The Exercise You Should Be Doing #3
The 2-KB racked Slide Board Lateral Lunge
Whether it’s to improve athletic performance, reduce injury risk, improve movement quality, want to exercise, or chase down fly balls in beer league softball games, getting out of the sagittal plane (front-to-back) is a must. In particular, training to build lower body strength and stability in the frontal plane (side-to-side) is especially important.
✅ While lateral sled drags are a staple, slide board lateral lunges (with 2 racked KBs racked for all the gains) are another one of my frontal plane go-to’s for the lower half.
📝 What separates them from regular lateral lunges – the slide board – is the real difference maker. Not only does the slide board encourage the the adductors to work throughout the movement’s entire range of motion (ROM), but also forces a strong “pull” through the adductor group to return to the starting point, rather than the “push” that occurs during regular lateral lunges. This pulling action is hugely beneficial since it targets eccentric strength (and stability) in the frontal plane, as opposed to regular lateral lunges which mostly train concentric strength.
🤙🏻 Slide board lateral lunges also challenge lateral hip stability to the nth degree and provide a huge “authentic” stretch throughout the adductors, all the while forcing the stationary leg to control the full ROM, decelerate under control, own the end-range position, and pull back to the starting position. Plus, they’re self-policing in a sense as any deviation in positioning or loss of control will result in a hitch or take away from the movement’s smoothness.
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