Hyperextensions (Back Extensions)

Execution

1. Cross your arms over your chest or place them behind your head, keeping your body straight from head to hips.
2. Inhale and hinge forward at the hips, keeping the back flat, without rounding the spine.
3. Lower until your torso is close to perpendicular to the floor, or as far as feels comfortable.
4. Exhale and squeeze your glutes and low back to raise your torso back to a straight line.
5. Stop when your torso is in line with your legs, without hyperextending higher than that.

Quick cues

• Hinge from the hips, back stays flat.
• Squeeze the glutes to rise.
• Stop at neutral, don't overextend.
• Move slowly, under control.

Common faults

• Fault: Rounding the upper back at the bottom instead of hinging from the hips

  Fix: Brace the core lightly and hinge from the hip joint, keeping the spine as one rigid unit.

• Fault: Hyperextending too far up at the top

  Fix: Stop as soon as the torso lines up with the legs, without arching further.

• Fault: Using a swinging momentum instead of controlling with the low back

  Fix: Slow down and feel the lower back and glutes working through the whole rep.

• Fault: The foot pad set incorrectly, so the ankles are not held securely

  Fix: Drop the foot pad until your heels press the lower roller and the tops of your feet lock under the upper roller, set the thigh pad just below your hip bones, then rock your torso to test it before the set.