Some of our members struggle on the court with lower back pain. Canadian spine researcher Dr. Stuart McGill from the University of Waterloo is well known for his big 3 exercises for spine stabilization: the Bird Dog, the Curl Up and the Side Bridge. Here’s a squash take on these exercises and some variations.
Dave Benterud, co-owner of Tawa Physical Therapy has this to say about the McGill exercises:
“Stuart McGill has developed some great, well-researched exercises and I use them with my patients daily. For most patients, the beginner versions of these exercises provide a relatively safe starting point for core strengthening. One concern I have when giving McGill side planks to patients is the potential for developing a painful shoulder. The last thing you want to do when doing exercises to fix one problem is to end up with 2 problems.
“I also agree with this physiotherapist that exercising the core out of neutral and into different functional positions is safe and important for our daily lives and
