Back Arching and Flat Head

Tummy time and rolling exercises for babies from 4 weeks, with a special focus and important additions for back arching, a flat head and the skydiver position. The program contains simple best-practice exercises that strengthen the muscles your baby needs to lie comfortably on their tummy and to roll.

Prioritized, simple exercises
Designed for busy families
Illustrated with pictures & videos
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~~299,00 DKK~~ 269,10 DKK

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A mother holds her little baby arching their body backward. Exercises for back dominance, flat head and the skydiver.

Program description

Back dominance in babies, often seen as a baby arching their back, is a harmless muscular imbalance that can challenge motor development and in some cases lead to a flat head. Back dominance shows through some specific signs, which you can see in an overview further down the page. Sometimes only a few of the signs are present, and sometimes all of them are. The signs appear because the extensor muscles along the back of the body work harder (fire more) than the flexor and rotation muscles on the front and sides of the body.

For good quality in the motor milestones, there needs to be a better balance between the muscles along the back of the body and the flexor and rotation muscles, which need to play a bigger role. Back dominance holds back your baby’s rotational movements, and those are important for good quality, strength and endurance in the upcoming milestones and even for tummy time.

Early on, you can see it in practice when tummy time is hard and rolling from back to tummy is delayed or happens with the head thrown back. When a baby lies correctly on their tummy, supports themselves on their arms on the floor and lifts their head against gravity, the muscles of the body gradually get stronger, on the front, on the back and on the sides of the body. But when the slightly overactive extensor muscles make it hard to keep the arms and bottom on the floor, the head quickly feels very heavy, and tummy time becomes hard work.

In this program with exercises for back dominance, you learn how to help your baby find the right support points when lying on their tummy, and how to easily do exercises that strengthen the flexor and rotation muscles, both as part of everyday play and through small, simple changes in the way you lift and carry your baby. You also learn how best to relieve the pressure on the back of the head if a flat head (brachycephaly) has developed. All exercises are described in detail and shown in short video clips.

Note: If your child can already roll from back to tummy, please choose this program instead: Belly Crawling.

This program is one of three programs in the Tummy Time and Rolling category. They can all be used from around four weeks of age until your baby rolls from back to tummy with ease, to both the right and the left. Read about the differences here in the program overview. You’ll find answers to frequently asked questions below, and if you’re still unsure which program is the right one for your child, you’re very welcome to send an email to maria@develobaby.com.

Visible improvement in just couple weeks
We live in another country, but I stumbled upon Maria’s profile while we were waiting for our physiotherapist appointment and bought arching back course and tummy time course, thinking it couldn’t hurt to try something while we wait. I was amazed by improvement in just a couple of weeks, baby was visibly less arching, even non-family members noticed the difference! Videos are short, simple and without sound (great when you only get the time to go through them when the baby is asleep), with just the right amount of written explanation. Its great that exercises are so short and mundane, we can do them at home or on the go, which allowed us to practice them frequently. They are also in priority order so I feel we get the benefit even on days when the baby is fussy so we only get to do a couple of exercises. Keep up the good work!
Petra, Trustpilot
We purchased Maria’s back arching…
We purchased Maria’s back arching program and we love it. The exercises are clear, easy to follow and fun. I also want to recommend Maria’s Instagram page (DevelopBaby) where she regularly posts great content. I am a first time mom always seeking ways to support my baby’s development and in my experience Maria’s programs are the absolute best there is out there.
Maria – thank you for everything you do.
To all parents or anyone interested in baby’s development: Maria’s programs and Instagram page are the best there is!
Caterina, Trustpilot
love at first reel!
I discovered Develobaby’s profile on Instagram and loved it since the first reel! Maria makes it really easy to integrate fun and useful exercises to help our babies in their development. I got the Back-Arching program and I can see my little boy gaining strength day by day. Thank you Maria!
Giulia, Trustpilot
Back Arching Exercises Are Very Effective
The back arching exercise package was very helpful for my baby. Better than any other in- person manual therapy she had received. I highly recommend!
Nelie, Trustpilot

What are the most common signs of back dominance in babies?

The baby bends their body backward, for example when you try to hold them close in a hug or while breastfeeding.
The baby rolls or tips over from tummy to back early and without meaning to, because they arch backward.

A flat head in the middle at the back (brachycephaly), because the baby often prefers to lie with their head straight in the middle.
The baby finds tummy time hard and quickly gets upset when lying on their tummy.
The baby does “the skydiver” on their tummy, that is, lifts their arms, and often their legs too, off the floor instead of supporting themselves on them.
The baby often lifts their bottom when lying on their back (bridging) and may push themselves backward.
The baby pushes their arms back when you hold them (opening the chest and pulling the shoulder blades together).

