Dead Bug

How to perform the Dead Bug

1. Lie on your back with arms reaching straight up toward the ceiling and hips and knees bent to ninety degrees in a tabletop.
2. The entire point of the dead bug is to keep the spine perfectly still while the limbs move — it is anti-extension, not a crunch.
3. Press the lower back flat into the floor and brace the abs, then hold that trunk position as the reference for every rep.
4. Slowly extend the opposite arm and leg away from you, lowering them toward the floor while the lower back stays glued down.
5. Reach only as far as you can before the lumbar would arch off the floor — that arch is the exact failure you are training against.
6. Return the limbs to the start under control and repeat on the other side, keeping the pelvis and ribcage motionless throughout.

Suggested working range: 12–20 reps. Default progression: double progression.

Common mistakes

• •Letting the lower back arch off the floor as the arm and leg extend, which is the exact fault the drill trains against.
• •Rushing the limbs out and back with momentum instead of moving slowly around a still spine.
• •Holding the breath and losing the brace so the ribcage flares as the limbs reach.
• •Reaching the leg so far and low that the pelvis tips and the lumbar pops up.

Variations & alternatives

Swap in a related movement if equipment, recovery, or progression demands it.