Exercises I like AKA Exercise Of The Week (EOTW)

On my Facebook page, I have been posting a weekly exercise for the past year and thought I would start that feature on my webpage too. 

Each month, I'll be demonstrating exercises for a particular body part or area.
Some months I'll show you how to take an exercise and progress to more challenging variations

Some months, they will be a collection of effective exercises for that area.
Let's start with one of my favourite core exercises - The Deadbug.

It may not look like a lot but if you're used to mainly doing crunches and sit ups, this will challenge your core more than you think for.
Also if you can easily hold different variations of front planks and want to switch them up (let's face it, front planks are good from a learning point of view but get very boring after a while), this is a great progression.

Key Teaching Points
-Lay on back with knees bent 90 degrees. Knees should be in line with hips, forming 90 degree angles between shins, thighs and hips.

-Raise arms straight up in front of body, directly over shoulders.
-Pull shoulders back and down to engage back muscles.

-Pull stomach towards spine to brace abs. Maintain this through exercise

-Breathe out and with control slowly extend fully and lower one leg until heel touches floor. Other leg remains stationary.

-Once heel lightly touches floor, reverse motion and bring leg back up whilst breathing in.

-Alternate legs.

-Important: Throughout exercise, do not allow lower back to arch up, keep spine in a neutral position.