Prologue - Week 4

Lunging, Anti-Rotation, and planes of movement

This week is a bit of a wildcard.

Lunging is a staple movement that typically is uncomfortable for most, but in my experience adds a surplus of value over most other movements.

Ant-Rotation is just the opposite of what we did for core last week (rotation). Think of it as training to make your body an immovable object.

Lastly, we will introduce the Planes Of Movement. These will be the next step beyond the Primal Movements we’ve already been exploring. There are only three fortunately.

  • The Frontal Plane divides your body into a front half and back half.

    • Common Exercises for this plane are anything side-to-side like side lunges, or a side plank.

  • The Transverse Plane divides your Botton into a bottom half and top half.

    • Common Exercises for this plane are rotations like Russian twists, and chops.

  • The Saggital Plane divides your left and right sides.

    • Common exercises for this plane are basically anything forward/backward or up/down, making this by far the most common plane to move in. (lunges, squats, curls, etc…)

This is all information to simply be aware of.

A well rounded program will include many of these to keep your body balanced. A balanced body is resilient and pain free.

Warm-up

10 Minutes

Heart Rate Up

Move Your Spine

Antagonist

New Examples For The Week:

If you’d like a more in-depth look

Check out this blog post or refer back to the breakdown given during week 2.

Lunging

I love telling people “I can tell how athlete you are by your big toe.” - Because often times putting all of your body weight into your big toe is pretty dang difficult. Especially if it’s been a minute since you’ve done that.

So… Needless to say, a big part of lunges importance is your toes ability to bear your own bodyweight.

I Am and always will be a foot guy

Your feet are the only part of your body constantly in contact with the ground. Unless you live in a wheelchair, it makes sense to take good care of them, and in turn they will take good care of you.

Fortunately. I’ve made a short video (3min) here explaining everything you need to know. Give it a watch and take care of your feet.

Seriously, watch the video.

Unilateral Movement

Lunges introduce another important concept that is Unilateral Training. This is a fancy way to say you’re doing one leg or one arm at a time. Using both arms or both legs would be called “Bilateral”.

Unilateral training is the premiere way to eliminate imbalances in your body. As stated many times already. Balance is good.

The Way you Lunge, Matters

Lunges are pretty straight forward.

BUT

The way you do it matters.

The best way to introduce this is with Bodyweight Reverse Lunges. This will help isolate the backside of your body (butt/hamstrings) as opposed to Forward lunges, which tend to be more quad dominant.

Remember, twice as much posterior to anterior! We will primarily do some type of reverse lunge, and occasionally deviate outward to others for variety and exposure.

Anti-Rotation, The opposite of Rotation

This is a big one, too

This is half of the equation. Moving is just as important as not moving.

It’s difficult because it’s not sexy to stay still. You’re not going to want to post it on instagram.

Neither is more important than the other. The important part is that you include both as a stimulus to your body to adapt to.

So it’s basically 50/50. I tend to find rotation movements are more enjoyable when you want to do more and expend energy, whereas anti-rotation movements are more enjoyable when you want to save energy, and focus on resilience. Food for thought.

Think of Rotation as the unstoppable force, and Anti-rotation as the immovable object.

Goal for Week 4

Continue to Consistenly warm-up

Wath the foot video And DO These Foot Exercises 3 times this week (can be at any point in your day, or before working out)

  • Single Leg Balance: Accumulate 30-60s on each leg in as few sets as possible.

  • Big Toe Raises: Yes… Big toe raises. Do as many as you can, and maybe try doing the opposite. Keep your big toe down while lifting all your other piggies.

  • Big Toe Presses: Lacrosse ball, tennis ball, baseball, any ball works well here. A foam roller works too.

Perform a Lunge AND An Anti-Rotation Exercise at least 3 times this week (In general, Every Other Day)

If you have your own equipment or access to a gym, feel free to replace these with something you feel you would enjoy more.

  • Lunge Examples

    • Bodyweight Reverse Lunges 3x10 each leg. Focus on your big toe. A big goal here is to step all the way back to standing without stuttering from the ground

    • Walking Lunges: 3x15 each leg. These are great for distance. If you can, forget about reps and see how far of a distance you can travel each set (even if it’s down and back in a small area).

    • Elevated Side Lunge: 3x10 each leg. I like these because they’re easy, and they introduce work to what’s called our adductors or inside of your leg. More on this later.

  • Anti-Rotation Examples:

    • Pallof Press: 3x15 each side (face other way). This is an oldie but a goodie. We will expand.

    • Side Plank: 3x30s each side. I like to put my top foot in front of my bottom foot.

    • Single Arm KB Swing 3x15 each side. This is a bit more of a conditioning piece, but the premise remains.