you have a bunch of videos ready to watch, put your phone on do not disturb mode, put
some headphones with music on, get a timer and set it for 15 minutes.
STEP 3: FORCE YOURSELF TO WATCH
You know those movie scenes where a person is forced to watch something by keeping their
eyes forced open? Either they’re being brainwashed or tortured. That’s you right now. Take a
deep breath. Force yourself to sit down. Watch, over and over again. When you want to stop,
don’t stop; keep watching. After some time passes, you need to close your eyes, visualize what
you saw in your head. Visualize yourself doing it in 3rd person. Visualize yourself in 1st person.
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STEP 4: VISUALIZE YOURSELF BACK FLIPPING
There should be no doubt whether visualization works. It’s been unequivocally proven
scientifically and anecdotally to work in all endeavors and areas of life.
The real question is, “how powerful is YOUR ability to visualize” ??? I want you to reflect on a
time you’ve turned yourself on sexually just by thinking about sex. Without any physical
stimulation. How did you do that? What else were you controlling? Maybe your breathing?
Have you ever thought about licking an envelope with a really dry tongue or thought about the
sound of nails on a chalkboard and gotten a shudder or chills down your spine? I have. How
does this happen with no external stimulation?
How about this, think about a motor skill that you can only do with your dominant side, such as
writing with a pen, swinging a bat, or pitching a baseball. Now visualize yourself doing it on
your other side. Not so easy is it? It's different visualizing it on your good side vs. your bad side.
Why is it this way?
To create a better result from visualizing, you need to visualize with your eyes closed, be
mindful of your breathing, and visualize more details. When visualizing your backflip, you need
to recreate fears, environmental details such as the carpet on your feet, temperature, fans
blowing air, light levels, aural presences, the weight of your body, and do it in 1st person
instead of 3rd person. Visualizations rich in details, especially obstacles and nuisances that
have to be overcome for achievement, are the ones that really work.
TAKE BREAKS
15 minutes per day to study and visualize yourself doing the backflip! That’s your task! You
may need to break this up into two, back to back chunks with a short 1-2 minutes break if
you’re intensive with your study and visualization work. If you want to do more, 30 minutes
would be about as far as I’d go before you potentially reach diminishing returns.
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DISCUSSION
Catch yourself throughout the rest of the week. At a traffic light stop while driving? Day dream
about backflipping. Listening to someone tell you a story they’ve told you 10 times before?
Stop paying attention to them and visualize yourself backflipping. Showering at night?
Visualize yourself backflipping. Start thinking about and visualizing yourself backflipping
throughout your day. That’s what I did. I’ve spent so much time day dreaming about doing
acrobatic skills while driving in my youth; it’s probably the thing I’ve had on my mind the most
cumulatively while driving in my lifetime… Come to think of it, I think that’s a pretty important
thing I’ve done in my physical skill development. I did not consider this until I wrote this
sentence!
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BACKFLIP MOBILITY WORKOUT
The backflip sequence has a lot of stretched positions. Here’s the first position in the sequence
where we encounter a stretch.
To start, you dip down and swing your arms back. In this position, the shoulders are getting a
good stretch. Not to mention that the legs are almost parallel in the squat position with the
knees in preparation for jumping. That might not be a problem but also look at the ankles.
There is a baseline amount of ankle mobility needed.
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Then the jump happens! At the peak, there is a slight lean back.
It’s like an explosive abdominal stretch. The backflip will stretch your abs a lot!
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Now look at this!
Can you curl up into a ball like this tightly and easily?
Those are the 3 primary “stretched” positions in the backflip sequence.
•
•
•
The dip and arm swing back.
The peak jump before the legs leave the ground.
The tuck.
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THE ROUTINE
I’ve created a nice little routine for training the backflip's mobility components. The mobility
exercises you’d use to help you backflip are helpful for many things, so training these exercises
will carry over to all sorts of training needs! We start with a squat variation and pair it with an
ankle mobility stretch and an upper back stretch. We move onto the most important stretch in
the routine, which is Dynamic Arm Swings. We add a challenging static shoulder stretch after
the arm swings. For safety reasons, the Sink Mobilization stretch should NEVER come before
the arm swings in this routine. Finally, we finish with some passive, relaxed abominable
stretches.
CLICK FOR A VIDEO EXAMPLE OF THE A1. – A3. CIRCUIT
A1. Upright supported deep squat – 2 sets of 1 minute total stretching time
This is a squat mobility drill. You grab an upright of a power rack or anything sturdy you can
wrap your hands around and stand close to. Squat down and bounce and stretch around in the
bottom position of the squat. Try to keep your torso upright to challenge thoracic mobility as
well. Heels flat. You’re building squat mobility by entering and exiting the full “ass to grass”
range of motion. Do a set and move onto A2.
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A2. Loaded calf squat stretch - 2 sets of 1 minute total stretching time
Get a barbell and load it with “some” weight. I’ll use 135 lbs (approximately 60 kgs). Rest it right
above the knee close to the quad. Squat down and let that weight stretch your calves and
Achilles. You can add “tiny little” bounces for a mild ballistic stretch response (the calves, in
particular, respond well to light ballistic stretching). Hold for 1 minute. Do a set and move onto
A3.
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A3. Thoracic spine extensions - 2 sets of 1 minute total stretching time
This is my favorite upper body stretch in the universe. This stretch will help train the “lean
back” portion of the backflip jump for our purposes here. Do thoracic spine extensions on a
pipe; keep your knees bent, and your feet and butt on the ground. Pipe positioned on your
mid-upper back. Cross your arms in front and push your face forward. Keeping this position,
start leaning back. Leaning back will take some effort, so rep it out. Move up and down the
pipe, staying off the lumbar spine and the traps. Do 1 set and return to A1 to repeat Circuit A
one more time in sequence.
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CLICK FOR A VIDEO EXAMPLE OF THE B1. & C1. EXERCISES
B1. Backflip focused arm swings – 3-4 minutes total time working off and on
Arm swinging is a panacea for many weight training related shoulder and bicep problems. It’s
also the best type of upper body stretching to do for acrobatic skill work like flips. Simply begin
swinging your arms back and forth, up and down, side to side, around and back, etc. Don’t
overthink it; this is not very technical. Start slow and gentle, and gradually work up to more
aggressive, full range of motion swings. Add a little trunk twisting into the mix once you feel
like you’re loosening up. After you are moving well, begin putting more priority on a back and
up motion that resembles the backflip dip and jump. Swing your arms straightened directly
behind you for a stretch on the anterior delt and pec major. And swing your arms straightened
directly overhead, keeping your head forward, so they pass behind you to stretch the back
muscles. Begin swinging hard and fast to train dynamic speed for your backflip too. Rest off
and on between these swings.
C1. Sink and shoulder extension mobilization stretch – 2 sets of 30 seconds.
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Don’t be fooled; this stretch is not easy. It will probably be very uncomfortable. This is training
the arm position mobility in the dip position of the backflip. Also! If you have bicep tendinitis,
an elbow issue, or a shoulder issue, this stretch will benefit loads!
Although you can grab anything behind you, I prefer a bar for this because it's more difficult.
Stand in front of it facing away, put your arms behind you, grabbing the bar with your palms on
top, externally rotate the shoulders (the crooks of your elbows will face out to the side, not
down). Keep your chest and head up. Sink down in front (a lunge position works best) and out,
keeping your arms completely straight. It helps facilitate the stretch if you push your hips out
with your glutes to prevent excess lumbar action while keeping your torso upright.
You can modulate the stretch intensity by extending your hips in and out. If you can, get your
hands closer and closer together, which will require quite a bit of thoracic extension. Limiting
your sets to only 30 seconds will make these sets manageable. Since this can hurt a lot, lasting
more than 30 seconds asks a lot if you’re actually trying hard. Finally, come out very slowly
from the stretch when you’ve completed it. Easy does it! Rest 1 minute between these 2 sets.
Don’t move onto E1 until you completed these 2 sets.
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CLICK FOR A VIDEO EXAMPLE OF THE D1. & E1. & F1. EXERCISES
D1. Cobra stretch on the ground - 2 sets of 30 seconds.
