Core and stability exercise

Bird dog exercise

From your hands and knees, you reach one arm forward and the opposite leg back while keeping your back still. It is one of the most widely used exercises for back stability.

Also called: bird dogs, quadruped opposite arm leg raise

Type: Core and stability
Equipment: No equipment
Area: Lower back
Level: Beginner
Starting dose in Remedy: 3 sets of 5 per side, holding each rep for 10 seconds

How to do it

Start on your hands and knees, hands under shoulders and knees under hips, with a flat back.
Gently brace your stomach.
Slide one leg back and lift it to hip height while reaching the opposite arm forward to shoulder height.
Hold for about ten seconds, keeping your hips level and your back still.
Lower with control and switch sides.

Form cues

Reach opposite arm and leg.
Keep the back still and the hips level.

Common mistakes

Lifting the leg too high, which arches the low back.
Rotating the hips open. Imagine balancing a cup of water on your lower back.
Rushing between sides.

Easier and harder versions

Easier: Dead bug exercise
To make it easier: Move only the arms first, then only the legs, before combining them.
Harder: Side plank from the knees

Why it helps a sore back

It trains the muscles along the spine and around the trunk to keep the back steady while the hips and shoulders move. Remedy uses short holds of about ten seconds, repeated, which tend to work better than one long shaky hold.

How Remedy uses it

In the app it is called Bird Dog. Remedy is more likely to pick it if you say your back is bothered by bending or lifting or standing or walking. A typical starting dose is 3 sets of 5 per side, holding each rep for 10 seconds, and the program adjusts reps as the weeks go on. Every exercise in the app has a demonstration video.

General fitness information, not medical advice. Stop any exercise that causes sharp pain, or pain, numbness, or tingling spreading down a leg.