Just say no.
When I first have someone perform an exercise I’d say something like 80% do it sub par, 5% do it well, and 15% make me say “Holy hell stop moving now.”
For the Bird Dog, it’s more like 100% need to stop moving now. I just never see people do this well without extensive instruction. And I rarely see anyone ever teach it well. It’s not just the trainer or therapist’s fault; it’s a hard exercise to teach.
Often times when an exercise fits into this category I just don’t bother, at least not until the trainee is more experienced. However, the Bird Dog I take exception. I think it’s too valuable to not bother with.
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The purpose of Bird Dogs
Since I often live in my own world, I’m only going to go over why I use this exercise. Other people may have different reasons.
The main reason I use the Bird Dog is to teach proper movement and motor control between the lower back, abdominals and hips. Specifically, teaching people to dissociate between hip and lower back movement.
Therefore, this is often a go-to exercise when it comes to helping those with lower back issues. This is because people with lower back issues typically present with hypermobility (too much movement) at the lower back.
Their lower back is doing too much work; their hips, shoulders and abdominals are doing too little.
(For more on why this happens check out: Assessing the hips in the transverse plane (Why your lower back hurts).)
Thus, I use the Bird Dog to teach people how to use their lower back less, but their stomach and hips more.
I’m going to intentionally ignore going over anatomy for this post. One thing I’m noticing with the emails / comments I get is way too much focus on muscles and not enough on movement. I know this is hard to grasp (it was for me too), but keep in mind the Bird Dog is for training proper MOVEMENT. The muscles will follow.
My other concomitant reason for doing Bird Dogs is to work on shoulder flexion, upward rotation and winging.
Notice a reason for doing Bird Dogs IS NOT, IS NOT, IS NOT to strengthen the lower back. If you’re feeling this in your lower back you’re doing it wrong.
To see all this more clearly let’s go over the common form errors.
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Common form issues
I’m going to break down each flaw in relative order of importance. I don’t correct one flaw until the one above it is reached. For instance, say the person needs to work on controlling lower back extension and rotation, as well as scapular winging. I ignore correcting the winging until the lower back issue is resolved. Some people may be an exception to this hierarchy, but this is overwhelmingly what I use.
Too much lower back extension and rotation
Ideally, this is a straight line.
So is this. And no, Holly, it’s not cause you qualify for “Baby got back.”
Remember, when dealing with lower back issues we’re almost always dealing with hypermobility. Therefore, our goal is to prevent movement at the lumbar spine. So, when I have people do this absolutely no lower back extension or rotation is allowed. We want the hips to move into extension, but the lower back to stay still. That way we’re teaching the body to dissociate between moving the hips and moving the spine.
This is by far the most common flaw when doing the Bird Dog. People just shoot their leg in the sky. The goal is NOT to lift your leg as high as possible! I’ll go over this more later with the progressions.
The foot shouldn’t be above the ass.
The rest of the form issues are secondary to the above. Nothing else happens until the above is solid. Whenever you do an exercise the max amount of things to think about is two. For the Bird Dog, until the above is mastered, I only give one thing to think about. I’ll discuss this more in the progressions below.
Poor shoulder flexion / upward rotation
While people will shoot the foot into the ceiling, they’ll push the arm towards the floor.
I like to emphasize shrugging the shoulder into the ear to further enable upward rotation.
Before (bad)
After (better, but not perfect). See how much closer the shoulder is to the ear.
I really only focus on this for those with some shoulder history. Unless everything is solid, working on this cue starts venturing into “Too much to think about” territory.
Lastly, one thing I never see anyone else correct is the fact the shoulder is internally rotated. By externally rotating the arm, at least to neutral, we’re providing some more bang for your buck by loosening the lats and pecs.
Before; palm down (bad)
After; palm in (better)
Scapular winging
For some people, simply supporting themselves on their hands will cause their scapulae to wing. Using the cue of “push your shoulder blades away from one another” will often alleviate this. (This is demonstrated in a video below.) However, for some, like those with significant shoulder issues, they will not be able to reverse the winging in this position no matter what. In this case, Bird Dogs are not advisable.
For more on scapular winging check out: Example of impaired movement causing pain.
Cervical hyperextension
Pretty simple here. Tuck your chin to your chest and look down.
Bending / leaning on opposite arm
The support arm shouldn’t bend. It stays straight providing just enough stability you don’t fall over.
Entire body rocks backwards
Lines should be more vertical.
