Stronger Core for Strength

Anti Rotation Club...trust me, you want to be in this club. 

Most of us who have been at the fitness thing, especially strength sports, have heard of "McGill's Big Three". If you haven't, well, you guessed it...it is three exercises that may seem erratic, but when looked under a lens you can see the purpose of these was for their cumulative gains of resisting force through the lumbar spine. And man, this is imperative.  The "McGill Big Three" consist of: 

1. Curl Up: resist movement front to back 
2. Side Plank: resist movement side to side
3. Bird Dog: resist movement in rotation 

Even though all three are critical, I want to hone in on the Bird Dog, as I believe it is the linchpin and the biggest gap I see in people's stability. The Bird Dog is a very remedial, entry level stability exercise. Just like with any movement, we should be progressing (or regressing) the movement. How do you progress in stability and illicit the intended adaption for the individual? Easy, manipulate two factors: base of support and center of mass. We want to create a less stable internal environment to resist force. If the Bird Dog is held in a quadruped position, we can challenge this by going to a bear crawl, which manipulates both base of support and center of mass. From there, we can progress to a standing contralateral Romanian Deadlift (RDL) or a suitcase carry. 

There are a lot of reasons why individuals have difficulty self-organizing through the transverse plane (rotation) but you don't get better at anti-rotation by just doing more reps of the Bird Dog or holding the Bird Dog for longer. We should all be taking stability seriously, progressing this stimulus will ultimately help lower to the risk of injury through the lumbar and putting more weight on the bar.