Part of my regular day-to-day job involves chatting with trainers, strength coaches, Pilates instructors and mobility experts.
I’ve noticed that there’s one move that they all recommend: bird dog.
The move is great for building strength in the deep core muscles—targeting the lower back, obliques and the hips.
It can also improve your posture, improve spinal mobility and help with back ache—so it’s ideal for deskbound people.
I’ve done bird dog as part of many workouts in the past, but given its multitude of benefits, I set myself the challenge of doing this exercise every day, for seven days. I was impressed by the results.
How to do bird dog
Reps: 10-12 reps on each side
- Start on your hands and knees, with your hands directly under your shoulders and your knees under your hips. Keep your spine neutral, engage your core, and keep your head aligned with your spine.
- Extend your right arm in front of you while extending your left leg behind you. Extend from the hip without moving your back, your hips and torso remain square to the floor.
- Hold this position for around ten to 20 seconds, squeezing your core, glutes and back muscles to maintain balance and stability.
- Return to the start position under control and repeat on the other side.
- Alternate sides with each rep.
My experience doing bird dog every day for seven days
I did bird dog every day for seven days, for around five minutes at a time, performing four sets of 12 repetitions on each side.
I didn’t find the move as strenuous as sit-ups or crunches, but it still required a good level of core engagement.
For that reason, I found it was an excellent pre-workout move, that made sure my muscles were activated for harder exercises like squats and deadlifts.
I also found that it was a great way to take a break from my desk work, as it stretched out my hips and shoulders.
The best thing about doing it was that it reduced my back ache, so I’m going to continue doing the move—and I’d recommend that anyone who wants to work on their core strength and improve their spinal health does the same.
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