The baby loves standing early, even before 6 months.
The baby rolls from back to tummy with their head thrown back.
The baby does sit-ups when lying on their back, because they actually want to roll but use the wrong muscles.
Later in development, children with back dominance will often belly crawl in the center, with both arms and legs at the same time (without crossing movements). For that stage, I have the exercise program Crawling on All Fours, which also has a strong focus on activating rotation.
Many children who have belly crawled in the center will later sit up and scoot forward on their bottom in a centered hop.

Frequently asked questions about Back Arching and Flat Head

Back dominance is a muscular imbalance in which a baby, for example, arches their back in tummy time instead of supporting themselves on their arms. Without realizing it, the baby uses their strongest muscles to find a comfortable position, but in doing so ends up reinforcing the imbalance. So it is not the same as a baby arching their back because they are upset.
Back dominance develops because there is more firing (activity) in the muscles that extend the body’s joints, and in the muscles that make straight movements in the center of the body, than in the muscles that make movements with rotation. That may sound a bit complicated, but it means that the child is too active in the extensor muscles and therefore finds it harder to do movements that require turning and cross-coordination (tummy time, rolling, pivoting, belly crawling and crawling).

Back dominance is not dangerous! It is not a medical diagnosis, so it doesn’t mean that anything is wrong with your child. It is, however, a so-called functional diagnosis, which can challenge your child’s motor development. It makes sense to work on back dominance, that is, to strengthen the flexor and rotation muscles, so your child gets the best possible conditions for further development.

All three programs are built on the same exercises for tummy time and rolling. Choose Tummy Time if you simply want to support your baby’s motor foundation in general, Back Arching and Flat Head if your baby arches their back in tummy time instead of supporting themselves on their arms, and Preferred Side and Flat Head if your baby mostly turns their head to one side. If your baby has both a preferred side and back dominance, choose Preferred Side and Flat Head, because the first focus is on restoring symmetry. When the shape of the head comes from the way your baby lies, a head that is flat in the middle at the back goes with back dominance, and a head that is flat on one side goes with a preferred side.

As a rule, no. There is a lot of overlap between the programs, because they all support natural motor development at this stage. The programs Back Arching and Flat Head and Preferred Side and Flat Head contain the same exercises as Tummy Time, plus important additions and variations. So as a rule, choose only one program in this category for the same child.

When a baby often lifts their bottom while lying on their back, and maybe pushes themselves backward, it can be one of the well-known signs of back dominance. The signs appear because the extensor muscles along the back of the body work harder than the flexor and rotation muscles on the front and sides of the body. That is why the baby easily arches backward, even when lying on their back. You can see all the signs in the overview above. Sometimes only a few of the signs are present, and sometimes all of them are.

Some children will gradually work their way out of it on their own if they are offered enough tummy time and encouraged to do lots of rolling and other cross-coordination. The exercises for back dominance give your child extra practice in the turning movements that crawling and motor development in general build on. But you should never feel like a bad parent if you decide not to. The whole family puzzle has to fit together, and in the big picture, motor development isn’t always at the top of the priority list.

Yes, a baby can certainly have back dominance and a preferred side at the same time.

That is because back dominance is often linked to the arching tendency itself, meaning that the baby bends their body backward. A baby with a preferred side needs compensating strategies to hold their head up in tummy time and to stabilize their body in general. The extensor muscles, the muscles along the back of the body, are the easiest for the baby to recruit to compensate, and that is how the arching pattern develops.

When a baby has both an arching tendency and a preferred side, the first focus should be on restoring symmetry with strengthening exercises for the difficult side. Alongside this, you should help the baby into flexion, bending the body forward, to counteract the back dominance. At the same time, it is important to help the baby use the right muscles in the functions that require stabilization, for example during tummy time or when the baby needs to keep their head steady. These include the deep cervical flexors (deep neck flexors), the serratus anterior, the oblique abdominal muscles and the core muscles across the midline in general.

Another situation in which a baby can have both a preferred side and back dominance is reflux. Especially with silent reflux, babies often push their head backward to get away from the discomfort. Over time they use the extensor muscles more and slip into a more extensor-dominated pattern. This can happen to babies with a preferred side as well as to babies without one.

