Superman exercise: how to do it, easier and harder versions, and what the studies measured

The superman is a floor exercise for the back of your body. You lie face down, lift your arms, chest and legs off the floor together, hold, and lower. It needs a mat and nothing else, and it works the muscles along your spine, the erector spinae and the deeper multifidus.

The bench version of the same idea is the back extension, a hinge you can load; the hands-and-knees partner is the bird dog. This page covers the steps, the faults, what the studies measured, the superman against the bench, the easier and harder versions, and the sets.

How to do the superman

1. Lie face down on a mat with your legs straight and your arms reaching long overhead, forehead near the floor and neck in line with your spine.
2. Squeeze your glutes lightly to set your hips.
3. Lift your arms, chest and legs a few inches off the floor at the same time, smoothly. Keep looking at the floor just ahead of your hands.
4. Hold for a second or two, breathing.
5. Lower slowly to the floor. That's one rep.

These are coaching cues, not study findings. A few inches is enough.

What the studies measured

All four studies here measured the back muscles during the exercise, by electrical activity or by ultrasound thickness. That describes a set, not what the exercise builds over weeks.

• How hard the back muscles work. In three groups of about 30 adults aged 21 to 35, the lumbar multifidus and the longissimus thoracis, two back muscles, were most active during a prone lumbar extension to end range with resistance applied, above 92% of a maximal contraction. The superman was one of three exercises, with a prone extension to neutral and a resisted seated extension, that produced 77 to 82%. Bridging and the side bridge stayed under 50%.¹
• Against a squat. In 10 young adults, erector spinae activity in the superman matched that of the front squat, with no significant difference, and was greater than in the back squat, the military press and the prone bridge, with the squats and the press done at the light-to-moderate loads the authors describe.²
• Against heavy lifts. In 16 people, lower-back muscle activity in a squat at 80% of a one-rep max exceeded the superman's by 65.5%, and upper-lumbar activity in a deadlift at 80% exceeded it by 69.3%. Abdominal and oblique activity didn't change significantly across the exercises.³
• Arms, legs or both. In 21 recreational athletes, the multifidus, a deep back muscle, was thicker on ultrasound when the arms and legs lifted together than in a single arm lift, a single leg lift or three bird-dog variations. It was thicker in leg lifts than in arm lifts.⁴

Read together: the superman is a real back exercise by these measures, but heavy lifts beat it, and at light-to-moderate loads it matched a front squat. Lifting arms and legs together gave a thicker multifidus than either alone. No trial that trained people with the superman and measured anything over weeks turned up in a PubMed search for this page, and this page makes no claim about back pain, posture or the health of your back.

Superman, back extension or bird dog?

They are different tools. The back extension sets your hips on a pad so you hinge from the hips, and you can add a plate once reps are easy; the superman has no pad, no hinge and no easy way to add load. Use the superman when you have a mat and no bench, and the bench when you want to add weight (practical advice, not a study result). The bird dog trains holding a flat, level body while one arm and the opposite leg reach; in the thickness study above, the superman with arms and legs lifted gave a thicker multifidus than the bird-dog variations did, but that is one muscle measured one way. The core workout cites the heavy-lift comparison above.

The common faults, and a fix for each

• Craning your neck up. Look at the floor just ahead of your hands; your neck stays in line with your spine.
• Lifting as high as possible. A few inches, smoothly. Higher doesn't mean more.
• Swinging. If you throw your arms or legs up, shorten the lift and slow down.
• Only the legs or only the arms coming up. Lift together, or use a step from the ladder below.
• Holding your breath. Breathe steadily through the hold.

Easier and harder versions

The ladder follows the thickness study above, where arm lifts alone were lowest, leg lifts next, and arms and legs together highest. The holds and positions are practical:

1. Arms only: legs stay down, lift your arms and chest a few inches.
2. Legs only: arms stay down, lift both legs a few inches.
3. The full superman, arms, chest and legs together, with a one- or two-second hold.
4. Longer holds: three to five seconds, still smooth.

No study of a weighted superman turned up in the search, so this page doesn't add weights. For more load, the bench version is the back extension.

Sets, holds and where it goes

• Two or three sets of 6 to 10 lifts with a one- to two-second hold, or three holds of 10 to 20 seconds, stopping while every rep is still smooth. These numbers are practical, not from a study.
• At the end of a session, after your main lifts, in the core block beside a plank and a dead bug, or in the core slot of the full-body workout plan.
• On a day with no bench, in place of the back extension as a hinge-free back exercise.
• Progress one step at a time, and write down the version and the reps. (Progressive overload covers the options.)

Common questions

Does the superman work the glutes?

None of the studies above measured the glutes in a superman, so this page makes no claim. The glute bridge is the floor glute exercise.

What does the superman train?

The studies measured muscle activity along the lower spine during the exercise, and the thickness of one deep back muscle. This page makes no claim about back pain, posture or the health of your back; if you have pain, an injury or a medical condition, ask a doctor or a physical therapist first.

Can I add weight?

No study of a weighted superman turned up. If you want to add weight, use the bench version.

If you'd rather have the week planned

Deciding whether your week needs floor back work, a bench hinge or neither is the part a page can't do. Coaching is the version where your workouts live in Trainerize, built around the days you actually have, and a weekly call looks at the week you just had and sets the next one. Here's how coaching works, and apply is the first step. Otherwise: at the end of your next session, do two sets of eight smooth supermans with a one-second hold, and write down the version.