maratoolLateral Cone Hops
How to do the lateral cone hops
- Position a number of cones in a row several feet apart.
- Stand next to the end of the cones, facing 90 degrees to the direction of travel. This will be your starting position.
- Begin the jump by dipping with the knees to initiate a stretch reflex, and immediately reverse direction to push off the ground, jumping up and sideways over the cone.
- Use your legs to absorb impact upon landing, and rebound into the next jump, continuing down the row of cones.
Muscles worked
The force comes from the adductor group down the inner thigh, which pulls the leg back toward the midline and controls the hip as it opens.
A plyometric repetition is over before a slow contraction could contribute anything, so it has to produce that force immediately on contact.
Because more than one joint is moving, the work does not stay in one place: the abductors stop the knee collapsing inward and hold the pelvis square; the calves control the ankle and hold the heel position; the glutes finish hip extension.
The hamstrings and quadriceps take a share of the work as well.
Every exercise for:AdductorsAbductorsCalvesGlutesHamstrings
How this movement works
The working muscles shorten as they drive the load away from you, and more than one joint changes angle to do it. Load spreads down a chain instead of sitting on one muscle, which is why a compound push handles more weight than any single-joint alternative — and why joint position, not the muscle, is usually what fails first.
It is filed under plyometrics, which trains the stretch-shortening cycle: loaded fast, released immediately. Contact time matters more than volume, so these belong early in a session.
What you need
These train the adductors too, using equipment this one does not:
- Side Leg Raisesbody only
- Thigh Adductormachine
- Adductorfoam roll
- Band Hip Adductionsband
Difficulty
Listed at beginner level: the pattern is simple enough to pick up without coaching, and a position that goes wrong mid-set is obvious enough to correct on the next repetition.
Of the 13 adductors exercises in this database, 8 are listed at beginner level.
Photos: free-exercise-db — public domain (Unlicense) Full attribution →
ⓘ Informational only — not a substitute for professional fitness or medical advice.