A flat head usually develops because the baby lies on their back with their head straight in the middle for long periods, especially at night. Babies should sleep on their back, and that should stay that way: since back sleeping began to be recommended in 1994, sudden infant death has become markedly rarer. If the baby also has back dominance and tends to arch their back, they rarely turn their head to the side, because the muscles at the back of the body are strongest and hold the head straight in the middle. That puts constant pressure on the same spot, the middle of the back of the head, and over time it becomes flat. How fast this happens varies from baby to baby. Some babies have larger fontanelles (the soft spot) and therefore a more moldable skull. When a baby has back dominance, it always makes sense to help prevent a flat head.

No, research doesn’t support that. On the contrary, studies show again and again that sleeping on the back doesn’t increase the risk of inhaling vomit or choking on it, even in babies with reflux. That’s why babies should be put to sleep on their back on a flat surface for every sleep.

Sources: Krous et al. (2007), Tablizo et al. (2007), Moon, Carlin & Hand (2022), American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP): “The supine sleep position on a flat, noninclined surface does not increase the risk of choking and aspiration in infants and is recommended for every sleep, even for infants with gastroesophageal reflux.”

There is a section in the program with additional exercises and measures for when your child has developed a flat head because of back dominance. Among other things, you learn how best to relieve the pressure on the back of the head.

As a rule, no. A positional flat head, one caused by the way the baby lies, develops because the baby lies with their head in the same position again and again, and they do that because of a muscular imbalance. With back dominance, the muscles along the back of the body are the strongest, so the baby prefers to lie with their head straight in the middle. The constant pressure on the back of the head, where the skull meets the surface, is what makes the head flat in the middle at the back. In rare cases, a flat head has other causes. If you are unsure about your baby’s head shape, talk to your healthcare provider or doctor.

Frequently asked questions about the exercise programs

You buy access to the program right here on the site. Once your payment has gone through, you’ll see an extra heading in the menu called “My Programs,” with links to all the programs you’ve bought access to. The whole thing takes less than 60 seconds.

No. You get online access to my programs here on the site, because the programs contain video clips, which of course can’t be played on paper or in a PDF. That’s also why there is no version you can download or have sent to you. You can actually print the programs you’ve bought from a computer, though, by pressing Ctrl+P on Windows or Command+P on macOS while you’re on the program page. The programs aren’t set up for printing, however, so they look much nicer and are easier to use directly on your phone, tablet or computer.

You have lifetime access. Once you’ve bought a program, you can always log in and use it again whenever you need it, without having to renew or pay for access.

No, that isn’t allowed. You buy access for yourself and the people who live in your household. If you buy as a grandparent, for example, you may of course share it with the person you bought it for. If you are the director of a daycare center, for example, and would like to buy one or more programs for your staff, just email me at maria@develobaby.com so we can work out an arrangement for multiple licenses. Read more in my Terms and Conditions.

As a rule, no. The exercise programs are digital products that you get access to right away, so the usual 14-day right of withdrawal doesn’t apply to them. If you bought the wrong program by mistake, or something else doesn’t fit your situation, just write to me at maria@develobaby.com. Then of course we’ll find a solution together. You can read more in my Terms and Conditions.

Unfortunately, I see this from time to time: the card issuer, that is, your bank, blocks the payment because it goes to Denmark, especially if you don’t usually shop in other countries or only do so rarely. In that case, there’s not much I can do. You can call your bank and ask them to authorize the payment manually. Or you can try one of the other payment methods at checkout, for example Apple Pay or Google Pay.

Yes, I’ve taken great care to explain every exercise in plain language so everyone can understand it. The exercises also come with pictures and videos where you can see them done with a real child.

As a rule, no. The exercises in my motor programs are ordinary strengthening exercises in the anatomically normal muscle pattern, and the exercises in my sleep and sensory programs are calm exercises that stimulate the senses. If your child gets tired or upset, take a break, and if you are unsure about your child’s health, talk to your healthcare provider or doctor.

No! In my exercise programs, I’ve put the exercises in order of priority. There are lots of exercises in each program, so in principle you could spend the whole day doing exercises if you enjoy it, but you can also choose to do, say, the top three or five, which are the most important ones, if you’re short on time. That way, the exercise programs are for everyone, no matter how much time and energy you have.

The exercises in my motor development programs are basically strength training, just like when you do exercises yourself to get stronger. They are designed so the child strengthens the muscles that matter at exactly the stage you bought the exercises for. That’s why they help make the child stronger on the way to the next milestone. Whether the child gets good-quality movement patterns at the next milestone with the exercises in the program naturally depends on how strong the muscles are to begin with, and on whether there are special circumstances that call for a more individually tailored approach. These could be, for example, congenital disabilities or neurological injuries. But helping your child toward a stronger body is never wasted effort.

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