Extensions · Bodyweight
How to do more back extensions
How to do a back extension on the bench without using your lower back as a hinge, the ladder from the floor to weighted, and how often to train them.
The movement
How to do one properly.
Every rep the same shape, so the numbers mean the same thing on day thirty as on day one.
- 1
Set the pad so the top of it sits just below your hip bones, ankles locked in.
- 2
Arms crossed on your chest. Hinge at the hips and lower until your body is just past straight down.
- 3
Rise by squeezing your glutes and hamstrings until your body is one line. Not higher.
- 4
Pause a second at the top, then lower under control.
- 5
The lower back stays flat throughout; the movement is at the hip.
The way up
How to do more back extensions
Rung 1
Floor
Lie face down, hands by your head, lift your chest an inch and hold. Learn the squeeze.
Rung 2
Bench, bodyweight
The standard. Sets of ten to fifteen, slow.
Rung 3
Pause
Two seconds at the top. Halves the reps, doubles the work.
Rung 4
Weighted
A plate held to your chest. Add weight before reps past twenty.
Two or three sessions a week, three sets of ten to fifteen, with a slow lower and a pause at the top. Add two reps per set each week, and weight when you pass twenty.
Extensions pair with everything that pulls: do them after pull ups or rows, never first when you are fresh and tempted to swing.
How it is counted
On the board, however it got there.
No watch counts extensions, so nobody's does. Say it out loud in the app or type it in, and it lands the same as a synced session.
Worth 0.4 points per rep in the app, so a challenge can weigh it against anything else you count.
Questions
Asked about extensions
Should I arch at the top?
No. Stop when your body is straight. The arch past that comes from the lower back, and the exercise is for the glutes and hamstrings holding it.
No bench at the gym?
The floor version counts as an extension, and a stability ball or the edge of a bed with someone on your ankles does the same job. Log the reps.
Does it count from my watch?
No watch counts extensions, so nobody's does. Say it out loud in the app or type it in, and it lands the same as a synced session.
Is it free?
Yes. The athlete app is free: logging, challenges and every guide on this site. Coaches pay for their workspace; the people they coach do not.
Other exercises
Everything else we count.
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Do more extensions.
Let someone see it.
Get the app, log what you did or let your watch send it, and hand your friends the code.