This is a bit more rare. As best I can tell, people do this to help them prevent the balance issues that sometimes arise. By putting more of their weight back on the leg they get a greater sense of stability. In the end though, once the body is set over the hands and knees, we do not want any rocking backward or forward.
Excessive wrist extension
The wrist should be straight.
After (better, but not perfect)
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Bringing it all together – Proper form and cueing
Much like which form issues I assess first, which things I cue first follow a hierarchy. The form issues give us a good idea of what proper form is, but let’s bring it together to further elucidate.
The first cue is always “Pull your stomach up to the ceiling.” I’ve seen other people use phrasing like, “Tell your client to put their hand perpendicular to the rectus abdominus so they feel their obliques, then tell them to engage the oblique and fascia.” WHAT ON EARTH ARE YOU SAYING???
Anything more than “Pull your stomach up and in” is too much for someone to think about. Get this straight, then move on.
Once the person is effectively pulling their stomach in, I make sure they aren’t rotating the pelvis. For this I actually use the cue of “Don’t let the hips move/twist” rather than “Don’t let your lower back move/twist.” Technically, the hips are moving into extension (i.e. they are moving), however, mentioning the hips to people seems to resonate more.
Once the lower back is set, I mention to the person “We are trying to make a line from your hands to your shoulders to your hips to your foot.”
Then I’ll say “You should feel some work in your butt, stomach, and shoulders, but NOTHING in your lower back. If you feel anything in your lower back let me know.”
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Progressions
Here’s my hierarchy of progressions:
1) Leg only, and the foot hits the ground every time! For some people, I never let them lift their foot off the ground.
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If the person has trouble with just this (rare), I move backwards a step and go with the following:
0) Leg only; foot hits ground; laying over bench.
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Using the bench assures the person’s lower back cannot rotate or extend. The client is fully aware of any pelvic movement because what’s tangible to their stomach will change.
2) Foot hits ground; the arm moves too.
Once the person has consistently demonstrated proficiency with just the foot (at least 2 weeks), I’ll bring the arm into play.
3) The progressions become vast from here. Some people like to add weight to the arm; others will perturbate the extending limbs, you can bird dog while in a plank, etc.
I don’t have many people who ever make it this far. This stuff can be HARD. (Keep in mind I’m not dealing with athletes either.)
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Miscellaneous
Combining
For new people, or people with a lower back history, I almost always combine the Bird Dog with the Backward Rocking stretch.
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This insures if the person does get their lower back involved at all, we immediately loosen things up with the rocking stretch.
Also, hip extension issues often accompany lower back issues. While the Bird Dog is working the hips into extension, the Backward Rocking is working them through full flexion. Something which often gives people with lower back issues relief.
The combination is essentially a nice insurance policy for making sure the person leaves the session with a healthy feeling lower back and hip(s).
Bringing me to:
Always used at the end of the session
I pretty much always do abdominal work at the end of sessions. The reason is in those with lower back issues the primary factor with the abdominals is not strength, but endurance. (There are studies on this but I don’t feel like looking them up. Shirley Sahrmann goes over this too.) The abdominals are most likely to get worked in an endurance manner by being engaged at the end of the session.
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Bane
March 5, 2013
It is interesting how many, if not almost all other websites list this exercise as low back strengthener (among abs, glutes etc.).
reddyb
March 5, 2013
An extremely common (wrong) approach to lower back issues is to strengthen the lower back. This completely ignores the fact most people’s lower backs move (are being used) too much.
If you think about it, it’s pretty damn hard to completely use all the abs and lower back -at the same time- in a bird dog. After all, many of the actions of the abdominals are the opposite of the action of say, the spinal erectors.
E.g. Spinal erectors anteriorly tilt the pelvis; external obliques posteriorly tilt the pelvis.
This is where it’s fruitful to mention how commonly not ALL of the abdominal muscles need to be strengthened. It’s much more common some are overactive while some are underactive.
E.g. Internal oblique is overactive; external oblique is underactive.
Another post for another day.
Deepak H
July 11, 2013
Wow.. This is such a useful read. I used a camera to see how I was performing this exercise. I was doing it completely wrong. I thought strengthening lower back was one of the primary goals of this exercise!!.. along with glutes. I was wrong and I incorporated all the above mentioned points and have almost achieved that straight line by focusing more on the abs. Thanks a ton.. I have been a regular on your website after I came across your awesome method of stretching TFL.
reddyb
July 12, 2013
Hey Deepak,
Glad you found this useful.
