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The lateral lunge is important because it emphasizes the entire lateral stability system and can be used as part of the warmup or at the end of the day. It can be done every day because it’s looking to elongate and activate the fascia in the lateral plane.
The Set up
When setting up, you want to think about spiraling yourself down into the ground. The way you do this is you block your outer knee with your hand. You don’t want to drift laterally, and you don’t want to roll over your outside foot. To do this, think about a drill that’s boring into the ground rotationally. The way that you do that is you’re just blocking that outside leg, and that allows that upper body to rotate around a fixed point.
Recommendation is to perform this exercise every day for three reps each.
The muscles in the areas we’re focusing on are often referred to as the anterior oblique sling. Those are the adductors, the groin, the obliques, which is the lateral trunk area. You shouldn’t be feeling it in your pecs or your arms. The way to avoid that is not to look down and don’t just reach with your hand. One of the reasons that this becomes important is that life is often linear, front to back. Therefore, the adductors or your knee, that groin area, spirals around, providing that pelvic stability.
Over time, if you’re not doing things like this, you can pick up microtraumas and start to have some dull groin pain. Whether it’s going downstairs or any day movement that involves these decelerations, and more active activities, like throwing overhead movements, that’s when this becomes an issue because of the tighter trunk and hip region. This makes it difficult for you to disassociate the lower from the upper body. And that results, a lot of times, in oblique injuries. The best recommendation is to do this every day for three reps. Each rep can be five seconds or more, making it harder by having a wider stance. Generally, individuals that have a lower plank score are the ones that could benefit most from this type of movement.
Some areas that often go wrong
Rolling over on the outside foot
Watch out for drifting laterally and rolling over on that outside foot.
Keep your head from looking down
You shouldn’t be feeling it in your pecs or your arms. The way to avoid this is not to look down and don’t just reach with your hand.
Conclusion
The best way to do this type of movement is every day for three reps each. Generally, individuals that have a lower plank score are the ones that could benefit most from this type of movement. Want to make the exercise more challenging, widen your stance.
Regardless of the training day, utilizing the Lateral Lunge is a must-add to your warmup routine.