This is a basic abdominal stretch. Lay on the ground face down and arch your upper body up
while keeping your legs straightened and facing the ground. Straighten your arms and bring
your hands in beneath your shoulders. Arch up to get your abs to stretch. This is also a lower
back stretch, however, try to position your hands and feet to accentuate and prioritize the
stretch you feel on the abdominals instead. Rest 1 minute between these sets by standing up
and walking around. Don’t move onto E1 until you completed these 2 sets.
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E1. Cobra stretch from a hang - 2 sets of 30 seconds.
This is an advanced version of the previous stretch. You’re going to do the same cobra stretch,
but instead of supporting the position with your hands on the ground, you’re going to hold
onto something above you. A barbell in a rack, gymnastics rings, and straps are your best
choices. Really try to get those abdominals stretched. Rest 1 minute between these sets by
standing up and walking around. CAUTION: Get out of this stretch slowly to protect your
spine.
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F1. Foot elevated warrior lunge - 2 sets each leg of 30 seconds.
To understand the feeling you’re supposed to get when doing this stretch, do this: stand up, lift
one knee up in front of you, and slightly toward the outside. Grab the knee with your hands
and pull up to stretch further. You will feel the "glute-ham tie in" area get stretched. Now that
you know what you need to feel, we need to spend time stretching that area with the best
stretch possible.
I’ve found that bilateral stretches don’t work as well as doing one leg at a time. The warrior
lunge itself isn’t a bad stretch for this area and is a good place to start. Still, we can get a
deeper stretch if we set the foot up on something elevated like the seat of a chair. The chair
allows you to drop your body down while staying upright, accentuating the stretch depth and
hitting that "glute-ham tie in" area better. Spend about 30 seconds with each leg in this
position for 2 sets each. Rest about 30 seconds in between each set of each leg. Just walk
around for those 30 seconds.
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DISCUSSION
The sequence of stretches is important, so don’t change it. If you’re looking to spend more
time training any of the mobility components for a backflip, put that time into the arm swings.
And if you’re strapped for time, just do the upright supported deep squat and the backflip
focused arm swings.
How would you measure progress? You don’t need anything more than to pay attention to
your perception of resistance in the exercises. If it begins feeling easier and more comfortable,
then you’re progressing enough to benefit your backflip. That is good enough an indication of
your progress.
If you want to increase the difficulty, you can decrease rest sets, add extra sets, or focus more
on entering deeper, more uncomfortable ranges of motion. For more on flexibility training,
please check out my book Legendary Flexibility. www.legendaryflexibility.com
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BACKFLIP EXPLOSIVENESS WORKOUT
You hear a lot about squats and deadlifts and Olympic lifts building explosive jumping power.
Yet, from my observation, most people who preoccupy themselves with these lifts suck at
jumping compared to people who spend most of their time just jumping and learning flips and
stuff.
Actually, when I did my first backflip, I was 16 years old and had never done a squat or deadlift
in my life. I didn’t actually do a squat or deadlift for the first time until I was 17. I just trained
Taekwondo from the age of 13, which had a lot of jump kicks and stretching, and, in turn,
helped prepare my body physically for the backflip. As an aside, I later introduced heavy power
lifts into my training. The results were fantastic initially because I had already been training
explosiveness through jumping variations for years. Then I got addicted to the power lifts and
began doing too much of them to recover and adapt adequately to my acrobatic tricking skills
training. Please see APPENDIX III for more information on some strength exercises concerning
backflipping.
Anyway! The explosiveness workout here is a mix of low impact bounding and explosive
swings, extensions, and jumps that are all in some way “shaped” like a backflip. No weights
involved because what you really need to do to get a backflip is to start jumping!
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THE ROUTINE
This routine starts with warmup exercises. The sets and reps are suggested minimums. Do the
exercises in any order you want, and if there is any exercise you prefer that isn’t in the warmup,
add it in! The warmup should take about 10 minutes of total time.
Deep squats with the stance width you would backflip from - 3 sets of 10 reps
Stand and position yourself as if you’re going to backflip. Set your hands into the position
you’d have them in before you backflip, and eyes on a target. Just imagine you’re about to do a
backflip. Now dip down, going below parallel in your squat. Let your arms naturally swing back
and bring them back forward when you squat back up. I recommend bouncing these reps. We
want to “warm-up” the muscles, and these quicker, full range of motion reps will increase
blood flow the most, which is what we want.
Jump rope - 3 sets of >30 seconds, <60 seconds jumping time
Jump rope will warm up your shoulders, core, and lower legs. If you don’t have a jump rope,
that’s ok; we’re not doing a full jump rope workout: we’re just warming up. You can pretend
you have a jump rope and just do the motion. Jump more than 30 seconds total at a time and
no more than 60 seconds per set.
Dynamic arm swings - 4 minutes total time working off and on
Begin swinging your arms back and forth, up and down, side to side, around and back, etc.
Don’t overthink it; this is not very technical. Start slow and gentle, and gradually work up to
more aggressive, full range of motion swings. Add a little trunk twisting into the mix once you
feel like you’re loosening up. After you are moving well, begin putting more priority on a back
and up motion that resembles the backflip dip and jump. So swing your arms straightened
directly back behind you for a stretch on the anterior delt and pec major. And swing your arms
straightened directly overhead, keeping your head forward, so they pass behind you to stretch
the back muscles. Begin swinging hard and fast to train dynamic speed for your backflip too.
After the warmup, move onto the A circuit.
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CLICK FOR A VIDEO EXAMPLE OF THE A CIRCUIT
A1. Fast front dynamic arm swings - 5 sets of 5 reps
Stand and position yourself as if you’re going to backflip. Set your eyes on a target slightly
below eye level. Just imagine you’re about to do a backflip. Without squatting down, and while
keeping your arms straight, pull your arms back at a comfortable speed and then swing them
forward as hard and as fast as you can. Your elbows should go behind your ears. Keep the arms
close to the body; your shoulders should get close to brushing the sides of your head. When
you do this, you should feel a lift, as if you’re being pulled up from the ground. That’s the
feeling you want, and this is training the arm swing of the backflip. 5 sets of 5 reps should be
enough if you pause, recoup, and treat each rep very seriously. You can't measure your speed,
still, try to make your reps faster. The only way to do that is to take some time between reps,
breathe, pause, and just focus. Don’t blaze through these reps; take your time, make them
fast! You’ll do one set and move immediately onto A2 for a back and forth circuit.
A2. No armed deep squat jumps moderate intensity 2 sets of 10 reps
Stand and position yourself as if you’re going to backflip. All you’re going to do is squat down
as deep as you can and jump as high as you can while not using your arms to help you jump.
You can keep them in front for balance. No arm swing. Do these one after the other, so as soon
as you land, squat down again and do another jump. You will do 2 sets of this in the A1 and A2
circuit and will have 3 sets of the Fast front dynamic arm swings left. So after you finish these 2
sets, just go back to A1. And do those remaining 3 remaining sets of your arm swings, rest at
least 1 minute between A1 circuits, and no more than 2 minutes.
B1. Standing maximal jumps emulating backflip setup- 4-8 sets of 5 reps
CLICK FOR A VIDEO EXAMPLE OF STANDING MAXIMAL JUMPS
Stand and position yourself as if you’re going to backflip. Set your eyes on a target. Just
imagine you’re about to do a backflip. Now dip down, swing your arms back and up, and
slightly behind you as if you will backflip. This is basically a maximal standing jump where the
arms just go “slightly” more behind you at the top than a normal jump. There is a minimum of
20 reps total here. To ensure quality reps, 5 reps should take you 30-60 seconds when you
account for resetting, breathing, focusing, and actually trying hard. Catch your breath between
sets, don’t rush back into your next set; this isn’t cardio! However, if you only need 30 seconds
of rest, you’re not trying hard enough, and your jump quality is likely suffering. FWIW, it takes
me about 90-120 seconds to catch my breath and feel ready to jump maximally again.
