Corrective Exercise of the Week-Bird Dog

 For today's Exercise of the Week, we will examine the Bird Dog exercise. 

Here is a video link to the Bird Dog exercise. 

The Bird Dog is a great way to work your spinal erectors (erector spinae) and activate your core. If you are relatively new to exercise, or trying to add a lower back exercise to your warm-up repertoire, this exercise is a good choice. 

Primarily, it will work your spinal erectors, which go all the way up from your skull, rib cage, and spinal column, lower back, and hips. In short, it works everything. 

You will also feel these muscles activated as you perform this exercise: glutes, hamstrings, traps, shoulders, piriformis (around the hips), and triceps. 

While the exercise is not ideal for strength or muscle building, or for conditioning, it is very useful regardless of your level of fitness. 

For those who are new to exercising, or rehabbing an injury, it can be a great method to stress the muscles of the back without adding compression, and while maintaining the back in a neutral position. Because the exercise works all of the above muscles together, in one chain, it will aid in flexibility development as well. 

If you are relatively fit and strong, the Bird Dog is a great way to warm-up your back muscles, and can help you maintain the flexibility that is needed for the golf course. 

I don't prescribe a set number to do, but if you are a beginner, you might start with 4-5 sets of 4-5 slow, quality reps, and adding reps once the muscles acclimate to the exercise.