Any workout move that has you lying on your stomach may sound way too easy. But the Superman exercise is anything but—providing a muscle-trembling challenge and full-body benefits that are truly no joke.
There are several variations of this no-equipment move (which you may have seen before in yoga classes, Pilates, or bodyweight strength workouts), but the one we’re talking about here involves lying face down with your arms extended in front of you and legs straight out behind you. Then, you lift your limbs off the ground and, voilà, you’re in the pose. (If you picture the namesake comic book character in flight, you’ll understand where the exercise gets its title.)
“It’s a fun one,” Nicole Haas, PT, DPT, founder of Boulder Physiolab in Boulder, tells SELF. Not only does the Superman fire up important backside muscles, but it also technically checks the box for core strength work.
Here, we dig into all that this mighty move has to offer, including which muscles it targets, the full-body benefits, common form mistakes to avoid, how to weave it into your routine, and step-by-step instructions for doing it correctly. So unfurl your yoga mat and get ready to move like Clark Kent.
What muscles does the Superman work?
The Superman is a bodyweight exercise that really fires up your posterior chain—a.k.a. the back of your body, Dr. Haas says. In particular, it hits your erector spinae, a group of muscles that help arch your spine and run down the length of it, all the way from your neck to your lower back, Haas says. It also works your glutes and hamstrings, as well as your posterior deltoids (rear shoulder muscles), she adds.
Depending on how you do the exercise, you can also target the multifidus, a group of low back muscles that help stabilize the spine. To get more specific, if you lift your arms and legs just a couple of inches off the ground and focus on really lengthening through your back—extending from the crown of your head all the way to your feet—you’ll activate your multifidus, Dr. Haas says. You can also fire up this player by lifting up just one arm and the opposite leg at a time (for example, your right arm and left leg, or left arm and right leg, similar to the bird dog exercise). In that scenario, the multifidus kicks on to prevent your spine from rotating, Dr. Haas explains, which is what it naturally wants to do when you’re moving just one upper-body and one lower-body limb at a time.
Keep in mind if you raise your arms and legs higher, you’re not necessarily engaging more muscles or doing an advanced version of the move—it just means you have greater range of motion in back extension, Dr. Haas explains. In fact, for some people, keeping their limbs closer to the ground will deliver more of a challenge.
What are the benefits of the Superman?
The Superman probably isn’t what you envision when you picture core exercises—chances are, moves like crunches, sit-ups, or planks more readily come to mind—but it technically is a core move. That’s because your core isn’t just about your abs (those frontside torso muscles): It also includes the ones in your lower back. And for your core strength to be as well-rounded as possible, it’s important that all these muscles get worked, which is where the Superman can come in clutch, especially if you typically just do crunch-type ab moves. In particular, building lower back strength can help you stabilize better as you perform bigger moves, like squats, allowing you to do them more effectively and safely.
