Written by Shane Mclean | ACE CPT
Fact checked by Kirsten Yovino, CPT Brookbush Institute
FACT CHECKED
Back extensions are a great exercise to train the lower back, glutes and hamstrings. Together, these muscles are the foundation of a strong lower body and good posture, so it's important to train them as a unit, which the back extension does beautifully.
Be that as it may, it's not the only effective exercise for training the posterior chain, and the low back in particular. Having a wide selection of exercises in your arsenal is always beneficial, whether that's to switch things up or simply because you don't have access to certain equipment, such as a hyperextension bench. Variety is an essential element of progression.
On that note, we put together the 9 best back extension alternatives that work the same muscles. Let's strengthen that low back and posterior chain!
Contents:
- What exactly is a back extension
- Back extension muscles worked
- What makes for a good back extension alternative
- 9 best alternatives to back extensions
WHAT IS A BACK EXTENSION EXERCISE?
When people refer to back extensions, they typically mean a back extension done on a hyperextension bench. The hyperextension bench allows you to stabilize your lower body while you hinge at the hips, lowering and raising your upper body against resistance. Each time you raise your upper body back up, you are performing a back extension.
The reason it is called a "hyperextension" bench is because you can extend your hips a little past neutral against resistance (the resistance being your bodyweight going against gravity). This causes maximum contraction of the low back, glutes and hamstrings.
While the hyperextension bench is the most common option for back extensions, it is not the only way to do back extensions. There are various ways to do back extensions, such as from a regular weight bench or even the floor.
However, the hyperextension bench is arguably the best choice for strengthening the lower back via back extension. This because it's a quick set up and you can easily load the movement to progress beyond just bodyweight resistance. You can do this by simply holding a weight plate, dumbbell, or a band attached to the base. What's more, the hyperextension bench allows you to move through a greater range of motion.
Nevertheless, back extensions of any sort are good for lower back workouts and a way to strengthen and improve muscle development of the posterior chain. Doing so can give more complex movements, like squats or deadlifts, a nice boost, as well as improve your spinal/core strength and posture.
BACK EXTENSION MUSCLES WORKED
The main muscles trained by back extensions are the hamstrings, glutes, and erector spinae - with emphasis being on the erector spinae.
- Erector Spinae: These three muscles work isometrically, eccentrically, and concentrically to stop the spine from rounding and for the stability of your lumbar spine. A strong erector spinae will allow the glutes and hamstrings to work better and handle more volume.
- Hamstrings: Assist the glutes in extending your hips, and in the case of the hyperextension, extending your body back or even a little past neutral. During a hyperextension, the hamstrings will get great stretching tension (eccentric contraction), which is one of the best ways to strengthen them.
- Glutes: The glutes extend and hyperextend the hips by bringing your torso up from the floor. The glutes will get really good contraction at the top as your hips come to neutral, and due to the positioning of your body, that contraction is happening against resistance, which is why a lot of people (woman in particular) use the hyperextension bench as a glute-specific exercise.
Note: Although the hamstrings and glutes are trained effectively, back extensions are as close of an isolation exercise as you can get for the lower back.
THE BENEFITS OF TRAINING THE BACK EXTENSION EXERCISE
- Better Posture: A stronger lower back with good endurance plays an important role in keeping a good standing posture and for keeping a neutral spine during exercises that compress the spine. For example, squats and deadlifts.
- Posterior Chain Muscle Development: The hyperextension provides a large ROM to work through so you'll maximize stretching contraction in the working muscles during the eccentric phase before maximizing contraction tension in the concentric phase, which gives you better muscle-building potential. Plus, this is a versatile exercise that can be loaded in several ways to further enhance your gains.
- Reduced Low Back Pain: Improving glute strength and hip mobility with exercise like the back extension will help keep low back pain at bay. Training these factors means the lower back doesn’t pick up any slack because of limited hip mobility and glute strength, and thus improves your chances of not injuring your lower back. Moreover, a strong low back and glutes means better core and spinal stability, which also reduces risk of injury.
- Improved Knee and Ankle Health: Strengthening the lower back, glutes, and hamstrings improves posterior strength and hip mobility. Both help with better knee stability and ankle mobility because these joints will not need to compensate for a lack of hip mobility.
- Lower Back Strength: The lower back muscles plays an important role in keeping the spine neutral and help your spine maintain integrity under load. Particularly with exercises that put a load on the spine like squats and deadlifts. The lower back helps resist spinal flexion which can happen under a compressive load. Back extensions, when done with good form, adds strength so you can eliminate low back pain from when doing squats and deadlifts.
WHAT MAKES A GOOD BACK EXTENSION ALTERNATIVE?
