Superman
A back-focused exercise where you lie face down and lift your arms and legs off the floor.
Overview
The superman is a bodyweight exercise for the muscles along the back of the body. Lying face down with arms extended overhead, you lift your arms, chest and legs off the floor at the same time, hold briefly, then lower back down. The pose resembles flying, which gives it its name.
It works the lower back and glutes and complements the many front-focused core exercises. Small, controlled lifts are the goal — the movement is about a steady squeeze rather than height.
The movement
- 1Lie face down with your arms extended overhead and legs straight.
- 2Lift your arms, chest and legs off the floor together.
- 3Hold briefly while keeping the movement small and controlled.
- 4Lower back to the floor with control.
Beginner notes
- A small, controlled lift is the goal rather than maximum height.
- A brief pause at the top adds a steady squeeze.
- A useful counterbalance to front-focused core work.
A note on training information
Where it’s used
Sports this relates to:
Fitness
Strength and general fitness training — the foundation that supports every other sport.
Swimming
A full-body, low-impact endurance sport suitable for almost every age and ability.
Functional Fitness
Varied, whole-body training built around everyday movement patterns like squatting, lifting and carrying.
Related exercises
Squat
A foundational lower-body movement where you bend at the hips and knees to lower down and stand back up.
Goblet squat
A squat variation where you hold a single weight close to your chest for balance and control.
Jump squat
An explosive squat variation where you spring off the floor at the top of the movement.
Explore across the knowledge base
Follow the threads that connect Superman to the rest of SocialSportHub.
Movement patterns
- GlideGlide is continuous, low-resistance locomotion in which the body holds a streamlined shape so that momentum generated by a preceding propulsive action carries it smoothly across a surface or through a medium.
- ReachExtending a limb toward a distant point or object, often at full stretch, by projecting a distal segment beyond the body's resting envelope while a stabilised base preserves balance and control.
- HingeA hip-dominant pattern: bend forward at the hips with a flat back, minimal knee bend, then drive the hips tall — powers pulling from the floor and jumping.
Disciplines
- Freestyle WrestlingAn Olympic wrestling style where wrestlers may attack the legs and use holds below the waist to take down and pin their opponent.
- BackstrokeBackstroke is swum face-up with an alternating arm pull and flutter kick — the one competitive stroke where you breathe freely because your face stays out of the water.
- FreestyleFreestyle is the fastest swimming stroke, swum face-down with an alternating arm pull and flutter kick — the stroke most people picture when they think of swimming.
- Top-Rope ClimbingA roped format where the rope runs up to an anchor at the top of the route and back down, so the climber is held from above throughout the ascent.
- SnatchThe snatch is one of the two Olympic weightlifting lifts, taking the barbell from the platform to overhead in one continuous movement.
Goals
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How this page is maintained
- Content type
- Exercise
- Provenance
- Tier A — evergreen educational
- Verified external sources
- 0
- Content updated
- 2026-07-06
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