All wars have their unsung heroes, and all great theatrical productions their stage hands, working tirelessly backstage in the shadows while the cast revel in the admiration and applause of the audience. If you can get passed the horror movie rhetoric, some pretty special things can be found lurking in the shadows. The exercise and fitness encyclopaedias have a few hidden gems of their own and, today, I would like to sing the praises of an exercise that not only helps you to grasp correct technique and boost performance in the better known superstar celebrity moves like squats, deadlifts and ‘clean and jerks’, but also in practically any other exercise you might learn and perform in the gym or elsewhere; the ‘lying prone hyper extension’. Well, OK, that mouthful probably doesn’t make it much clearer, so let us break it down.

To perform lying prone hyper extensions, lay face down flat on the floor, preferably using a mat. Look ahead and position your arms extended out to your front, so you look a little like superman or wonder woman flying through the air; you will have to throw in a little imagination for that bit. Now you are in the ‘lying prone’ position. To execute a hyper extension, simply raise your chest and arms up off the floor, keeping your hips, legs and feet glued to the mat. Once you can do this safely, smoothly, without jerking or sudden movements, and can hold your chest and arms confidently off the floor for at least five seconds, then you can try the more advanced version.

The next step involves performing the same movement, but also lifting your legs and feet up off the floor too. Keep your legs as straight as you can, or in other words, think about lifting the knees up, not the feet themselves, as the latter will cause you to want to bend your knees in a bid for greater clearance from the ground. Raise your chest and knees as high as you can and perform for repetitions or static holds in the top position.

Three sets of 10 is always a good place to start. That’s the method, so if you’re asking what the purpose to all this is, then here are some pretty good reasons why you should be striving for superhero back strength. In the top position, you will feel tension in the two muscles running up and down the entire length of your spine, either side of it, like two ropes. These are the erector spinae muscles, responsible for extending the spine, essentially serving the opposite function of the more famous abdominals which in contrast flex or ‘curl’ the spine.

Observe the position and shape of Ronaldo Cristiano’s back when walking, jogging, sprinting, jumping, shooting or even just standing up singing the Portugese national anthem. Yes, it always looks exactly the same

This brings us to our first very good reason to embrace this move. We often tend to work the abdominal muscle group a lot in pursuit of those mystical six-pack abs, without sparing much thought to balancing out these efforts with some attention to the muscle group that works in direct opposition. Strength imbalances around major joints, and the spine is perhaps the most ‘major’ joint of all, may lead to postural problems or even injuries resulting from incorrect or inefficient movement in other exercises or everyday movements.

The erector spinae are a crucial muscle group which enable us to ‘manage’ our back position safely and effectively, whatever we are doing. Almost every exercise in the gym or elsewhere requires us to be able to maintain the shape and integrity of the spine. Consider the area of your body, excluding the arms, ranging from the tip of your head, to the base of your tailbone, in its entirety.

More to the point, consider the position of your head, shape of your upper, middle and lower back and orientation of your hips when standing up straight normally, looking to your font. If your posture in this position is sound, then your spine is in the position and shape that it should never deviate from, simply because this is the way your muscles have evolved in response to gravity and therefore been designed to work.

To explain this in a different way, imagine you had a special X-ray camera, or super-man vision and a mirror, and could see exactly what your skeleton looked like while you performed a variety of activities. Whether you are running as fast or jumping as high as you can, carrying shopping bags, sitting at your desk at work or even reading the newspaper for that matter, your spine, as seen through your special X-ray vision in all its glory, should look exactly the same across all scenarios. If the hips (which are connected to the bottom of the spine) are rolling forwards or backwards, for example, the hamstrings or gluteals will not work right and neither will the deep muscles of core. This impairs posture, diminishes strength or power and could lead to increased risk of injury.

If you’d like to see a good example of this in action, switch on your TV after 9pm tonight and you can observe this phenomenon at work, Cristiano Ronaldo. Observe the position and shape of his back when walking, jogging, sprinting, jumping, shooting or even just standing up singing the Portuguese national anthem. Yes, it always looks exactly the same. This enables the constant production of maximum force in whatever movement is performed, as well as facilitates optimal balance while the deep postural muscles fire constantly and autonomously to maintain stability. They also help us to resist slouching or hunching forward when external forces or fatigue try to force us to do so.

matthew.muscat.inglott@mcast.edu.mt

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