I should note many practitioners will say the Bird Dog is to help strengthen the lower back. This is a stance I obviously disagree with. But it is a very common one out there.
The short reason for my disagreement is people implement the Bird Dog to help those with lower back issues strengthen their lower back. The lower back is almost never “weak” in someone with lower back pain. If anything, it is usually plenty strong enough. And pain alleviation comes when a person learns to relax their lower back and use other muscles.
Lastly, arching / twisting the lower back, like would be done in order to “strengthen” the lower back in a bird dog, is extremely hard to justify. Just think about all those discs in the lower back being twisted and whatnot. Hurts to even think about it.
Hope that makes sense.
Robbie B
August 26, 2013
Don’t forget to stretch those tight hip flexors 🙂
reddyb
August 26, 2013
Ah, yes, always 🙂
Joe Danna
January 21, 2014
Oh yeah but first make sure they aren’t in hip extension, as I have learned here, right?
reddyb
January 22, 2014
Not sure I know what you’re getting at?
Joe
April 3, 2014
We don’t want to stretch the hip flexors if they’re already in hip extension do we?
reddyb
April 4, 2014
Oh, yes. Sorry. When I first read that comment I read it in my email without seeing the previous comments. Sorry about that.
john
May 31, 2014
Are you focusing on extending the leg or pushing through your heel?
reddyb
June 2, 2014
Hey John,
When first introducing this (lowest progression), I often go with “Slide your foot out along the floor.” Just preventing the person from lifting their foot normally cleans up a lot, such as stabilizing the lower back / pelvis.
Ivan
May 29, 2015
Brian, I see that last post here was a year ago but maybe if you have time you could give me a little help with bird dog exercise. I started doing this exercise along with leg raise exercise (with bent legs, because straight leg version is way too hard for me)) (http://b-reddy.org/2011/09/12/3-common-weak-muscles/) to strengthen my external obliques. My main focus during exercises is preventing lower back move. I manage to hold it still or with very slight movement. During bird dog I only feel high tension in abs, obliques, hamstrings and glutes, nothing in the lower back, but few hours later or the next day a got pain (discomfort) in the lower back (two points left and right of the spine, where the spine meets pelvis) that lasts for days. I tried doing it with some posterior pelvic tilt but with same results. I think it is better if I don’t lift the leg of the ground.
Same with leg rise exercise but I am sure I have lower back firm on the ground and the obliques are burning. Is it possible that despite lower back are flat on the ground high tension bothers my spine? Can you suggest something, do I have to scale it down or maybe stop doing it? Is it possible that even the slightest movement causes troubles?
reddyb
May 30, 2015
Hey Ivan,
All posts are always active :).
For those leg raises, you may want to not only go bent leg, but one at a time, rather than double. “Alternating Toe Taps” I call them. One at a time will be a further regression. This is a pretty common regression, so don’t feel bad about it. (Being able to go fully straight leg when you’re not used to it, is rare.) If this is still a problem, you go with this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY3lmig5fKw
If it’s still a problem, you don’t slide the foot out as far.
I often start people with no lifting of the feet during the Bird Dog. You’ll see minimal lifting of the foot in this post, but I’ve since gone to making the person slide the foot out and in, with zero lifting initially. I literally cue people “feet never come off floor.” I find this cleans the form up dramatically. Eventually progressing to lifting the leg, which can be a much harder progression than you’d assume.
Form can be perfect and one can still feel pain in the lower back, definitely. “High tension” is a good way to view it.
What can also be going on here is 1) You’re moving the lower back and don’t realize it (most common) 2) You’re moving and can’t see it. I can’t remember the numbers off the top of my head, or the source, but I know the spine can move and be imperceptible to the human eye.
Again though, you could have things be perfectly still, but with all the tension going on, not feel well. In this case, you regress things as much as possible. If a person still has issues, then it’s time to move on to a different exercise. This isn’t very common. Not sure I ever had to get rid of the heel slide for instance. Form changes and regression get most very far, but not always far enough. Not everything is for everybody.
Good questions.
Ivan
June 2, 2015
Brian, I saw this video before but I didn’t realize that this exercise is entry level leg rise . I tried it and if I do it in the way that my back are slightly arched and not touching ground entirely (body relaxed) it is easy exercise. It becomes harder when I press my lower back into the ground, it’s harder to slide out as far. How hard am I supposed to press into the ground? I press almost as hard as I can so I can feel obliques and abs working hard. Is that I mistake? Why we need to keep flexed spine pressed onto the ground instead of neutral spine?
