How to Do the Bird Dog Exercise
The bird dog is a core exercise on your hands and knees. Reach one arm forward and the opposite leg back to torso height, keeping your back and hips still. It trains the lower back, glutes and obliques. Most people do 2 to 3 sets of 6 to 10 reps per side, holding each for 8 to 10 seconds.
How to do a bird dog
- Get on your hands and knees on a mat, hands under your shoulders and knees under your hips. Look at the floor just ahead of your hands.
- Brace your abs as if someone is about to poke you in the stomach, without sucking your belly in. Your lower back keeps its slight natural curve.
- Slowly reach one arm forward and push the opposite heel straight back, until your hand, back and heel are level with each other. Make a fist with the raised hand.
- Hold for 8 to 10 seconds and keep breathing. Only your shoulder and hip move. Your back stays still and your hips stay level with the floor.
- Bring the hand and knee back under you, then switch to the other arm and leg.
Bird dog progressions, easiest to hardest
The order comes from two lab studies. In 8 healthy men, muscle activity rose from lifting only the arm, to only the leg, to both, to both with a brace, and moving the raised arm out wider took the upper back muscles from 23% to 35% of a maximal effort (McGill and Karpowicz 2009). In 57 active men, lifting an arm and a leg moved the pelvis more than lifting one limb, and moving the limbs at full reach made it harder again (Heredia-Elvar 2024). Lifting only a leg kept the load on the lower back low, and adding the opposite arm raised the challenge (Callaghan 1998). Move up a step when every rep on both sides looks the same.
Muscles worked
Bird dog claims the research does not back
Four claims that most bird dog guides and AI answers repeat:
- The bird dog works your abs. It barely works the six-pack. The rectus abdominis was the least active muscle tested, under 10% of a maximal effort, in 30 healthy adults (Stevens 2007). The obliques do work, to stop your trunk from twisting (García-Vaquero 2012). If you want to train the front of your trunk, add a dead bug or a curl-up.
- Draw your belly button in toward your spine. Hollowing made the deep abs thicker on ultrasound than bracing during the bird dog and six other exercises (Tsartsapakis 2024), but thicker is not more stable. In a lab model, a full brace made the spine 32% more stable than a hollow (Grenier and McGill 2007). Brace all the way around your waist instead.
- Hold each rep as long as you can. Back muscle oxygen fell during 30-second holds even at 2% of a maximal effort (McGill 2000), and no muscle went above 32% of a maximal effort in the bird dog (Stevens 2007). That is the reasoning behind repeated short holds of 8 to 10 seconds.
- A few sets of bird dogs build a stronger core for sport. In 60 active young men, 6 weeks of bridges and bird dogs twice a week did not improve trunk endurance, trunk stability or balance more than in a control group (Prat-Luri 2025). Use the bird dog to learn to hold your trunk still, and loaded lifts to get stronger.
The McGill big 3, bird dog vs side plank vs curl-up
| Attribute | Bird dog | Side plank | Curl-up |
|---|---|---|---|
| Trains | The back of your trunk | The side of your trunk | The front of your trunk |
| Position | On your hands and knees | On one forearm and the side of your feet | On your back, hands under your lower back |
| Works most | Lower back, glutes | Obliques, glute med | Abs, obliques when braced |
| Make it harder | Wider reach, draw squares | Feet instead of knees, roll to a plank | Lift your elbows off the floor |
Do all three. Spine researcher Stuart McGill picked them because they challenge the trunk from the back, the side and the front with relatively low loads on the spine (McGill and Karpowicz 2009). The bird dog is the gentlest on a sore back: lifting a leg with the spine held still kept spine loads low, and lifting the trunk itself, as in a superman, produced the highest loads (Callaghan 1998). The side plank drew strength-level oblique and glute med activity (Ekstrom 2007).
Sets, reps and hold time
Do bird dogs 2 to 3 times a week, in your warm-up or at the end of a session. Hold each rep for 8 to 10 seconds, rest a breath with your hand and knee down, and switch sides.
The McGill method uses fewer reps per set in each round, for example 5, then 3, then 1 per side, with the same 8 to 10 second hold. When every rep stays still on both sides, move one step up the progression instead of holding longer.
Common mistakes
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Leg kicked above your hipYour lower back arches to get it there. Stop when your heel is level with your back.
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Hip opening upThe hip of the raised leg lifts and your trunk twists. Point your toes at the floor and keep both hips level.