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C1. Jump tucks rebounding - 8 sets of 4 reps
CLICK FOR A VIDEO EXAMPLE OF JUMP TUCKS REBOUNDING
More jumping! This time jump up and tuck your knees into your chest. When you untuck and
land, rebound immediately into the next tuck jump. You will do 4 reps this way for a set. 8 sets
total with 30 seconds of rest between these sets. It’s difficult to measure the height of your
jumping with these, so rather than do that, just try to maximize your exertion and stand and
jump in 1 spot. You might consider drawing a circle on the ground and trying to stay within it.
The accuracy combined with the maximal effort is a good indicator of quality. Rest
approximately 60-90 seconds between sets.
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DISCUSSION
To progressively overload, you have the option of adding in more quality volume. Decreasing
rest intervals is not an option you should consider. You can also add in box jumps (see
APPENDIX III). If you add box jumps, I would put them between the maximal standing jumps
and the tuck jumps.
You can do this workout before “leg day” if you do squats and other leg exercises during the
week. If you do this, you should remove some of the volume from your planned “leg day”
workout.
Finally, you can combine this workout with the Backflip Mobility Workout and the Backflip Ab
Workout in this training manual. If you do this, then be sure to put the Backflip Explosiveness
workout first before the other two. Another suitable alternative is to put a modified Backflip
Mobility workout before this Backflip Explosiveness Workout. The modification entails moving
the static stretches (Cobra ab stretches and the foot elevated warrior lunge) after finishing
your explosive exercises. Thus, the progression is as follows: dynamic stretches > explosive
exercises > static stretches.
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BACKFLIP AB WORKOUT
The backflip is very demanding on your abdominal wall. The week after I landed my first
backflip, I was sore for almost 10 days straight. The soreness was so severe I had difficulties
getting in and out of chairs and had trouble using the bathroom.
I wish I had done some backflip ab work when I was learning the backflip; it would have made
progress on the skill much more comfortable and less dangerous. I was also 16 years old and
155 lbs (70 kgs) when I learned my backflip, so the stress of an explosive jump was mitigated by
me being younger and lighter. The risk of working on a backflip with an older, more massive
body without a base of “backflip specific” abdominal strength would be getting a hernia.
Thus, for the expediency of skill acquisition and for your safety, I recommend you do this
backflip ab workout I’ve created to withstand the unique stress a backflip places on your abs.
What’s unique about the stress a backflip places on your abs? The tuck portion of the flip
happens from a position your abs are stretched. And the tuck is an explosive contraction. This
combination is not something your abs encounter from almost any other movement or
exercise. So we need a routine to prepare our abdominals for the backflip!
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THE ROUTINE
Most abdominal exercises include bracing or slow and steady contractions. Bracing exercises
don’t carry over that great to backflipping (IE - squatting a ton of weight beltless will not
prepare you for the stress a backflip places on your abs). I can attest to this, having spent many
winters powerlifting with heavy loads while giving my flips an extended break; when
transitioning to explosive flips later in the spring, I had always found myself sore AF in the abs
when I started training the flips again! All that heavy lifting didn't help my abs withstand the
stress of backflipping!
Additionally, slow and steady contractions have to be more movement specific to carry over to
the backflip. Therefore, crunches, situps, and any variation of your head moving to your feet
are not our first ab exercise choices. Instead, we want to choose exercises that directly emulate
the backflip. Hanging leg raises are the bread and butter exercise we’re going to choose for this
routine. This is bringing the legs up rather than bringing your face down. Gymnasts do insane
amounts of these exercises and variations throughout their entire career for good reason: they
work, and they help gymnastics skills, especially flips.
Aside from hanging leg raises and variations of it, we want to use an anti-extension exercise
option too. Anti-extension exercises resist overextension of the lumbar spine and resemble the
actual “crunch” component that starts the tuck of a backflip. Examples include ring rollouts
and ab wheel rollouts. These are superior choices to crunches, situps, lying touch hands to feet
crunch things, and others “on your back” ab exercises we’re going to avoid! The difference
between the anti-extension exercises like rollouts and crunches is that the eccentric is the
where the resistance is in an anti-extension variation, vs. the concentric in the crunches and
situps. That makes a huge difference in actual athletic purposing.
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A1. Hanging Knees To Elbows - 2 sets of 5 reps
CLICK FOR A VIDEO EXAMPLE OF HANGING KNEES TO ELBOWS
This exercise is easier than hanging knee raises even though you drive your knees higher. It’s
easier because the inversion moves some of the tension from your abs to your lats, so it’s not
as much isolation loaded onto the abdominals. The inversion also makes for a less stressful
eccentric phase.
To do this exercise, hang from the bar with an overhand grip. I recommend using lifting straps
to take the stress off your grip. Drive your knees up toward your elbows and lean back. You
should feel your lats engage as you bring your knees up toward your elbows. Then lower your
legs back down.
I recommend spotting a target in front of you as if you're doing a backflip. Making the
connection between any exercise or drill you do and the backflip is always a great idea. So as
you roll backward, keep your eyes fixated on your target the whole time. Rest 2 minutes
between sets.
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B1. Hanging Leg Raises to Kick Out – 2 sets of 5 reps
CLICK FOR A VIDEO EXAMPLE OF HANGING KNEE TUCK TO KICK OUT
This move is a great place to start if you want to work toward an L-sit or the double leg raises.
Hang with both palms facing away. Then tuck both knees up to about hip height. When your
quads are parallel to the ground, straighten your knees. Lift your legs out in front of you, then
bend your knees again before returning to the starting position. Don’t kick out quickly or go
straight down from the legs out position. Kick the legs out, then bring them back in before
lowering back down. This drill should not be that stressful on your abs. We’re using it to add a
little variety to the routine and help warm up before the upcoming sets of hanging knee raises.
That is why we’re only doing 2 sets of 5 reps. Rest 2 minutes between sets.
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C1. Hanging leg raises with legs bent or straight - 3 sets (2 sets RPE 6, 1 set RPE 10)
CLICK FOR A VIDEO EXAMPLE OF HANGING LEG RAISES
Before explaining the exercise technique, I will explain RPE. RPE 6 means you did a set where
you had approximately 4 reps left before failure. RPE 10 means you go to failure: you cannot do
any more reps, you tried but failed.
(Basic explanation of how RPE math works, just for fun: subtract any prescribed RPE # from 10,
and that’s how many reps you could’ve still done. So 10 - RPE10 = 0 reps left; you couldn't do
any more reps. 10 - RPE6 = 4 reps left; you could've probably done another 4 reps until failure.
Anything less than RPE5 isn’t useful. Because 10 - RPE1 = 9 reps left, which is a useless
calculation for any purpose and hard to estimate accurately.)
To start hanging leg raises, hang from a bar or rings. I prefer rings myself. You’re welcome to
use “hanging leg raise” straps to position your elbows into if you don’t want to hang with your
grip. FWIW, I much prefer hanging leg raise straps for this. I get a better ab contraction with
them.
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Don't swing when you do these. Pull your knees up to your chest, crunch, and round your
buttocks out at the top. Control the eccentric and return to the starting position. The abs
should be contracted during the entire set; otherwise, you risk spinal extension at the bottom,
which causes swinging and reduces the exercise's efficacy. Pause a split second between reps
and keep your pelvis tucked to keep those abs contracted at the bottom. If your abs relax and
you get relief between reps, you're doing this wrong. And if you can do infinite reps (greater
than 20 reps), do straight leg hanging leg raises to increase difficulty. When doing straight leg
hanging leg raises.
How many reps? For myself, RPE6 = about 12-14 reps of the bent knee variation. 20 reps is
right around failure for me. Not saying to base your reps off of what I can do, and I’m not
necessarily extraordinary at these. Still, you should be near or right around double-digit ranges
(6-16 reps) for your sets. Rest 2-3 minutes between sets.
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D1. Ring rollouts (alternative ab wheel rollouts) - 3 sets (2 sets RPE 6, 1 set RPE 10)
CLICK FOR A VIDEO EXAMPLE OF RING ROLLOUTS
Before explaining the exercise technique, I will explain RPE again. RPE 6 means you did a set
where you had approximately 4 reps left before failure. RPE 10 means you go to failure: you
cannot do any more reps, you tried but failed.
