Movement Technique Introduction

Bird Dog (1, 2, 3)

Position yourself on the floor on your hands and knees.

• Make sure that your hands are below your shoulders, and that your knees are below your hips—your arms and thighs should be vertical, like the four legs of a table.
• Position your spine in its neutral shape - use one hand to feel it (or a mirror to your side to look at it) and check that you have restored the slight concave curve in your lower back, which is its neutral shape.

Once you are confident about your spine’s shape, brace your core to stabilise this position and make sure to keep it braced for the duration of the exercise, never allowing your spine shape to move away from neutral.

• Then, simultaneously lift one leg and its opposite arm to reach forwards and backwards towards the horizons.
• Continue to keep your spine neutral and your core braced. Hold this raised position for the given time.
• Then, lower your limbs back down to the starting position, maintaining your neutral spine position and core bracing, then repeat.

Bird Dog 2: To progress this exercise at the end of the programme cycle, hold a small weight in the hand of the arm you are reaching with, weighing no more than 2 kg to start.

Bird Dog 3: Once you have completed at least one cycle with a weight in your hand, you can then also add an ankle weight to the leg you are raising, weighing no more than 2 kg to start.

Body Weight Squats

Start by standing in front of a surface with a height that is roughly halfway up your thigh.

• Position your feet about one foot-length away from the surface and just wider than hip-width apart. Your toes should point slightly outwards, at no more than 5 or 10 degrees.
• Stand tall with your core braced and your glutes activated.
• Reach forward with your arms—this will help counterbalance your weight as you perform the squat.
• Sit down toward the surface behind you until you touch it with the back of your thighs and hips, then stand back up again.
• Start by keeping one hand on your lower back to monitor its shape

Make sure of the following:

• Ensure that your spine is neutral and that your core is braced throughout.
• Do not let your knees track forwards very much, as your goal is to remember how to perform this kind of movement mostly with your hips.
• As you start the upward part of the movement, practise engaging and contracting your glutes from as far down as possible and finish with them contracted, but not so excessively that your pelvis tilts backward and you lose your neutral spine.
• Practise keeping your knees slightly wider apart than your feet as you squat, and definitely do not let them collapse inwards.
• Allow your head to move so that it stays neutral relative to your spine, do not keep looking forwards as this will cause your neck to bend backwards during the movement.

Initially, you might fall backwards at the bottom, landing your weight on the box. Practise until you do not fall at all, moving slowly and with control until you lightly touch the surface and then slowly move back up again.