Bird Dog

1. Start with both hands and knees on the ground. Hands shoulder-width apart. Knees hip-width apart.

2. Keep your spine aligned! Make sure your head is facing the ground.

3. Lift one hand straight up and extend. Leg on opposite side of body should come up and extend to create balance. (For example, if you lift your RIGHT arm first, your LEFT leg should come up.)

4. Hold the position for about 2-3 seconds, and then release and switch sides.

5. Now, you can also “crunch” your abdominals to get more a chest workout (but you don’t have to! This exercise mostly targets your back and helps with your posture.)

TIPS

*Make sure your back stays as “straight” (neutral) as possible throughout the exercise

*Opposing arms and legs should be lifting at the same time to create balance, otherwise you may fall or injure yourself. Only hold it for 2-3 seconds and then switch sides

*You should be feeling this exercise in your chest, back, shoulders, glutes, legs and arms

The BIRD DOG exercise is the perfect workout for targeting the back and helping you maintain good posture. The target muscles mostly involve the muscles in the back, chest, shoulders, arms and legs - but we will mostly focus on the back and chest muscles here.

When you raise your arm up and extend, as while as raise your leg up and extend, you can contracting a series of posterior muscles (muscles located on the back of the body). This motion also helps you work the main muscle group of your back, called your ERECTOR SPINAE Group (made up by muscles called Iliocostalis, Longissimus and Spinalis). These are the main target muscles in this exercise.

Other muscles working are the GLUTES, HAMSTRINGS and QUADRICEPS in your legs. In your arms, you have your TRICEPS and PECTORALIS MAJOR.

*As shown in the animation above, when you "crunch" your chest, you can are also working your RECTUS ABDOMINIS (Six Pack Muscle). But the main focus of this exercise is to target the back, so you don't have to do the "crunch" at all.