To start the exercise, set the rings low, about 1 foot (30 cm) from the ground. Set a mat out and
get onto your knees, grab the rings with your hands, and keeping your arms and back straight,
allow your body to drift forward until your arms are extended parallel with the rest of your
body. Keep the rings close together and your palms down. Resist over-extension of your spine
(IE - don’t arch your lower back when you drift out). Hence, this is categorized as an “antiextension” exercise - you have to work hard to prevent your spine from extending. That's kind
of the point of the exercise. I like the cue of keeping a “slight kyphotic position of the upper
back” to maintain a more hollow-bodied position – this means trying to round your upper back
as some older people do.
Also, avoid piking when returning to the starting position, meaning don’t shoot your hips and
butt back; keep everything in a straight line. Think about flexing your glutes to accomplish this.
To increase difficulty, you can elevate your lower body on a box and/or do it on your feet
instead of your knees. There is “whole body tension” present in all these variations, so you will
engage your hips flexors, glutes, core, upper back, shoulders, everything. That’s the secret of
exercises like this: RESISTING - and resisting means total body force production.
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DISCUSSION
To increase this routine's difficulty, you can track your reps and try to beat your personal best
each time. That’s an obvious way of progressing. You can also try to finish the whole workout
faster by decreasing your rest periods. Or you can increase the difficulty of the exercises by
choosing more challenging variations. Any way you choose to progress in this routine will
benefit your backflip.
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BACKFLIP ATTEMPT WORKOUT
Don’t attempt a backflip after leg day or at the end of a strength workout. You must be wellrested! Put a few full rest days, and active rest days (active rest means light activity only)
before any day you PLAN to attempt the backflip.
That’s right PLAN it! Next Thursday, 8 pm, be ready. Planning builds anticipation. Once the
date comes, if you’re not feeling 100% that’s ok, warm up first and then reassess how you feel.
Sometimes we go into workouts feeling like garbage and then after the warmup we are riproaring to go! If you’re feeling down, slow or unready after you arrive and warmup, then pivot
and just do a backflip explosiveness workout and some mobility drills instead. You do not want
to attempt your first backflips when you are not feeling 100%.
Also, as mentioned previously in this training manual, you want to be training at a gymnastics
gym or a place with soft flooring, mats, and people to help spot you (make sure they have
plenty of time to help you!) Finding a gym and a spotter were covered previously in this
training manual. Go back and read it if you skipped it.
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THE ROUTINE
Start the workout by warming up for your backflip. A good warmup will incorporate any of the
dynamic stretching exercises in the Backflip Mobility workout, and any of the exercises in the
Backflip Explosiveness workout. Whatever makes you feel comfortable and ready to backflip,
do those exercises. Then start with the following drill:
JUMP BACK ONTO MAT STACK DRILL – 5-15 minutes of play
CLICK FOR A VIDEO EXAMPLE OF THE JUMP BACK ONTO MAT STACK DRILL
This is one of the only special “drills” I recommend trying to benefit your backflip. You stack
mats up to about chest height, with a cheese mat on top sloping back. Facing away from the
stack you jump up and work on starting the “lean back” portion of the backflip sequence. If you
do it correctly you will jump up, lean back, and land on top of the mats onto your upper back.
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From there you can roll backwards or tuck and fall back to your starting spot. Work up to
getting the mat stack to be higher, and your roll to happen quicker and smoother out of the
jump after you land with your back on top of the mats. Film yourself, when you get good at it,
it’ll begin resembling a backflip.
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EXTRA BACKFLIP DRILLS FOR KINESTHETIC AWARENESS
CLICK FOR A VIDEO EXAMPLE OF THESE EXTRA DRILLS
Another good drill you can practice with a friend that emulates the stacked mat drill is one
where you jump up and backward onto your friend's hands. Your friend will support your upper
back and then gently push you back forward to your starting position. Lean into your friend's
hands and tuck up your legs.
This drill works. I’ve gotten people to get over backflip fear enough to do a backflip with a
spotter. It’s also more readily accessible than a giant stack of mats, you can program it more
regularly into your training. Focus on quality over quantity.
One you can do by yourself is on a pull up bar or pair of rings. Bring your shins up, keep your
eyes forward, tuck into a ball, invert, roll over, and drop back down. Bring your hands back in
front upon landing like you would when doing an actual back tuck.
These drills safely build the “feeling” of doing a backflip. They’re great to supplement with, but
don’t expect miracles with them.
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GET A SPOTTER AND LAND YOUR BACKFLIP!
Here’s a video we did with our friend Travis. Watch him land his first backflip with our help.
FIRST ATTEMPT WORKOUT FOR TRAVIS
When attempting the backflip I do not recommend going by a spotter’s count of 3,2,1 or
3,2,1,go! DO NOT backflip upon a count when learning, your spotter just needs to watch and
wait for you.
We also really like the complex 1 jump, 1 flip. Why? Because you need to stay warm and you
need to prime “maximal jumps.” When you begin attempting the backflip you may not be
jumping up or using your hands maximally out of fear. The “1 jump” to “1 flip” ratio keeps you
being honest with your power usage. So just be sure your spotter knows when you’re actually
going to be doing the flip and not just jumping up. You can watch the video of Travis learning
his backflip to understand this 1 jump, 1 flip complex. This is even more important if you have
two spotters.
Having two spotters is essential for large people and people who are very unsure of
themselves. It is essential to have very clear communication when using two spotters.
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I’d recommend only attempting 2-3 backflips at a time. Between these attempts, enforce strict
breaks. Take approximately 3 minutes to stop, walk away, recoup, breathe, and calm down. I
recommend walking around slowly in big circles while doing this. This rest is necessary not
because you are out of breath or super fatigued, but because your nerves (and nervous system)
are being put under a lot of stress. You will notice these short breaks produce great results over
the course of a session.
Your backflip attempt workout should take as long as it takes to land your backflip, or until
your failed attempts begin getting worse. If your attempts begin getting worse, then you are
done. If you land a backflip, you should try to do as many quality reps of it as you can to get it
into your system. If you start crashing again or your reps begin getting worse, you are done.
Basically keep going until things keep getting worse.
OPTIONAL METHOD: TRAMPOLINE SPOTTED BACKFLIP
See APPENDIX II for some of the backflip videos we’ve done on YouTube, teaching guests
and friends to backflip on trampolines. My friend Tom Boyden @tomrboyden has used a
method of spotting on a trampoline with great success. You do everything the same as you
would on the ground with a spotter, except you’re standing on a trampoline. The keys to
making it work are:
•
•
Do not jump up and down on the trampoline before you attempt to flip. Do only
standing jumps or very light up and down movements preceding the flip attempt.
The trampoline should be in the ground and large. Above-ground, smaller trampolines
are scarier. And avoid “super tramps,” which are generally large tramps with markings
on cross-woven material. Almost every super tramp I've seen has white-colored
webbing (which might help you distinguish a trampoline’s type). Super tramps will be
hard to do standing jumps on because they’re made for jumping stupidly high, which
isn’t what you want to do.
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DISCUSSION
Many people make a big mistake when returning to the backflip after having just landed it a
few days or a week prior: they don’t repeat it with the same respect they had for it that first
day they landed it! They carelessly prepare and begin crashing or bailing the backflip, then they
panic and think they “lost” their backflip. They didn’t lose anything except respect for the
movement!
When you go attempt the backflip again after recently landing it, approach the session as if
you’ve never landed it, with a spotter in a safe place and after plenty of rest. Treat every rep
with great care. I guarantee you’ll secure it as a reliable skill in your repertoire if you continue to
give it care and respect when “nurturing” it with quality repetitions and preparation.
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BEYOND THE BACKFLIP
The process of learning a backflip is unique compared to learning other physical skills because
the backflip is a scary thing to do. The interesting thing, though, is that the skill's scariness is
overcome the same way we learn other physical skills: building familiarity through mindful
practices and building our bodies to do the skill.
Most resources and “tutorials” about learning the backflip focus only on “how” to do it. That’s
important, but I want you to imagine something for just a moment.
