Core and carries

Dead bug

Muscles worked: Abdominals · trunk control

How to do it

1. Set up. Lie on your back with arms reaching upwards and hips and knees bent. Keep your ribs relaxed and your lower back controlled.
2. Move. Slowly reach one arm overhead and extend the opposite leg, only as far as you can without arching your back.
3. Finish. Return both limbs to the start, then change sides. Keep breathing, and make the movement smaller if you start to lose control.

Form cues

• Lie on your back, arms pointing at the ceiling, knees bent at 90 degrees above your hips.
• Gently press your lower back towards the floor.
• Slowly reach one arm overhead and straighten the opposite leg towards the floor.
• Only go as far as you can keep your back still.
• Breathe out as you reach, come back, then switch sides.

Muscles worked

The dead bug exercise works your deep stomach muscles and obliques, which keep your trunk still while your arms and legs move.

Easier and harder versions

Easier

• Move only your legs.
• Tap a heel to the floor with the knee still bent.

Harder

• Hold a light weight.
• Add a pause at full reach.
• Use a band.

Common mistakes

• Lower back arching off the floor.
• Moving fast.
• Holding your breath.
• Reaching too far too soon.

Where it appears in the member plans

Dead bugs are in both 12-Week Home Plans and nearly every other plan, from Beginner Reset to Walking & Hiking, usually as 3 sets of 8 slow reps a side.

Dead bug questions