Going to keep this one brief today, because………..
I’m going on vacation.
Well, that, and my girlfriend is going to kill me when she calls me in a few minutes to check in and realizes I have yet to pack even though our plane leaves in like four hours. But, really, all I need to do is throw some shorts, sandles, and sunscreen into my bag and I’m good to go. I travel light.
And, while I won’t actually be on a boat; where I’m going (Florida), I’ll definitely see one – so this video is dedicated to everyone who won’t be going with me.
Okay, so, today’s exercise is one that I feel gives trainees a lot for their training buck. In addition, assuming you train at a gyn that doesn’t suck (Read: has a sled) you should be able to implement this one into your programming right away. If you pay $10 per month to workout at Planet Fitness, sorry – you’re out of luck.
What Is It: Lateral Sled Drags
What Does It Do: The obvious advantage to this exercise is the fact that it trains lateral movement. Generally speaking, we’re a very linear society, so this exercise provides a nice change of pace and allows us to train single leg strength – albeit in a more lateral fashion, which changes things dramatically.
What’s more, there’s also a huge hip internal/external rotation component, as well as grip strength, conditionng, and overall badassnesses. Seriosuly, this is a waaaaaay cooler than puttering around on an elliptical machine.
Key Coaching Cues: Frist off, you want to make sure you grip the handle has hard as you can, which in turn (through a process called irradiation) will force the rotator cuff to fire and pack the shoulder back (providing more stability to the joint. If you’re not careful, you can really crank on your shoulder and piss it off – so grip tha handle HARD!
Too, you want to think about staying low and stepping across the midline of your body, “pushing” yourself away from the floor. Effectively, you want to drive yourself away from the floor, not just “side shuffle” across like Goldilocks.
You can either go for a set distance or a certain # of repeitions per leg. Just make sure that you face the same direction in both directions so you train both legs equally.
Okay, I’m out. I’ll be updating the blog while I’m away, but probably won’t be participating too much. Toodles!
