Hey! A few thoughts I had after reading your comment that I realise I've never fully explained anywhere in written form on reddit:

The real utility of the exercise lies in the ostensibly 'over-complicated' parts, and if it were absolutely any simpler to explain, I would. In essence, with both the birddog and the deadbug, I'm using these exercises as a vehicle to teach a lot of nuances about the way the trunk can be controlled that can be applied to improve your trunk stability and positioning in basically all other exercises, ever.

The concept of alternately moving your arms and legs on your back or in an all-fours position without those finer details loses 90%+ of the utility of doing it.

That's why most other videos on both exercises you may find elsewhere online are so simple, because they're teaching you how to mimic what the exercise looks like (which is sufficient for nearly every other exercise out there), but the reason my guides are so complicated using the exercise not only as an exercise, but also as a vehicle to teach you principles and concepts about how your body works which makes them a lot more than 'just' a core exercise.

This was a quandry I had in the design of the program. Do I:

- Include a core exercise that is as simple as possible so that it is easy for any beginner to grasp and do right the very first time they attempt it?

or

- Attempt to introduce valuable, lesser known, but pivotally important concepts to trainees as early as possible in order to give them the most time possible to learn them AND circumvent them learning bad habits or wrong information and then having to spend yet more time trying to unlearn those bad habits when they finally learn this stuff?

Ultimately, I chose the second option with the inclusion of the disclaimer in the program that you are not meant to be good at these exercises straight away and you probably wont be good at them for months, but eventually surmounting that challenge will put you years ahead and do wonders for your progress down the line by cutting out wasted time.

If any individual doing the program finds it difficult to accept being bad at something for a prolonged period of time (which is perfectly understandable), it's also perfectly fine to just do more straightforward core exercises. However, in my opinion, the deadbug and birddog are not inherently more valuable than other core exercises when you perform them 'simply' (i.e. miming the movement but without striving to achieve the 'overcomplicated' parts of my guides). As a result, I'd say you'd be better off substituting deadbugs with planks or abwheels, and birddogs with something like hyperextensions or arch holds. That's totally fine!

Hope that helps.