One of the most efficient core strength exercise - DEAD BUG

Whether you’re on your feet or sitting on a chair all day, having a strong core it’s crucial – as it’s the base that supports your whole body. You’re not only engaging your core muscles during workouts, but in your everyday activities too (getting out of the bed, carrying groceries, taking your dog out for a walk).

According to the Strength and Conditioning Journal, a strong core it’s essential to stabilize your joints and spine, protecting them from getting injured under heavy loads.

Therefore, a strong core stabilizes your lower back, makes all your movements more balanced and increases your athletic performance – and most importantly, it keeps you upright!

What Is The Dead Dug Exercise

One of the most efficient exercises that builds core strength is the dead bug. It’s a bodyweight exercise that builds strong abdominal muscles and helps with your coordination and balance. The exercise is performed on the floor while moving your opposite arm and leg simultaneously.

The dead bug exercise targets your:

• Rectus abdominis (your ‘six pack’ muscles)

  • Transverse abdominis (deep core),

  • Lower back

  • Obliques (sides)
    

Compared to other core exercises – for example crunches, sit-ups, or planks – it’s considered a low-risk injury movement, because your lower back and spine are supported by the floor. Therefore, dead bug exercises help you to relieve and prevent low back pain, improve your posture, strengthen and stabilize your core, spine and back muscles.

Dead Bug Exercises – Beginner-Friendly

This exercise is great for beginners, because its slow movement requires focus on the correct form, instead of relying on momentum to get you through the motion. It helps you to consciously keep your core muscles stable and lock your rib cage while moving the rest of your body. You’ll make the difference between the movement of your spine, pelvis and hips.

Keeping your lower back glued to the floor helps you feel the contraction in your abdominal muscles. Therefore, this exercise is great to create a strong base because it makes you understand how to engage your core during exercises.

If you have any questions or need some assistance, feel free to submit a comment or send us a message here.

Step by step instructions

The dead bug exercise doesn't require much space and you can do it anywhere. But it is recommended to put an exercise mat (yoga) on the floor for more comfort.

• Lie on the mat face up, arms extended straight towards the ceiling.

• Lift your legs and bend them in a tabletop position (90 degree bend in the knees).

• Press your lower back into the ground.

• Slowly extend your left / right arm over your head while simultaneously extending the opposite leg. Make sure to don’t drop your leg, always keep it a few inches away from the ground;

• Squeeze your glutes and keep the core engaged the entire time.

• Keep your lower back firm, pressed into the ground - make sure you’re not arching it;

• Slowly bring the leg and arm back to its initial position

• Keep your breathing steady - inhale when you’re bringing back the foot and arm, and exhale when you extend them

• Repeat the same movement on the other side (one movement on a side counts as a rep).

• Continue with the same number of repetitions on each side.

You can start this exercise with 2-3 sets of 10-20 reps, with at least 30 seconds of rest in between.

Benefits Of Dead Bug Exercises

Implementing dead bug exercises into your workout routine brings multiple benefits to your life:

• Builds core strength and spine muscles

• Targets deeper core muscles: transverse abdominis, pelvic floor, and erector spinae muscle group.

• Improves posture by keeping your spin and core in alignment

• Improves coordination, balance and mobility

• Relieves and prevents low back pain

• Prevents injuries

• Strengthens back, arm, and leg muscles

• Suitable for all ages

• Easily adjustable for different fitness levels

• Benefits not only your everyday life, but improves your fitness performance too

• Encourages mind-body consciousness

Variations of the dead bug exercise

Dead bug is a very popular core exercise because it’s suitable for everyone - you can progress or regress.

If you’re a beginner, you can do all the exercises just with your body weight. If you find the initial exercise too hard (you cannot keep your torso steady on the floor), use its simplified version.

→ Instead of extending the leg and arm at the same time, you can first extend your arm and bring it back to the starting position. Then extend the leg and bring it back. Do the same movement on the other side.

If you want to add more challenge to the exercise, you can try weighted dead bugs.

(VIDEO HERE)

• Hold a weight in each hand (dumbbell/kettlebell) when performing the movements

• Compress a yoga ball between your arms and legs. While extending the opposite leg and arm, keep the ball compressed with the non-working leg and arm. Repeat on the other side.

• Loop a mini resistance band around your feet or hands. Extend your leg simultaneously with the opposite arm, then pull it back to the chest. Repeat on the other side.

5 Common Mistakes to avoid

The dead bug it’s an effective core exercise that might seem very easy to execute. However to make it beneficial you need to make sure to keep the correct form when executing it. Here are some common mistakes to avoid:

• Arching your lower back off the floor

• Lifting your head

• Dropping your leg/arm on to the floor when extending

• Moving too fast

• Moving the leg and arm of the same side

Bottom Line

Your daily activities and your workout exercises rely on your core. Developing core strength with dead bug exercises gives you the ability to brace your core muscles during these activities. It also stabilizes your spine, prevents low back pain and reduces the risk of injuries. Incorporating it into your workout session will benefit your overall strength and health.

You can perform the dead bug exercises at home or in the gym. Start with the basic one involving just your bodyweight. Make it more challenging as you go trying out some of the variations and choose the ones that suit you most.