Lateral Lunges for Frontal Plane Mobility
Updated: Nov 25, 2020
Do you spend time moving in all three planes? Or, are you stuck living a strictly sagittal life? Do you build strength in all three planes? Can you complete a lateral lunge? Have you ever tried it with weight? Many of our dysfunctions occur as a result of the repetitive movements of daily life; things we don’t even think about. How do you get in and out of your car every day? What leg do you lead with when you walk up and down stairs? Do you carry a purse on one side of the body? How do you get on and off a bike? On a descent, which foot is forward? Do you have more of a power side or power leg? We need to make sure me move our bodies multi-directionally to maintain full mobility as we age and accumulate miles of volume in our sport. Remember, life and sport will skew you’re body in a given direction, it is YOUR responsibility to maintain and preserve your mobility and fight for a pain-free life. Don’t just log time in your sport, log time resetting your body. You only have one! Like they say, use it or lose it! Stay mobile and keep moving in all directions! ✌🏻
The Exercise: Lateral Lunges
As a refresher, there are three planes of movement: Sagittal, Frontal, and Transverse. We spend a lot of time and volume training in the sagittal plane, implementing forward and backward movements. Injuries tend to occur in the other two planes of motion or during transitions between planes. In order to properly build a body that is resilient, we need to train to be resilient to forces in all three planes of motion. We need to learn to generate and absorb force in a multiplanar fashion.
The Lateral Lunge is a frontal plane movement. In these photos, the movement is being used as part of the active dynamic warmup. It’s important to spend time preparing the body to move in all directions prior to activity.
Key Tips:
1. Make sure to drop the hips down and back.
2. Keep those heels on the ground!
3. Keep the head and chest up, you should be looking straight forward, not down.
4. Toes forward.
5. Maintain a flat back as you lunge, do not allow the back to round.