Floor Back Extension
Trains the Spinal Erectors.
- Equipment
- Bodyweight
- Mechanic
- Compound
- Force
- Pull
- Level
- Intermediate
How to do it
- Lie face down on the floor with your arms at your sides or crossed on your chest.
- Rest your forehead lightly on the floor and brace your stomach.
- Squeeze your glutes and lift your chest and shoulders off the floor.
- Lift only as far as the lower back extends comfortably.
- Hold briefly at the top without throwing the head back.
- Lower under control until the chest touches down.
Common mistakes
- Throwing the head back to get higher. The neck stays in line with the spine; craning it up adds height the back did not produce.
- Lifting as high as possible. The range is short and the top is where the lower back is most compressed; a small, controlled lift is the exercise.
- Lifting the legs at the same time without meaning to. Chest-only, legs-only and both together are three different movements, and picking one deliberately is the point.
- Treating it as a substitute for a loaded back extension. It is what is available with no bench, and it is a much smaller stimulus than a hinge with weight.