How to do the Dead Bug
Step by step
- Lie on your back with arms reaching straight up and knees bent over your hips.
- Press your low back gently into the floor and keep it there.
- Slowly lower one arm overhead and the opposite leg toward the floor at the same time.
- Stop before your back arches, then return to the start under control.
- Repeat on the other side, moving slowly the whole time.
The thing people get wrong
Keep your low back flat against the floor - if it lifts, shorten the reach until you can control it.
Coaching cue
Breathe out as the arm and leg reach away, and in as they come back.
Make it easier or harder
- Easier: Move one limb at a time and keep the knees bent.
- Harder: Lower the arm and leg closer to the floor and pause there.
Muscles worked
- Primary: Core
What to do instead
Same job, different movement — useful if you don't have the equipment or it doesn't feel right today.
Daily Coach builds this into a real weekly plan. It picks the exercises for your equipment and experience, swaps around injuries you tell it about, and tracks what you actually lifted.