Imagine you’re crossing a stream, and there is a little path of scattered rocks leading across the
stream. If you were carrying a 55 lb (25 kg) backpack and had lower back and knee pain, and
were tired, you might find crossing the stream by hopping rock to rock intimidating and
frightful. Sure, you would know “how” to do it, but there would be a disconnection between
what you know and what you will do or can do.
If you didn’t have to carry the backpack, were pain-free, alert, and agile, then you wouldn’t
think anything of making it across – you’d just jump rock to rock and make your way across
without sweating it.
I hope you can recognize the importance of TRAINING YOUR BODY for skills like the backflip
because great physical preparation is the key to great sports psychology. You can’t just expect
to watch “how-to” videos for physical skills and go out and learn stuff if you aren’t in the right
shape for it.
Finally, no matter how good of shape you’re in for something, you’ll always need time to
process and understand its mechanics by observing, studying, reflecting, and visualizing.
Learning the backflip is an awesome opportunity to really understand the remarkable
relationship between your body and mind in skill acquisition, sport, strength, and life – and
how ultimately body and mind must become unified for achievement to occur!
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APPENDIX I – HOW I GOT MY BACKFLIP & MADE IT PERMANENT
When I started teaching myself tricks (acrobatic flips, twists, and kicks), I worked on everything
except “flips” for the first year and a half. Why? I was scared to backflip and didn’t know how to
begin getting over that fear.
I watched videos of sport karate competitors doing all the other moves I was already working
on (540 kick, 720 kick, splits, master swipes, aerials, butterfly twists, double legs). Yet every
time I saw them do backflips, I didn’t look closely at the execution because I was convinced it
was too difficult for me to try to learn. Yet I dreamed that one day I’d be on a competitive stage
like them doing backflips, and people would watch in awe. I had an “I wish” attitude about the
backflip. I wished I could do it.
I remember watching a kid at high school do a backflip, and I envied him so much. It was one of
the things I remember envying most about anyone in life. Here I was, a black belt in
Taekwondo, and I could do some other cool moves and the splits, but this guy could backflip,
and people cared about it! Especially me! I WANTED IT!
Occasionally, I’d try to be courageous and say to myself, “today is the day!” and I’d grab
matting and drag it to my backyard so I could attempt to backflip “safely.” Or I'd stand on a box
to jump off for extra height to give me more time to make it around to complete the rotation.
Or I’d walk out to my parent’s pool and stand near the edge of the water, ready to flip into it. In
every one of these instances, I’d stand there paralyzed in fear! Or I'd attempt to jump and stop
before even jumping off the ground! None of these methods worked! Each time I failed made
the backflip an even more insurmountable skill than before. The failures made it worse! My
self-esteem would take a hit, and I’d go back and watch more videos of people doing backflips
and feel even worse about myself.
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MY FRIEND ERIC MADE ME JEALOUS!
Then, my best friend, Eric, who trained Taekwondo and tricking with me at the time, went to a
cheerleading gym. His dad took him there and asked a coach to help Eric learn the backflip.
Eric’s dad filmed some of Eric’s backflips and showed the videos to me. Eric learned to backflip
with the help of a coach and spotter before me, and that really fueled my competitive spirit! It
also got me thinking… Maybe I needed to get a spotter?
For the next few weeks, I began looking at backflip videos differently. Rather than watch and
wish or daydream, I studied them. I visualized. I imagined myself doing them when I drove
around town and while sitting in class. Basically, every free moment I had, I was obsessing over
the backflip. I was internalizing it. I began walking to the playground near my house and
grabbing some of the playground equipment and inverting myself on bars and stuff to get a
feel for going backward. I was accidentally programming the backflip into my system by simply
obsessing over it as something I couldn't live without, rather than something I wish I could do.
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THE AHA! MOMENT HAPPENED
One day I woke up, and it’s as if my brain had solved a problem in my sleep. My body “knew”
how to backflip. I FELT it. Today really was the day this time, not because I decided out of
some flicker of fleeting bravery, but because I felt it. I can’t describe the exact feeling except it
feels like that scene at the end of the original Matrix movie when Neo perceives and controls
the Matrix for the first time. He looks around and see's and feels what he never saw before.
That same afternoon, with the help of Eric spotting me, I got the backflip in 15 minutes.
Instead of paralyzing fear, I experienced a fear colored with “excitement.” This was different
than all the other times I went out to “finally” land a backflip. The excitement and curiosity and
new feeling of “knowing” it allowed me to begin going BACKWARDS! Once I was able to flip
around a few times, it was game on! The work was progressing, and the time was near. After
some video feedback and suggestions from Eric, who was spotting me, I finally landed it.
I FINALLY LANDED MY BACKFLIP!
MY FIRST BACKFLIP IN 2002
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAKUYR4E43w
Watch and compare the use of my arms between
good attempts and bad attempts.
Some important things occurred here during my learning process.
First, I wouldn’t have gotten to the point of successfully “ATTEMPTING” the backflip had I not
studied and visualized it obsessively for weeks. All of that work programmed a “feeling” for the
backflip in my body that was essential for becoming capable of throwing my body backward in
the air!
Second, I got a spotter. I stopped trying to do it by myself. Part of my problem was ego. I
wanted to learn it by myself and surprise everybody with it. Once I let that idea go and sought
out the help of friends, I succeeded. The spotting really gave me the upper hand on diminishing
the fear while also providing me valuable feedback cues (use your arms, Juji! USE YOUR
ARMS!)
When I landed my backflip, I was smart enough to know from prior skill acquisition that I had to
get a few reps into my system to consolidate the efforts. I wanted to keep the skill, not just do
it one time. So, I did a few more backflips and stopped on a good one while I was ahead.
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PERMANENT BACKFLIP
The week after I learned my backflip was the sorest my abs have ever been in my entire life. I
had trouble getting into and out of chairs (especially those desks in school). I even had trouble
pooping because those deep abdominal muscles used to evacuate were sore as hell too. During
this time, I was STILL thinking about the backflip every day. I couldn’t wait to get back to
working on it. I had to recover first though. I was also thinking about what I wanted to do with
the backflip. What videos I’d make doing them, what variations I wanted to learn (flash kick
and x-out). I had goals with my backflip! Maybe I’d learn a wall flip soon too! I wanted to do
more and make videos with these flips!
That intention was important. I didn’t just want to backflip for the heck of it; I wanted to USE it!
I could even put it in my kata in Taekwondo! I could already do the side splits; now I could do
backflips too! I just unlocked a skill with which I could do all sorts of things! WOW!
When I was fresh again, I went into training the backflip as seriously as I did when I first landed
it. I respected the skill and knew a few careless crashes would put me back at square one again.
I didn’t want the fear of flipping to return. I was actually fearful of the fear of the backflip
returning! I hated that fear of going backward! So I was very careful to put 100% into every
attempt. I ended up repping up to 20 backflips the 2nd day I trained it. I remember it getting
easier and easier, and I felt a very satisfying sense of control and confidence.
After that, I continued to strategically train the backflip, only when I was fresh and capable,
and always with respect, so that I could put more high-quality repetitions into my body bank
and make the nervous system coordinations for the skill more solid. Of course, it worked;
within 2 weeks, I was already trying backflip variations, and months later, even more. I got a
flash kick, x-out, j-step gainer, straight gainer, gainer flash, wall flip, round off variations, all
within 6 months of landing my first backflip. Check out this video of me trying straight gainers
in my garage only 2 months after learning my backflip:
(Learning Gainers in May 2002): https://youtu.be/p0O7MBqUCNY
Scary stuff, yet that’s how well the careful, consistent approach I was using worked! And I kept
backflipping, and I’m still backflipping. There have been some periods in my life where tricking
and acrobatics have taken a backseat, where I wouldn’t backflip for up to 8 months. And just
like riding a bicycle, I’d still be able to do it with no problem. My backflip is permanent as long
as I keep the hardware ready for it (relatively lean, not super heavy, explosive, and fit). The
software (the actual technique and skill) is permanent. I will always be able to do a backflip as
long as I’m in shape for it, no matter how much time passes between attempts—pretty cool
thing to be able to do. I’m happy with it, the backflip has given me a lot, and it was DEFINITELY
worth learning. It changed my life for the better.
