A dead bug? Gross!
Noooo not a real dead bug *eye roll
It’s a core exercise! And a great one at that!
The dead bug exercise is primarily a core stabilizing exercise, but there are a lot of other benefits to doing them. It’s one you may have seen before but this will be an in-depth explanation that you might not have heard yet.
First of all, how to execute:
First, you start laying down on your back and then bring your arms straight up and your knees toward your chest as if you were doing the OPPOSITE of a tabletop position.
Next, you’ll want to find and engage your core stabilizer muscles, particularly your transverse abdominis. (we will have another post specifically on TA engagement).
Then, engage the muscles and you should find yourself in a position where your lumbar spine is just a little bit off the ground. So, from this position, you simply extend one arm and one leg away from your body while maintaining the core engagement and neutral spine and there you have it. You’re doing a dead bug!
There is one important point I want to clarify… when engaging your TA, please do not SMASH your lumbar spine into the ground! We want a neutral core for this exercise.
I know we get a lot of clients who have been taught to simply tuck their pelvis under using their glutes in order to find a neutral spine but that actually does not engage the true TA muscles and puts the spine into flexion instead of neutral.
If you’re having back pain in these there are a few possible reasons why.
Two most likely are you simply are not engaging the correct way OR your core muscles aren’t quite strong enough to be doing full dead bugs yet, which is totally fine! You can modify this exercise by keeping your knees tucked in closer to your chest and by not extending your legs completely straight. As you continue practicing these you can progress to the more challenging variations.
Remember, QUALITY movement over everything! Get them right before making them harder, the pain isn’t worth looking cool 😎
There are a few variations you can do with this exercise. One that doesn’t require any other equipment is simply changing the pattern.
So try extending the SAME arm and SAME leg at the same time instead of opposites.
Mix it up a bit
try same, opposites, opposites, same...
or same, same, opposite, opposite… you get the idea!
Have some fun with it.
We have an example of one of my clients incorporating a ball, but omit the ball and it is just as challenging!
So, why else do a dead bug? Here are a few of the other awesome benefits you can reap from doing this exercise:
Dead bugs mimic and therefore improve gait pattern and upright stability. This then translates directly into walking, running, jumping, and even dancing! Pretty much anything that is a cross-body movement where you move your arms and legs.
They make you smarter! Wait what?! Yes, it’s true! Dead bugs require your brain to work quite a bit. You’ll especially notice this when you first try to move your opposite arm and leg and find it harder than you’d think and then again when you try to change the pattern up to the same sides and so on. Strengthening your neuromuscular system is very important. Exercise, in general, does this but specifically doing exercises that make you have to think more is great for your brain. It quite literally keeps you younger and has even been shown to help prevent Alzheimer’s!
Dead bugs train coordination and proprioception. Yes, both of those things sound really important and they are! Proprioception is your body’s awareness of where it is in space and coordination is how your muscles move at the right times and speeds to create intended movement and they matter for everyone from a toddler to an advanced professional athlete to your 85-year-old grandma or grandpa. The toddler learns this stuff on their own from practice as they get up and fall down over and over. They become more coordinated and proprioceptive because they have to for survival. Coordination might sound like something you only relate to athletes and sports but it's extremely important that your grandparents have and practice coordination daily! Losing proprioception and coordination are actually exactly what ends up in falls in our geriatric population and lead to hip and knee replacements. So go make your grandparents do dead bugs!!!
The dead bug, while it has a silly name, is not a silly exercise. It has a ton of really important health benefits to all age groups and has a place in truly anyone’s exercise regime. There are progressions for every skill level and every age. What are you waiting for?
As always, if you have questions or are ready to take the step to work with a movement specialist send us a DM on Instagram @foundation_movement _fitness, an email at foundationmf.info@gmail.com, or just book yourself a consultation by clicking any BOOK NOW button on our website.
Until next time,
Your posture and movement specialists
