Bird Dog Exercise Tutorial

How to Do the Bird Dog Exercise

Bird Dog is a great exercise to strengthen your core muscles. Your core is a group of muscles that holds up your trunk. You can think of this muscle group as an entire cylinder that surrounds the entire spine including the front of your body, your sides and your back. This exercise can help with back pain, hip pain and pelvic pain. To start, you need to get on all fours. Your knees should be hip width apart and your hands should be under your shoulders. Try to keep a neutral posture and do 3 sets of 10-15 repetitions.

  1. bird dog exercise video tutorialBring your right leg straight out behind you and touch your toes to the ground and return to starting position
  2. Bring your left leg straight out behind you and touch your toes to the ground and return to starting position
  3. Repeat steps 1 & 2 until you feel comfortable and you can maintain a neutral spine and pelvis
  4. Raise your left arm at shoulder height in front of you and return to starting position
  5. Raise your right arm at shoulder height in front of you and return to starting position
  6. Repeat steps 4 & 5 until you feel comfortable and you can maintain a neutral spine and pelvis
  7. Do steps 1 & 4 at the same time. Return to the starting position
  8. Do steps 2 & 5 at the same time. Return to the starting position
  9. Repeat steps 7 & 8 until you feel comfortable and you can maintain a neutral spine and pelvis
  10. If you can do this with no problem, you can raise the opposite arm and lift the opposite leg off the ground so that it is fully extended behind you. Your toes should be pointing towards the ground
  11. Repeat on the opposite side

 

Click HERE for Part 2 of How to Do the Bird Dog Exercise

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