CategoriesExercises You Should Be Doing

Exercises You Should Be Doing: KB Lateral Lunge with Pulse

Some of you may recall an exercise I featured a year or two ago that I stole from Dan John called the Goblet Squat with Pulse.  For those who may need a gentle reminder you can click HERE to get the gist.

Similarly, today’s exercise takes the same “pulse” concept yet adds a slight modification in the form of a lateral lunge (and some pretty sweet techno in the background).

KB Lateral Lunge with Pulse

Who Did I Steal it From:  Well I guess by extension Dan John, but given I haven’t yet seen this tweak anywhere else on the interwebz, Cressey Performance is calling dibs on this one.

Bitches!

What Does It Do:  I love this exercise for people with short or stiff adductors for obvious reasons, but really this is a fantastic exercise for just about anyone as it gets them out of their comfort zone in the sagittal plane. Moreover, the pulse component adds a significant anti-flexion flavor into the mix that Ben & Jerry can’t touch, not to mention, by association, helps encourage people to maintain more t-spine extension which is never a bad thing.

Key Coaching Cues: First of all don’t be a hero and automatically reach for the 24 kg kettlebell, because that ain’t gonna happen. As far as weight selection goes, I’d start on the conservative side – the lighter the better.

One major point to dive into is how to perform a lateral lunge.  Many people make the mistake of stepping to the left or right and allowing their knee to translate too far forward over their toes.  Now I’m not one of those alarmist who feels that the knees should never go past the toes (try walking up a flight of stairs without that happening, or play a sport), but in this scenario I coach people to make their step/lunge to either side and to SIT BACK into the hip.

The knee is obviously going to come forward slightly, but the heel should stay DOWN and glued to the floor at all times. If anything, the tibia (lower leg) should stay a bit more vertical, but if you’re making an effort to sit back into the hip this shouldn’t be an issue.

Once in the bottom position, press the KB out in front of you until your arms are fully extended (elbows locked out), and pause for 1-2 second count.

Bring the KB back towards your torso, return back to the starting position and repeat for the desired amount of repetitions.

I generally shoot for anywhere from 6-8 reps per side.

For those who don’t have access to kettlebells, you should still be able to perform this exercise with a standard dumbbell.  Except in this case you’ll have to hold the DB with both hands wrapped around the handle.  It’s a bit more cumbersome, but doable.

And there you have it.  Try it today and let me know what you think!

CategoriesUncategorized

Exercises You Should Be Doing: Lateral Sled Drags

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!