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Lower back, upper back, neck and hips

Locust: Classic

Strengthens your entire posterior chain: the muscles along your back, glutes, and hamstrings, without any load on your wrists, building the power that supports your spine.

Stability / Core20 to 60 seconds
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How to do it

  1. 1

    Lie face down with arms alongside your body

    Forehead on the mat, legs straight and hip width, palms facing in toward your thighs.

  2. 2

    Lift chest, arms and both legs together

    On an out breath, take all of it up at once. The arms lift too and reach back toward your heels, rather than resting on the floor as in the lighter version.

  3. 3

    Keep both legs long and even

    Reach out through both heels so the legs lift from the hips. Knees stay straight instead of bending to gain height.

  4. 4

    Look down, with the neck in line

    Gaze at the mat just in front of you rather than lifting the chin toward the wall.

  5. 5

    Hold for 20 to 60 seconds, then lower

    If the full lift is a lot today, keep the whole thing low, or lift one leg at a time. Come down slowly and rest.

What to watch for

Bending the knees and kicking the feet up to gain height, which loads one small area low in the back instead of sharing the work along it. Come down if the effort pools in one spot, or if anything starts travelling further down a leg.

Ways to adjust it

  • Low Locust
  • Arms alongside
  • Gaze down cue
  • Single leg

If this one is too much today

Try the gentler version instead. It asks less of you and does much the same work.

Other ways to do this movement

Every version below is the same movement set up differently, so one of them usually suits. See all Locust Pose versions in one place, ordered from gentlest to strongest.

Before you try it

Move within a range that stays comfortable. Stop if this brings on sharp pain, dizziness, or symptoms that travel down an arm or a leg, and speak to a clinician before repeating it.

One movement is a start. A session is the thing.

A few questions about your body and how it is today, and Vinys builds a session around it, including which movements to leave out.

Start your first session

From the clinically authored Vinys movement library.