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Back rounding as the limbs come inKeep the brace between reps. Coaching cut spine bending during the bird dog from 16 degrees to 0 in one lab study (McGill and Karpowicz 2009).
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Head craning upYour neck bends out of line. Look at the floor just ahead of your hands.
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Sinking between your shouldersPush the floor away with your supporting hand.
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Rushing the repsSwinging the limbs up takes the work off your trunk. Reach slowly and hold each rep.
Bird dog variations
Questions people ask
How many bird dogs should I do a day?
Do 2 to 3 sets of 6 to 10 reps per side, holding each rep for 8 to 10 seconds. The load is low, so a daily warm-up set is fine. On Gravitus, as of September 2026, the median best set logged is 12 reps for both men and women, and the top 10% have done 20 or more (600+ men, 400+ women). Logs do not say whether one rep means one side or both.
How long should you hold a bird dog?
8 to 10 seconds per rep, then switch sides. Back muscle oxygen fell during 30-second holds even at very low efforts (McGill 2000), so short holds, repeated, are the usual advice.
Does bird dog work abs?
It barely works the six-pack. The rectus abdominis was the least active muscle tested, under 10% of a maximal effort (Stevens 2007). The obliques work to stop your trunk from twisting (García-Vaquero 2012). For the front of your trunk, add a dead bug or a curl-up.
Does bird dog work glutes?
Yes. The glute max was active enough to count as strength work in one EMG study (Ekstrom 2007), and on the side of the raised leg it was one of the two most active muscles in another (Stevens 2007). Squeeze the glute as you push your heel back.
Does bird dog strengthen lower back?
It trains the lower back muscles to hold your spine still. The multifidus on the side of the raised leg was one of the two most active muscles (Stevens 2007), and harder levels of the bird dog raised multifidus and erector spinae activity (Kim 2016). It is endurance and control work, not heavy strength work.
Are bird dogs good for lower back pain?
They are one of the gentlest ways to train your back. Lifting a leg with the spine held still kept spine loads low (Callaghan 1998). Core stability exercise reduced pain more than general exercise in the short term, but by 6 and 12 months there was no difference (Wang 2012). If a rep hurts, lift only the leg or only the arm.
Are bird dogs and dead bugs the same?
No. Both move the opposite arm and leg, but the dead bug is on your back and works the abs, and the bird dog is on your hands and knees and works the lower back and glutes. Do both.
Is the bird dog better than the plank?
Neither is better. The plank trains the front of your trunk to stop your back from sagging. The bird dog trains the back of your trunk and your glutes while your limbs move. Use both, plus a side plank.
Are bird dogs good for diastasis recti?
We found no study in people with diastasis recti. In 13 healthy adults, the bird dog did not stretch the midline between the abs (linea alba) more than the plank, dead bug, side plank or glute bridge (Bini 2021).
What is another name for the bird dog exercise?
Studies call it the quadruped arm and leg lift, or a four-point kneeling exercise with the opposite arm and leg raised (Ekstrom 2007, Stevens 2007). Spine researcher Stuart McGill writes it as the birddog.
Log every set and Gravitus charts your reps, times and records from week to week.
Get GravitusRelated exercises
- McGill and Karpowicz 2009. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 90(1):118-126.
- Heredia-Elvar et al. 2024. J Strength Cond Res 38(2):266-273.
- Callaghan, Gunning and McGill 1998. Phys Ther 78(1):8-18.
- Stevens et al. 2007. Eur Spine J 16(5):711-718.
- Ekstrom, Donatelli and Carp 2007. J Orthop Sports Phys Ther 37(12):754-762.
- García-Vaquero et al. 2012. J Electromyogr Kinesiol 22(3):398-406.
- Tsartsapakis et al. 2024. J Funct Morphol Kinesiol 9(2):70.
- Grenier and McGill 2007. Arch Phys Med Rehabil 88(1):54-62.
- McGill, Hughson and Parks 2000. Ergonomics 43(4):486-493.
- Prat-Luri et al. 2025. PLoS One 20(6):e0325040.
- Kim et al. 2016. PM R 8(10):979-989.
- Losavio et al. 2023. Sports (Basel) 11(6):119.
- Wang et al. 2012. PLoS One 7(12):e52082.
- Bini and Bini 2021. J Bodyw Mov Ther 28:131-137.