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APPENDIX II – SOME OF OUR BACKFLIP VIDEOS
Tom and I have made a lot of GREAT videos focused on the backflip on YouTube. We’ve done
backflip challenges and tried teaching backflips to different types of athletes with no
experience doing the backflip. Be sure to check out our channel www.youtube.com/jujimufu
IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER! >>
MY FIRST BACKFLIP IN 2002
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xAKUYR4E43w
Also see APPENDIX I in this manual for the full story.
EXPERIENCED BACKFLIP TIP
https://youtu.be/RN3yLdNzwmo
A tip on where to look when backflipping
as well as great flips to study near the end.
100 BACKFLIP WORKOUT
https://youtu.be/gm3rWF5CTnA
Lots of flips to study in this video. Pay attention
to how the quality of flips change as I get tired.
SLOWMO TRICKS WITH FRIENDS
https://youtu.be/V0tuGDQwpdE
Fun slowmo tricks. Lots of flips to study.
Study other tricks to round out study time.
RELEARANING WALLFLIP AFTER 10 YEARS
https://youtu.be/F0J70A29p5o
Observe the process and focus that
goes into training with fear of a skill.
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WE FORCED TRAVIS TO BACKFLIP
https://youtu.be/W7c9yZ8Nw-8
Travis learns to backflip on a trampoline
with Tom’s and my help.
WHO CAN BACKFLIP HIGHER – JUJI VS TOM
https://youtu.be/2QGQdsL8dOA?t=153
Training updates and backflip challenge
with Tom. See difference in our flip style.
OLYMPIC LIFTER BACKFLIP CHALLENGE!
https://youtu.be/mF-SXYE_Z_g?t=172
Watch a tall guy try to learn backflip.
Does his explosiveness from lifting help?
BACKFLIP WITH BAR & PLATES
https://youtu.be/lOQQy9GwyJ0
Watch us try to do backflips holding
a barbell with loaded plates.
CAN 250 LB BODYBUILDER LEARN BACKFLIP
https://youtu.be/3SJUyCXxjJU
Watch a big guy try to learn backflip.
PRO CLIMBER MAGNUS BACKFLIP
https://youtu.be/8QYe6iHoUc0
Can a professional rock climber learn
backflip on first try?
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CAN POWERLIFER LEARN BACKFLIP ON FIRST TRY?
https://youtu.be/8GGmH1Swg80
2 powerlifters, man and woman, try to learn
backflip on first try. Powerlifting carryover?
BODYBUILDER HOUSTON JONES VS BACKFLIP
https://youtu.be/-Fo7yGYxMJA
Bodybuilder has done backflip on trampoline
but not on floor. Can he learn it on floor?
WEIGHTED 100 BACKFLIP WORKOUT
https://youtu.be/PaoULXjdeDE
3 of us do a 100 backflip workout together.
BACKFLIP IN 20 MINUTES WITH TALL DUDES
https://youtu.be/pMBxar0g7bs
Tom and I try to get jump rope guys
to backflip on grass on first attempt day.
240 LB STRONGMAN BACKFLIP FIRST TRY?
https://youtu.be/gDLWEXcdrug
3 competitive strongmen try to get backflip
on first try on grass.
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Along with the YouTube videos, here are a variety of backflip videos I’ve posted on my
Instagram account. www.instagram.com/jujimufu
I’ve made a list from newest to oldest. If you’re learning the backflip, it might help you to see
some of the odd situations I’ve done a backflip in (while deadlifting, with dumbbells, with a
barbell, etc.) and see how I have to modify the technique to make the flip work.
Deadlift backflip combo - https://www.instagram.com/p/CF5Fqnnnmpm/
3 of my best grass flips - https://www.instagram.com/p/CDHeYLjHNa9/
Slowmo backflips from different angles - https://www.instagram.com/p/B_iR2IGntv0/
Trapbar deadlift backflips with no step back - https://www.instagram.com/p/B_SmK9PHxnp/
Slowmo backflip in gym - https://www.instagram.com/p/B4iFwYQn8ba/
Barbell backflip - https://www.instagram.com/p/B3aCCCMAmwN/
First time backflipping with lifting belt on - https://www.instagram.com/p/BrdUugvgRmY/
Beat in the head after backflipping - https://www.instagram.com/p/BoUUBA5ht-j/
Muscle ups – Deadlifts – Backflips combo - https://www.instagram.com/p/BS_-GUNBeMW/
Cool backflip clip in New York - https://www.instagram.com/p/BQ52rplB_xY/
Backflip holding dumbbells - https://www.instagram.com/p/BPsqRY5lRHJ/
Relearning wallflip after 10 years - https://www.instagram.com/p/BMm8Ilblq1-/
100 backflip Instagram edit - https://www.instagram.com/p/BKMmpZKAxMt/
Backflip after bench pressing - https://www.instagram.com/p/BF2eCcrMcpc/
Original deadlift backflip clip - https://www.instagram.com/p/_EG56pscrk/
My first backflip clip - https://www.instagram.com/p/-SBwV1Mcr7/
Cold & heavy weight backflip - https://www.instagram.com/p/7qlEhHscgw/
Good backflips and fun video - https://www.instagram.com/p/1O4gyxMckz/
First backflip I posted on Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/p/sqFeRQMcvv/
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APPENDIX III – EXTRA BACKFLIP ACCESSORY EXERCISES
Here are four more backflip accessory exercises that will boost your backflip height and
chances of landing a backflip!
BARBELL SQUATS
Explaining the execution of a barbell squat goes outside this manual's scope because entire
books and programs have been written on how to do the squat and how to program it. If
you’ve never done a barbell squat of any kind, then here is not the right place to learn the
technique. Do your research and learn it. Everybody who wants to improve anything about
their body should have some experience with this exercise.
What I’m going to talk about here is how it carries over to the backflip. I’d like to first mention
that the reason we’re talking about BARBELL squats is that the barbell is the primary way of
loading a squat with sufficient weight to improve strength. Why strength for the backflip?
Backflipping and jumping are EXPLOSIVE movements. EXPLOSIVE = STRENGTH + SPEED.
Backflipping and jumping certainly build SPEED, but training the backflip directly does not
build STRENGTH very well at all. To make our backflip as explosive as we can, we want more
STRENGTH. That is why the best athletes in every sport in the world do loaded or leveraged
resistance exercises to build STRENGTH to carry over into their sport. The barbell back squat
is a classic, tried and true tool of choice for this need. The backflip starts with an explosive
squat jump, so building strength in the squat is a great idea.
In my experience, up to x2 bodyweight on the barbell back squat will benefit your backflip, and
a minimum would be x1.5 your bodyweight. If you cannot squat x1.5 your bodyweight, you
probably won’t be able to backflip. If you’ve never done squats, don’t worry; when I learned my
backflip, I had never done a back squat, deadlift or bench press in my entire life! However, I
probably could have squatted x1.5 my bodyweight at that time with a little practice on the lift
to understand the bar position, stance and stuff.
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Once I began doing these heavy lifts and worked up to x2 bodyweight on the squat and
deadlift, my explosive power went through the roof, which benefited my acrobatic skills. Thus,
1.5-2.0 times your bodyweight is your lifting goal for backflip carryover. I need to mention,
though, that in my experience, working past x2 your bodyweight on the squat or deadlift takes
a disproportionate amount of work compared to the benefit it provides for carryover into
acrobatics. What I mean is, if you want to be even stronger than these numbers, training to do
that will hurt your chances of learning the backflip in the short and medium-term. Why?
Because getting that strong puts a lot of stress on your system that your body has to recover
from. Your body has a limited capacity to recover from hard training. If you're spending that
capacity getting stronger on lifts, you won't be able to recover to have productive backflip and
explosiveness training sessions.
Now that we have an exercise and a goal (barbell back squat with 1.5-2.0 times your
bodyweight), how do we train to do this while concurrently training to achieve a backflip? I
wouldn’t overthink it or overdo it. Squatting every 5-7 days as a beginner is entirely doable.
Working up to a weight you can do 5 reps with a decent struggle is a great place to start. Do 2-3
sets of that and call it a day. As a novice, that will improve your strength. It will not interfere
with your backflip training.
