Today’s focus was on “anti lateral flexion" accessory exercises. Anti lateral flexion is a fancy way of describing the maintenance of a completely straight spine (not allowing it to bend to the side). Looking at the below diagram of a human flag, you notice that you will need to be very strong at anti lateral flexion if you plan to perform the feat with success.
Regardless if you are flag training or not, anti lateral flexion is a productive movement to train…
- It will help you develop a bulletproof midsection.
- It will keep your spine healthy.
- It will teach you to properly align your hips to your torso.
- It will encourage you to produce tension and transfer force throughout your entire body.
- It will even help with balance and coordination.
To train anti lateral flexion, you will need to have only one side of your body loaded. This is what challenges your system to remain absolutely neutral: do not let the weight pull you toward the loaded side, and don't over compensate by leaning toward the un-loaded side. An indication that you are bracing against lateral flexion correctly, is that your shoulders appear to be level with the horizon. The below video contains exercises that fall into the category of anti lateral flexion. Give these a try and tell me what you think!
I presume that anyone who understands this type of loading, also understands that you must “even out” on the other side of the body. For example, If you do 10 reps with the right side loaded, make sure to do 10 reps with the left loaded up.
:10 mark…suitcase deadlift
:29 mark…suitcase reverse lunge
:35 mark…”bindle” reverse lunge (with more of the bar to the front) doing this created extra anti flexion (in the saggital plane).
:46 mark…”bindle” reverse lunge (with more of the bar to the back)
:51 mark…single arm overhead press
1:01 mark…single arm push press (maybe this is more of a push jerk)
1:20 mark…single arm DB hold (looks easy, but try holding a heavy dumbbell for a minute on each side…if it still seems easy, you aren't using enough weight!)
I still need help with names. Do these names accurately depict the exercises shown in the video?
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