Superman

Starting position:

Lie on your belly on a floor mat with legs outstretched and arms stretched forward and upwards.

Exercise:

From the starting position, contract your back and abdominal muscles and raise your body slowly from the mat by lifting the outstretched legs, arms and trunk upwards. Keep your body stretched in this position for as long as required depending on your type of training. Then slowly relax your muscles and return to the starting position.

Note:

Make sure you use correct breathing and keep your pelvis in a neutral position to avoid lordotic swayback at the waist (lower back swayback). Focus on abdominal membrane breathing. Do the movement by pulling up (concentrate on correct involvement of the abdominal muscles) rather than by swinging up. Avoid uncontrolled movement towards the starting position and relax your muscles gradually.

Recommendation:

To avoid excessive lower back bending you must have your pelvis in a neutral position and activate your inner stabilization system.

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Superman is an exercise targeting the lower back and strengthening most other body-core muscles too. Lie down on the mat and raise your upper body together with your legs.

This position with the arms stretched forwards is similar to flying Superman.

You can either stay stretched for about 3 seconds, return to the starting position and repeat the exercise or try to keep in the Superman position for as long as possible.