Back extensions work the lower back, glutes and hamstrings as a unit, they are easy to perform and can be loaded for progression (making them suitable for all levels), and they provide a major benefit of strengthening the lower back...As such, a good alternative must be very similar on these fronts:
- Works the lower back in concert with either the hamstrings, glutes or both.
- Works for all fitness levels and can be loaded for progression.
- Has an adequate range of motion.
- Emphasizes building lower back strength.
9 BEST BACK EXTENSION ALTERNATIVES
Here are the 9 best back extension alternatives to work the same muscles and provide very similar benefits:
1. Barbell Good Morning
The barbell good morning works the body very similar to the back extension, making it a great alternative exercise. There is one catch though, if you have poor shoulder mobility or lower back pain, it is best to go with other alternatives on this list, or at least start very light. Overall, this is a great exercise as it puts the lower back, glutes, and hamstrings through a large range of motion for better muscle-building potential. The major difference between this and a hyperextension is that when squeezing the glutes at the top (neutral spine), you are not contracting against resistance.
How to:
- Get under a loaded barbell that’s set in a squat rack.
- Set up the same way you would for a back squat and walk backward a few steps.
- Keeping your knees soft, hinge at the hips while keeping your chest up and shoulders down. Continue hinging at the hips, lowering your torso down while maintaining a straight back. Stop before your form breaks (at most this will be when your upper body is parallel with the floor).
- Reverse the lift by contracting your lower back and extending your hips (push them forward) until you return to the starting position.
- Reset and repeat.
Best rep range: 6-15
2. Machine Reverse Hyperextensions
Reverse hyperextensions can be done with a variety of equipment, but for this one, we are demonstrating with a reverse hyper machine. The targeted muscles are similar to the back extension, except the movement is reversed - your upper body is stabile why your lower body moves up and down. Either way, this exercise is also excellent for building strength and muscle in your posterior while improving lower back stability. It's also great for decompressing the spine!
Note: You can do this same movement with a Glute Ham Developer (GHD) machine. If you don't have access to either, don't worry as we have some other reverse hyper variations for you below. The good thing about the reverse hyper machine is that it is made to load with weights, but for most beginners, your bodyweight alone is more than enough to start.
How to:
- Lie prone on the hyperextension machine. Your legs should be hanging off the end, leg straight. Your body will make a 90 degree angle from the starting position.
- Engage your core using your hips and hamstrings to raise your legs behind you to above the hips. Bring your legs up as high as you comfortably can go. You should feel an intense muscle contraction in your glutes and hamstrings.
- Pause for one second and slowly return to the starting position.
- Repeat for reps.
Best rep range: 8-20
3. Bird Dogs
Bird dogs are often dismissed as a legitimate exercise because they are "easy", and people often butcher the movement thinking more range of motion is better. However, when the bird dog is performed correctly, it strengthens your core, lower back, glutes, and hamstrings very effectively, while improving spinal stability and anti-rotation strength too, which is essential for when you are doing heavy barbell lifts or any kind of high impact sport. This is a fantastic bodyweight, low back endurance exercise that goes a long way in keeping back pain at bay too. You can even add resistance to it with bands.
How to:
- Get into a six-point stance with your hands, knees, and toes on the ground. Your knees should be underneath your hips and your hands underneath your shoulders.
- Find your neutral spine and keep this during the entire movement. You should only feel this in your back, glutes and hamstrings.
- Raise your left arm and right leg straight out, and extend without overarching the lower back. Pause for a second.
- Then return to the starting position.
- Do all the reps on one side or alternate sides each rep.
Best rep range: 10-15
4. Superman
The superman is essentially a back extension on the floor but with your arms extended forward (hence the name). This exercise does a great job of strengthening the lower back, as well as the glutes and hamstrings. Your lower back keeps your chest and hands off the ground as you extend your spine, and together with your glutes and hamstrings, your lower extremities off the ground. Although it’s only a small range of motion, it's a surprisingly challenging and effective isometric-based exercise.
How to:
- Lay face down comfortably on a mat (or floor if you don't mind), forehead flat on the ground with arms and legs outstretched in front and behind you.
- Then raise your hands and feet approx. 4 to 5 inches off the floor while keeping your anterior core on the ground.
- Hold this raised position for three seconds and then lower your hands and feet slowly back to the floor.
- Repeat for reps.
Best rep range: 8-15
5. Glute Ham Raise
The glute ham raise exercise is a great bodyweight movement that strengthens the hamstrings and glutes. For this one, the movement occurs at the knees, with the hamstrings doing most of the work isotonically and the lower back working isometrically to keep the spine stable and neutral. In other words, the hamstrings will be lengthening and contracting while the erector spinae contracts without movement. All in all, the glute-ham raise will develop a strong low back and eccentric strength in the hamstrings to help prevent hamstring injuries. When bodyweight is mastered, this can be progressed easily with load just like a hyperextension can.
