How To Do Back Extensions Video

Get rid of back pain and avoid hyperextension with proper back exercises. Learn how to safely work out the back in this video.

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Don't hyperextend back
Keep back straight and core tight
Keep movements slow and controlled

About this Author

Michelle is a personal trainer at a gym in NC and has been a personal trainer for several years. She is certified through ACE and is a certified aerobics instructor as well. Her Specialty is weight lifting and she enjoys training aspiring female body builders as she is one herself. She focuses on helping her clients stronger, healthier, and sending them out feeling better for it. The best part of her job is when she see people living a better life as a result of the physical training. She was also a Marine physical trainer before she was employed at the gym.

MICHELLE TRAPP: I'm going to show how we're going to do the back extension today. Back extension is going to work our lower back. What you're going to want to find is a back extension bench. Most every gym you go to is going to have one of these. How you're going to want to set up for this, feet back behind, where you want the end of these pads is right about your hip bone. Right here is your starting and ending for this exercise. You're going to come down, what I don't want is hyperextension of the back, there's no need to do that, you see it a lot in the gyms, it's a big no-no. There's a couple different levels, I'll show you level 1, 2 and 3. Level 1, if you're just starting, we're going to cross our hands across our chest. We're going to come all the way down, extend down as low as you can and we're going to come back up, our back in a straight line, inhale on the way down, exhale on the way back up. Again, super important, none of this and definitely none of this. No momentum, no hyperextension. Level 2, we can actually hold our hands out. We're going to come down, and we're going to hold our hands up over our head, what this is adding is more leverage, it's going to put more tension on our back so you're really going to feel this working your lower back. When you've advanced that, you can come to up one more level to advance the degree of difficulty by actually grabbing a weight plate. Again, this is the advanced movement of this exercise, don't do this unless you've been doing it for a while. We're going to grab the weight plate and again, we're going to come down, flexing forward from the hip and come back up, my back in a straight line, all the way down, exhaling up here, that's the back extension. Great, great exercise. Dour things really important to remember: First one, so important, don't hyperextend the back, big no-no. Don't swing and use momentum. Start at the lowest level, which is here, and work your way up, keeping your core tight. Again, if you feel any pinching or stabbing bad pain in the back, take it down a level or take it down to the floor and do superman exercise. That's how you do back extension.

How to Do Back Extensions Video

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