Getting More Out of Lateral Band Walks

It is funny how many times people see how small tweaks to familiar exercises not only re-vitalize your interest in a movement, but how we can make them better. My favorite example is how we have elevated the simple idea of lateral band walks to get far more out of this very popular exercise.

How can we do anything with something so simple as lateral band walks. We are often good at taking a concept and applying it to an exercise, but often we forget to do so to all similar movements. I’ll give you an example….

Most people know that breaking the barbell to activate the lats during deadlifts, breaking the handle of a kettlebell for swings to do the same. We’ve talked a lot about pulling the handles of the Ultimate Sandbag apart even in using the Ultimate Sandbag. All for the same reason!

The glutes don’t work by themselves!!!

That’s right, the lats, core, and feet are essential for developing real glute strength because our body doesn’t work in isolation. Think about it, if I wanted to get your legs stronger for squats I wouldn’t recommend focusing on leg extensions and leg curls right?

The WHOLE point of drills like lateral band walks is to get the gluteal muscles that usually are turned off from too much sitting, injury, or even unbalanced training. The muscles that help prevent excessive movement of the pelvis. That is why they are important to building resilient low backs and knees. With that in mind, you can probably guess what I am going to tell you is missing from lateral band walks….core and lats!

We can gain so greater results if we integrate the chains of the body even on lateral band walks. The key is how we use tension and load to give feedback to get these muscles to work smarter, not just harder.

At first glance, these lateral band walks would appear confusing, but when you understand functional fitness you start to realize what we have been missing. This is ALL about integrating the core and lats into the standard lateral band walks. The result? We get to moving better faster and actually integrate the glutes more effectively into any of your training.

The best part, like everything we do in DVRT we have the ability to progress it over time. The goal of any exercise is to integrate them into more functional positions where we can integrate more movement patterns at once! This is one of my favorite examples by DVRT Master, Evan Supanich, in how we build the foundation of lateral band walks into something so much more!

Check out how we get better movement with using DVRT tools to enhance everything we are doing. Save 35% all throughout our DVRT shop with coupon code “fitness” (excluding live events, bands, lever bells, & Infinity Straps) HERE