Brian, I noticed that during bird dog and Pallof press (among bird dog and leg rises this also cases pain in the lower back) the more I try not to move, the more I resist, the more problems I got afterwards. Even slight rotation under high muscle tension causes me trouble. During Pallof press I got slight rotation at the legs and when I resist that rotation the harder it becomes at the lower back because now the lower back has to resist all that motion. During that I don’t feel any pain or discomfort during that movement, it starts few hours later.
When is time to move on from sliding foot leg rise and bird dog without lift the leg to harder progressions? How do we know that we are ready if even now we can do both exercises 3 sets 12 reps and it doesn’t feel hard?
reddyb
June 3, 2015
You want to press enough into the floor that your back is touching the floor the entire rep. No more; no less.
Feeling the abs work on the supine heel slide is common. That’s what is keeping the lower back flat. Although, if you’re feeling a lot of work, and if it’s this tough for you though, you have some work to do :).
As I said first though, it’s not like you want to be violently pressing the stomach into the ground. Just enough your lower back is on the floor and stays there. (There are rare exceptions to this.) For some, this is the easiest thing in the world. For others, it takes a lot of concentration. The first group will feel like they aren’t doing anything; the second may feel like they’re doing calculus.
If the heel slide is this tough for you, the pallof press is something I probably wouldn’t be doing. Although, usually you can make that light enough it’s ok. I often start people with as low a weight as the cable stack will go. Often, this is 10lbs. And I rarely get people above 20lbs. (With that, a difference of 5lbs can be a huge bump in difficulty.) I don’t allow any leg, hip, or back motion during this.
Next, if you’re keeping the back from moving but still having issues, then there are the factors I mentioned earlier. What I should have also gone over is the potential to be squeezing too hard. I hit on this some above. You don’t want to be squeezing for dear life on this stuff. There is an element of relaxation -this takes practice- you want to achieve.
A common rule I tell people is if you’re face is grimacing, you’re trying too hard. To reiterate, you can have “perfect” form, and still have issues.
Once someone has had e.g. solid bird dog form for a month, with no issues, then I’ll usually start trying to lift the foot off the ground. There are no strict guidelines with this stuff though. You have to be flexible and play it by how the person is doing.
Jennifer
October 21, 2015
Thank you! I’ve never felt so engaged in this pose before. Very useful:)
reddyb
October 22, 2015
You’re welcome!
Meriah
July 13, 2016
I have a shoulder issue that makes the bird dog way too painful (for days afterward). Can you recommend an alternative?
reddyb
July 15, 2016
Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY3lmig5fKw
Meriah Crawford
July 16, 2016
Thanks very much!
Noah
October 21, 2017
Hello Brian,
Questions about bird dog. I have spondylolisthesis and I have been getting great results so far with stretching hip flexors etc. I believe I have an anterior pelvic tilt. Every time I attempt bird dog I have issues with pain reoccurrence (sciatic and back pain). I even took a video etc. now I understand the progression and I will start implementing. But I want to know even if I get the form right, and even if I am doing it with enough relaxation and if in that case the pain is still there does that mean no matter how much I learn to eliminate my symptoms I will always be vulnerable to this exercise? I used to ski, workout in the gym etc and I hope to get to the point where I can do those things again but as much as I will stress good form when I can I don’t want to always be tiptoeing around those activities. If I am vulnerable to this exercise does this mean for the rest of my lifeblood there will be positions that cause pain and thus I will always have flare up episodes (because of the many movements those activities I listed entail)?
Thank you,
Noah
b-reddy
October 22, 2017
Hey Noah,
If a person
1) Truly keeps the back still
BUT
2) Doesn’t keep the back still by squeezing their stomach for dear life (https://b-reddy.org/2015/12/11/why-squeezing-the-stomach-can-make-lower-back-pain-worse/) ,
Then I’m not sure I’ve ever seen someone have pain during this. That said…
Keeping the foot on the ground significantly helps with the above. Every once in a while a person needs to not bring the leg all the way back. Where it might take them a few weeks to get to that point.
That is, if they try to straighten all the way, they just can’t keep the lower back still, so we only have them go e.g. three fourths of the way out, to keep the back still. (We only straighten as far as we can without the lower back moving.)
With the above, I often only have a person move one limb at a time, rather than the leg and the arm. Focusing on the legs first: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h6KDcrWI4SA
With these modifications, frankly, I’d be stunned if a person still had problems. I just can’t recall seeing it, and I’ve seen some horrific spines.