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Also, I’ve written a program called The Groundbreaker which combines the powerlifts,
bodybuilding isolation exercises, jumping and agility work, and skill practice. I designed the
program to balance strength training with backflip training. The Groundbreaker program will
play nice with the work in this backflip training manual and would make a great program stack.
https://jujimufu.com/product/the-groundbreaker/
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For those with more experience doing compound strength exercises, you might be wondering
what about the Olympic lifts? What about deadlifts? What about front squats? What about
lunges? What about trap bar deadlifts? whatatatatatata??!?!?!?!!
Look, they all will help, and if you want to do something other than back squats, go for it. I’d
still stick with barbell exercises because of the convenience of loading the heavier weights.
Also, depending on the lift, your benchmark will change. For example, x1.0 bodyweight on the
front squat is as good as x1.5 bodyweight on the back squat for a minimum backflip benchmark
because the front squat is a more demanding lift.
Whatever you choose, be sure to focus on proper execution while increasing poundages, and
do the minimum amount of work to see the benefit. 2-3 heavy sets every 5-7 days is not the
same as 5 heavy sets 3 days a week! If you really want to backflip, you need to prioritize the
backflip. Carryover from strength lifts is supplementary in this case. Don’t overdo it, or you
won't be recovering enough to train the backflip productively.
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WEIGHTED PULLUP / CHINUP
The best upper body strength exercise for backflip carryover is the weighted pullup/chinup.
CLICK FOR A DISCUSSION ON WEIGHTED PULLUP FOR BACKFLIPS
The exercise is called a pullup or chinup depending on your grip (pullup is pronated/overhand
grip, chinup is supinated/underhand grip). It doesn’t matter what grip you use here; we’re
focusing on how it carries over to the backflip, and grip has nothing to do with the backflip. So
use lifting straps if you want to take your grip out of the equation.
When you do the exercise, the beginning position emulates part of the sequence in a backflip.
Compare the image comparison below—the backflip on the left, the weighted pullup on the
right. Also, same tan, different cloud cover lol!
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Heavily loaded strength exercises with a stretch component for the abdominal wall are hard to
come by, yet that’s precisely what the weighted chinup is! IT’S NOT JUST A BACK EXERCISE!
Still, having a stronger back is great! I’ve written an entire program called “The Invincible
Athlete,” 5 of the 6 workout routines in that entire program are back workouts. Why? Because
you can’t fuck with someone with a strong back, they’re hard to kill. You might even say
they're Invincible, haha! If you’re interested in the Invincible Athlete program, it’s a 4-week
training block you run once a year. If you want to train your body to be resilient to injury while
learning acrobatic skills with no prior experience, I would highly recommend it. Run it for 4
weeks before doing the work in this Backflip Manual.
https://jujimufu.com/product/the-invincible-athlete/
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Anyway! The weighted chinup will help build up your back to prevent injury and build up your
abdominal and core strength for backflip carryover.
How do you program it then? You can train it every 4-5 days for up to 4 heavy sets of 3-5 reps,
where 5 reps would be at or near failure (RPE 8-10). 2 extra sets to failure with just your body
weight will also be an excellent addition. This is the simplest, most straight forward way of
using weighted chinups to improve your back and athletics.
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SKIN THE CAT STRETCH ON RINGS
If you can do this advanced stretch, you should. It’s a powerful mobility stimulus for your
shoulders. If you can do it pain-free, it probably means your shoulders are, for the most part, in
excellent health. If you cannot do it without pain, then training it to do it pain-free will help you
improve your shoulders' health.
CLICK FOR A DISCUSSION OF THE SKIN THE CAT STRETCH
For our purposes here, it mimics the position and mobility needs for a backflip's bottom
position. Of course, it goes further than our needs, but having a flexibility reserve in a static
position increases the ceiling room for dynamic ranges of motion (that’s why static stretching
is still useful even though most flexibility displays are dynamic athletic activities).
Here are some pointers:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Point toes and enter the stretch by rotating backward slowly.
Palms/rings facing forward.
Legs straight and feet together.
Arms locked.
Lower your hips down as much as you can.
Sit in the bottom position for up to 30 seconds.
Repeat up to 3 times. I would suggest resting 2 minutes between stretches. You can do this
every day. There really is no limit, except reaching a point of diminishing returns where doing
more isn’t going to really help you anymore.
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BOX JUMPS
Box jumps are not in the routines in this training manual because, honestly, they just don’t
carry over to backflipping as well as a standing jump in place with full overhead extension will.
The problem with standing jumps is they don’t keep you honest like a box jump. Suppose you
set a box jump platform high. In that case, the penalty for doing a lazy, half-ass repetition is
falling backward onto your neck or scraping your shins. Box jumps give you an adrenaline rush
because they're dangerous, and that makes for a great training stimulus!
On the other hand, standing maximal jumps do not make you nervous or careful, so you tend
to slack off on the reps. The typical way around this is to set something high for you to touch,
like a basketball rim or a vertical jump tester. I don’t like these options because the motion of
reaching up with one hand and touching something is not the same as swinging both arms up
together, which is what is needed when we backflip! The ideal solution for bilateral jumping
exists as a vertical jump testing mat that measures the height of each jump you make based on
a time measurement between jumping and landing. You just stand on it and jump and a readout displays how high you jumped.
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I used one of these at my old gym when I was younger to train maximal jumps, and I have to
say, the results were great, and the training was hard! The feedback I got from the
measurements kept me honest with my efforts and indicated when the quality of my jumps
decreased so much that I should quit (quality over quantity). The problem is these mats are
pricey and probably not at your gym. The brand I used back in the day was the Just Jump
System by Probotics Inc., and it runs for approximately +$600 online. Most mats like these are
in this price range. Jump mats are definitely a fantastic training tool. Still, it’s relatively niche,
and sparing that much money to get the most out of one type of exercise to help train for a
backflip is probably not in your interest.
Back to square 1, I included standing maximal jumps in this training manual because it’s the
most accessible and most relevant to backflip carryover. Your goal is to make sure you try as
hard as you can every rep. That should be enough to carry over to backflip success! If you want
to add something exciting and challenging, supplementing with high box jumps is still a good
idea.
I would work at 90% of your jumping height max. Suppose you can jump up to a 44 inches / 112
cm platform as your max, which means lowering the height to 40 inches (101 cm) and doing
your work there. Use a measuring tape to measure your box’s height. Remember, you can
stack rubber weight plates to increase the height as I do; Not only does this allow you to make
small incremental adjustments in your box height, it also makes the platform heavier, so you
don’t tip it over after landing.
I recommend up to 10 jumps total at this height per workout session, broken up with plenty of
rest between them so you can focus and collect yourself. Take your time. Add them into the
explosiveness routine workout in this manual.
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APPENDIX IV – FITTING BACKFLIP TRAINING INTO YOUR TRAINING
I’m guessing almost everyone reading this manual already works out and stuff. You already
have your own goals, your favorite routines, your favorite exercises, and you probably already
have some sort of default training split. Not to mention you have a life. Now, how do you fit
backflip training into what you do? With the workout routines I’ve created in this manual, you
should not have a problem because most are short, easy, and will not jeopardize your recovery
from the training you’re already doing! Here are some tips on scheduling them into your
existing training week.
The backflip mobility workout:
•
•
•
•
Takes about 20 minutes.
Great to do in the morning before breakfast.
You can do it after any workout as a “cool down,” too.
You can add it before any workout as a warmup if you move the cobra stretches (static
stretches) to the end of the workout you’re doing.
•
The backflip explosiveness workout:
•
•
•
•
•
Takes about 25 minutes.
You want to be fresh when you do this workout.
You can probably tack it at the beginning of any workout you’re already doing.
Don’t do it after any day where you had a tiring lower body workout. I would wait until
your legs are no longer sore or you feel fresh. That’s typically 2-3 days for most of us for
most lower body workouts.
Never put it at the end of another workout.
The backflip ab workout:
•
•
•
•
•
Takes about 20 minutes.
It can make your sore. Note: that soreness is usually moderate and not dangerous.
Toss it between almost any other workout you would do in a week.
You can put it at the end of a workout.