How to:
- Put your feet on the GHD platform with your shins pressed up against the pad your quads should be just above the pad.
- Cross your arms over your chest and keep your shoulders down and chest up.
- Lean your torso forward until your quads are parallel with the floor and the legs and body are aligned.
- Return to the top position and pause for a second and repeat for reps.
Best rep range: 6-12
If you don't have a GHD machine, we have alternatives for the glute ham raise too!
6. Kettlebell Swing
Kettlebell swings train similar muscles to the back extension but with two important advantages. Unlike the other exercise on this list, the kettlebell trains the posterior muscles explosively, which directly translates into powerful movements in areas like sports and big lifts. What's more, kettlebell swings are really a total body endurance exercise. It's going to burn a ton of calories AND work stabilizer muscles from the ground up.
How to:
- Stand a little wider than shoulder-width apart, with the kettlebell in front of you, in the center of your stance.
- Hinge down to take a firm grip of the kettlebell and squeeze your armpits and get your chest up. Make sure you aren't arching your spine, keep it straight.
- Hike the kettlebell behind you and thrust your hips forward, using this momentum to swing the kettlebell forward.
- Finish by squeezing your glutes and quads and not by raising the kettlebell with your arms.
- Repeat in a continuous loop for reps.
Best rep range: 10-50
7. Stability Ball Reverse Hyper Extension
The stability ball reverse hyper movement is like the machine reverse hyper above. It trains the lower back, glutes, and hamstring, but with a twist - the unstable ball makes you really focus on your technique. In other words, it makes dealing with just your bodyweight a lot harder, requiring your low back, glutes and hammies to really work. It's a great alternative to back extensions.
How to:
- Place the stability ball on the weight bench and put your stomach on the ball with your hips off the ball.
- Take a firm grip of the bench on either side and with your legs straight and take the time to find your balance.
- Then raise your legs off the ground until the glutes are fully contracted.
- Slowly return your legs until your toes touch the ground.
- Reset and repeat for reps.
Best rep range: 8-15
8. Bench Reverse Hyperextension
This reverse hyper variation involves a weight bench. The downside to this variation is the range of motion is a little restricted due to the heigh of the bench. However, you can stack some plates (carefully) underneath the base to raise it up, or simply perform the reverse hyper with an added knee flexion/extension each rep (bend your knees as your legs come down, and straighten your legs as you extend up - this will make the exercise considerably harder). If you want to increase resistance, hold a dumbbell between your feet.
How to:
- Lie prone on a weight bench so the bottom of your hips is at the end of the weight bench. Take a firm grip on either side of the bench for stability.
- Lower your legs down while keeping them straight and together.
- When your toes almost touch the floor, lift your legs up as high as you can without over-extending your lower back. Your legs are straight throughout the exercise.
- Squeeze your glutes at the top and repeat.
Note: If you have a very strong and stable adjustable bench, you can also perform this exercise with the bench at an incline, which would give you a larger range of motion.
Best rep range: 10-20
9. Barbell Romanian Deadlift
The Romanian deadlift (RDL) should be a staple in everyone's training program. It's a great exercise for isolating the hamstrings, glutes and low back, and it has great carryover carry over to your regular deadlift because of the increased time under tension on your posterior muscles. While one could consider it a great alternative to back extensions, it is actually ideal to do both. RDLs emphasize the hamstrings, while back extensions emphasize the low back. A match made in posterior-chain-building-heaven.
How to:
- Stand tall with your feet hip-distance apart and take an overhand grip of the barbell in front of the thighs.
- Keeping your chest up and shoulders packed, take in a deep breath and hip hinge until the barbell is below your knees. Your spine should not arch forward, keep it straight by squeezing your shoulder blades together.
- The barbell should be almost touching your body during the entire movement. It's a straight up and down bar path.
- Pause for a second and exhale and return to the starting position.
- Repeat for reps.
Best rep range: 6-12
Programming Tips:
How you program the exercises exactly is going to depend on what kind of workouts you do. For example, do you do full body workouts or a training split like an upper/lower program?
Either way, in nutshell, aim for around 10 sets of hamstring-glute-low-back focused exercises per week. We recommend doing two bigger exercises like good mornings and RDLs and one or two bodyweight or light resistance exercises like back extensions, reverse hypers, or bird dogs per week.
If you don't like planning your own programs, check out these articles as they will direct you to exactly what you need to be doing (and if back extensions come up, you know what exercises can replace them!):
Shane Mclean
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