Lift Clinic Team

4 Exercises to Improve Extension Strength in the Body

Posted on January 13, 2023

Optimize your extension strength with Lift Clinic’s team of Vancouver physio, chiro, RMT and strength coaches!

Full body extension is one of the many assessments we perform during our full body screen. This movement requires adequate mobility from your upper back, lower back, and hips. These movements are essential for everyday tasks and athletic movements such as jumping.

Read through this post to learn about strengthening exercise that our physiotherapists, chiropractors, RMTs, and kinesiologists to improve extension strength, power, and coordination throughout the body.

This post is a continuation of our blog series on our full body assessment. If you haven’t already, visit our blog page to learn more about how we assess and treat other movements in the body.

For any given movement pattern, our treatment approach follows 4 primary steps:

Techniques used to test ranges of motion and find the root causes of limitations

Hands on treatment techniques used to improve & restore limited range of motion

Exercises or self treatments that help maintain the gains made from the reset techniques.

Exercises that develop strength, resilience, and coordination for the desired movement pattern.

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4 reload exercises to improve full body extension:

1) Single leg glute bridge

Glute bridges are a great exercise to train hip extension and target the glutes. The single leg variations makes the exercise more difficult and can help to address imbalances between sides.

2) Barbell deadlift

Deadlifts are a classic exercise to train the entire posterior chain, including the glutes, hamstrings, back extensors, and lats. These muscles are all important for extension movements in the body.

Book an appointment to optimize your full body extension

3) Barbell hip thrust

Similar to the glute bridge, this exercise targets the glutes and trains hip extension. Adding a barbell allows additional load to be placed on the glute muscles.

4) Banded reverse nordic curl

Reverse nordic curls eccentrically load the quadriceps muscles. This helps to lengthen the quad muscles which can help to improve hip extension range of motion.

What's next?

Congratulations, you’ve completed the final component of treatment and exercise for full body extension. Now that you can perform at 100%, go on and use these new mobility and strength gains to chase your goals!

If you haven’t already, check out our assessment, reset, reinforce, and reload posts in this series!

Meet Lift Clinic - a team of Vancouver Physiotherapy, Chiropractic and RMT Massage Therapy practitioners who believe in strength and movement for life.

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Lift Clinic is located in East Vancouver at 4030 Knight St. Our team of Vancouver physiotherapists, chiropractors, massage therapists, and strength coaches is ready to help you reach your goals as efficiently as possible! Click Book Now to get started, or Contact Us if you have any questions or would like to speak directly to a Vancouver physio, chiro or RMT about your situation before you book.