Strengthen Your Core With Dead Insects and Bird Dogs
Welcome to week two of the no-plank competition, where we’ll try some of the underrated core exercises you should know. Today we are doing two exercises named after the creatures, both of which are more difficult than they seem.
The first of these is a longtime favorite of life hackers – deadbug. You start on your back with your hands and knees facing the sky. Extend one arm and one leg so that they are parallel to the ground (but not touching) and hold that position for a few seconds.
Your back will naturally arch as you move, so your abs work to prevent this from happening. For this reason, it is considered an anti-stretching exercise in the same family as the abdominal exercise. It also helps you focus on only moving your arms and legs without distorting movement by stretching or twisting your back. When you perform a dead beetle, your hips and shoulders should not move from their position on the floor.
To make it easier to remove dead bugs, only make the legs. You may even consider holding onto something with your hands. To complicate matters, check out these variations with resistance bands .
Birds Dogs
Flip a dead beetle over and it becomes a bird dog. You start out on all fours with your back in a neutral position. Extend one leg and the other arm, then return to the starting position.
Again, you try to keep your back straight and stable, like a table top. You will need to engage a lot of stabilizing muscles that you don’t even think about to keep your hips from dropping or twisting as you move.
To make it easier for the dogs, make only the arms or only the legs. To make them more difficult, follow the optionfrom the video above : press your elbow against your knee when you finish the movement, and then repeat for several reps, not allowing the arm and leg to rest.
Give it a try and let us know in the comments how you like them! And let us know about your favorite variations and similar exercises.