The Lateral Lunge to Drop Lunge Exercise is a great way to improve the mobility and stability of your hips, glutes and iliotibial (IT) bands (the outsides of your thighs). It will enhance your golf performance, freeing up your hips to help you make a better turn, and helping your lower body to absorb shock and to store and release energy. It will also reduce the chances of injury to your knees and lower back.
The Lateral Lunge to Drop Lunge Exercise needs practice to achieve proficiency, it requires single leg balance and lots of hip mobility – which is why it’s great for your golf swing. The more you struggle with the Lateral Lunge to Drop Lunge Exercise, the more you need to include this essential movement pattern in your training program.
The Lateral Lunge to Drop Lunge Exercise forms part of the Golf Stability series of innovative and dynamic exercises that will build stability in your joints and core for better consistency and ball-striking.
Figure 1. Lateral Lunge to Drop Lunge Exercise Video.
Steps
- Start by standing tall, in perfect posture, with your arms out in front of you.
- Inhale and slowly step to your right and lower your hips to the floor by squatting back and down with the your right leg, keeping your left leg straight.
- Exhale and push off firmly with your right leg to stand back up.
- As you stand, reach back with your right foot until it is about 2 feet (60 cm) to the outside of your left foot, allowing your hips to rotate as you do so.
- Rotate your hips back to square and push them back and down into a full squat, with most of your weight on your left foot.
- Drive off your left leg to stand back up, and step back with your right foot to the starting position.
- Repeat for the desired number of repetitions on one side, before switching and repeating on your other side.
Try to maintain perfect posture throughout the exercise – your head over your shoulders, your chin up, your chest up and abdominals engaged to stabilise your spine, and your shoulder blades back and down.
Keep your toes pointing forwards and your feet flat on the floor. Do not let your squatting knee slide over your toes – your shinbone should be vertical to the floor and your knee aligned with the second toe of your foot. Keep your weight back between your ankles and heels throughout.
If you find that one side is more proficient than the other, perform extra repetitions on the limited side in an effort to train away the movement asymmetry.
You should feel it working your glutes, hamstrings, and quadriceps, and stretching your your iliotibial (IT) bands (the outsides of your thighs), your groin and the inner thigh of the straight leg.
Variation
There are a number of other lunge exercises in the Golf Loopy Train like a Champion System that offer a variety of challenges, you can see them all by clicking here.
If you have any questions or comments about this or other articles on Golf Loopy, please send us an email.
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