Do not put it at the beginning of a workout.
The backflip study & visualization workout:
•
•
•
•
Takes about 15 minutes.
Requires no physical effort, just mental focus.
I recommend not doing it when you’re mentally or emotionally exhausted.
Best to do this the same time every day to make it routine.
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Here is an example 4 day split of strength training with the workouts from this manual
integrated. In this example, the person is attending University and works out in the afternoon
between 1-3 pm between morning and evening classes. His main workouts are in BOLD AND
RED COLOR.
Monday AM
Monday Noon
Monday PM
Tuesday AM
Tuesday Noon
Tuesday PM
Wednesday AM
Wednesday Noon
Wednesday PM
Thursday AM
Thursday Noon
Thursday PM
Friday AM
Friday Noon
Friday PM
Saturday AM
Saturday Noon
Saturday PM
Sunday AM
Sunday
Sunday PM
[Backflip Mobility workout]
FULL UPPER BODY WORKOUT
[Backflip Mobility workout]
DEADLIFT WORKOUT
[Backflip Ab workout]
[Backflip Mobility workout]
FULL UPPER BODY WORKOUT
[Backflip Mobility workout]
[Backflip explosiveness workout] SQUATS & LEGS
[Backflip Ab workout]
Things to note:
•
•
•
•
•
•
This is not much work, honestly. This is a pretty easy training schedule.
The Backflip Mobility workout is done in the mornings before breakfast on workout
days. This mobility work primes the body for work later in the day.
The Backflip Ab workout is done at night on the same day that deadlifts were done in
the afternoon. This is to consolidate training windows to 24-hour blocks so that
Thursday after can be used for complete recovery.
The Backflip explosiveness workout is done before a “Squat & Leg day” workout. The
jumping fits in great and even gets you warmed up for the rest of the workout.
The Backflip Ab workout is done at night on the same day that Squats and Legs were
done in the afternoon. Again, this is to consolidate all training to a 24-hour block; thus,
Sunday can be used for complete recovery.
Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday are RECOVERY days ideally. Not off days. Meaning,
don’t just sit all day and push meals back. Eat your meals, get some healthy walks in, do
some light dynamic stretches, and feel good!
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If you’ve purchased my Next Step program, which teaches you how to scale up the amount of
work you’re doing with extra mini-workouts throughout a training week, then this should be a
familiar scheduling logic to you. If you haven’t checked out that program, I highly recommend
it, it will open up your world to the possibilities of doing more smart work in fun ways and how
to better arrange training in a week for any goal.
https://jujimufu.com/product/the-next-step/
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Fitting in backflip “workouts” that prepare you for landing a backflip is easy, fitting in the
moments where you actually ATTEMPT the backflip is what makes most people fail.
READ THIS
You NEED to find a gym, get a spotter, and be sure that you are well-rested when you actually
attempt the backflip. I can’t say these things enough! These things can be hard because you
might be lazy or shy. We get comfortable not picking up the phone, not exploring new training
places, not making new friends, and not taking 5-7 days off from training to deload from
training (because we’re afraid we’ll lose gainz lololzorz)! Hey! You have to step out of your
comfort zone here! That’s what getting the backflip is all about!
These things are inconvenient or uncomfortable, yeah, but come’ on. Right now, leave this
document and run a Google search for
“gymnastics gym near me”
And
“cheerleading near me”
Take a peek at what’s available, then pick up the phone, call them or put it on your todo list
tomorrow for around 12 pm (some of these centers aren’t staffed until noon or later). Secure a
training place and plan for it.
You have all the tools you need to backflip now. You just have to use them! Go run that
Google search like I said, do your first study & visualization workout, and set a date for
when you want to achieve the backflip! Try 4 weeks from now! Check Appendix VI for
tracking your backflip journey!
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APPENDIX V – WORKOUTS AT A GLANCE
I’ve put the three main workouts into charts for you for your convenience.
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EXERCI
SE
1 MI
N
1mi
n
2
2
2
D1
.COBRA STRETCH ON GROUND
E1
.COBRA STRETCH ON GROUND
F1
.FOOTELEVATED WARRI
OR L
UNGE
SECS
1
0
5
4
2
48
8
B1
.MAXI
MALST
ANDI
NG J
UMPS
C1
.J
UMPI
NG TUCKSREBOUNDI
NG
~
1 MI
N
1
2 MI
NS
<
2 MI
NS
SETS REPS REST
5
5
0 MI
NS
A2.NO ARM SWI
NG DEEPSQUATJ
UMPS
A1
.F
ASTFRONTDYNAMI
CARM SWI
NGS
EXERCI
SE
BACKFLI
PEXPL
OSI
VENESSWORKOUT
30secs 30
1 MI
N
*Fi
r
s
tx2s
et
sRPE6(
s
ave4r
epsf
r
om f
ai
l
ur
e)
,l
as
ts
etRPE1
0(
got
of
ai
l
ur
e)
1 MI
N
30secs
2
C1
.SI
NK& SHOULDER MOBSTRETCH
1mi
n
D1
.RI
NG orABWHEELROLL
OUTS
3
*
23 MI
NS
23 MI
NS
2 MI
NS
~
4mi
ns 1
*
N/
A
3
B1
.BACKFLI
PFOCUSED ARM SWI
NGS
C1
.HANGI
NG LEG RAI
SES
0 MI
NS
2 MI
NS
~
1mi
n
5
2
2
A3.THORACI
C SPI
NEEXTENSI
ONS
B1
.HANGI
NG LEG RAI
SESTO KI
CKOUT
0 MI
NS
SETS REPS REST
2
5
2 MI
NS
n
~
1mi
A1
.HANGI
NG KNEESTO ELBOWS
2
SETS REPS REST
n
2
~
1mi
0 MI
NS
BACKFLI
PABWORKOUT
A2.L
OADED CALFSQUATSTRETCH
A1
.UPRI
GHTSUPPORTED DEEPSQUAT
EXERCI
SE
BACKFLI
PMOBI
LI
TYWORKOUT
APPENDIX VI – CHECK BOXES FOR COMPLIANCE
Here you go, check these off for compliance and track the work necessary to build your
backflip. See the next few pages!
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110
 
1
2wor
k
out
st
ot
al/~
90mi
nut
eseachwor
k
out=3hour
swor
k
BACKFLI
PATTEMPTWORKOUTS
     
6wor
k
out
st
ot
al/~
25mi
nut
eseachwor
k
out=2.
5hour
swor
k
BACKFLI
PEXPL
OSI
VENESSWORKOUTS
       
8wor
k
out
st
ot
al/~
20mi
nut
eseachwor
k
out=3hour
swor
k
BACKFLI
PABWORKOUTS
             
1
4wor
k
out
st
ot
al/~
20mi
nut
eseachwor
k
out=5hour
swor
k
BACKFLI
PMOBI
LI
TYWORKOUTS
              
              
30wor
k
out
st
ot
al/1
5mi
nut
eseachwor
k
out=7
.
5hour
swor
k
BACKFLI
PSTUDY& VI
SUALI
ZATI
ON WORKOUTS
ST
ARTDATE:_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_END DATE:_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
_
30DAYBACKFLI
PTRAI
NI
NG COMPLI
ANCECHECKOFF
YOUR NOTES
Insert any notes here on this page! (For Spiral version you can write on this page! Hooray! If you
purchased the Digital version just stare at this blank page for 1 minute and imagine backflips
coming out of the white abyss).
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QUESTIONS?
If you have questions about this manual, feel free to e-mail me acrobolix@gmail.com. DO NOT
DM ME ON INSTAGRAM I WILL NOT EVEN SEE YOUR MESSAGE! Be sure to include your
order # as well from when you purchased it! Thanks!
BACKFLIP TRAINING MANUAL
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CONNECT WITH ME
www.jujimufu.com
www.youtube.com/jujimufu
www.instagram.com/jujimufu
Also SPECIAL THANKS to my illustrator Sebastián Franchini for giving this manual some life
with his cover artwork and sketches. You can check him out here:
https://www.artstation.com/zebes
https://www.instagram.com/sebazebes
For any kind of art commissions, you can contact Sebastián here zebes.art@gmail.com
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