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Movement of the Month:
Quadruped Superman
By Kennedy Lodato, PRO Trainer
The Erector Spinae, or most refer to it “the lower back muscle”, originates approximately at the hip and inserts at the base of the skull. The most widely used exercise to work this muscle is the back extension or superman. Whether this exercise is performed on a mat or on a back extension machine, many clients make the mistake of hyper-extending the spin. That leads me to this issue’s movement of the month, the quadruped superman.
EXECUTION: Get your client to set their body on their hands and knees making sure to keep a neutral spine. Arms and legs should create a box-like shape. Remind your client to pull their belly button towards their spine in order to set the core and help keep the spine neutral.
Your client should then extend their right hip, all the while extending the knee until it’s flexed but not locked. At the same time, your client should extend the right shoulder forward until the elbow is flexed but not locked. Be sure that your client’s arm and leg stay in line with their torso. Get them to return to the starting position and begin with opposite arm and leg.
SETS: Perform three sets of 30 seconds each. Rest 45 seconds between sets.
PROGRESSION: When your client is comfortable with 30 second intervals, increase to 60 seconds. To further challenge your client, superset with stability ball crunches and stability ball planks. Again, your client should perform each exercise for 30 seconds and wait 45 seconds between sets. Once they have the endurance for 30 seconds, move to 45 seconds and then to 60 seconds.
Kennedy has been dedicated to the industry for nearly two decades. As a PRO Trainer, Kennedy is well-educated and diversified in the fitness industry. He is a certified Personal Trainer Specialist (PTS) and Older Adult Specialist (OAS) through Can-Fit-Pro.
He is also a certified Twist Sports Conditioning Coach (TSCC-Level#1) and holds certifications in Sports Movement (SM – Level#2) and BOSU-Ball through TWIST conditioning.
Kennedy teaches the Can-Fit-Pro Personal Trainer Specialist course as well as the Older Adult Specialist course at Ryerson University. He is also the columnist of Movement of the Month in the bi-monthly Can-Fit-Pro Professional e-Newsletter, with distribution to over 17,000 fitness professionals.
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