Side-Lying Floor Stretch

Muscles worked

The muscle under tension is the latissimus dorsi, which pulls the upper arm down and back toward the ribcage.

A stretch loads it at the far end of the range it normally works in, so the position you hold is itself the resistance.

Every exercise for:Lats

How this movement works

Nothing travels once you are in position. The muscle holds a length under tension instead of working through a range, so effort is measured in seconds rather than repetitions — and the honest progression is more time in a good position, not a deeper one forced early.

It is filed under stretching, so the target is range of motion rather than force — a position you can settle into and breathe in, held long enough for the tissue to give.

What you need

These train the lats too, using equipment this one does not:

• Straight Arm Push Downcable
• Upright Band Rowsbody only + band
• Bent Arm Pulloverbarbell + bench
• Catch and Overhead Throwmedicine ball
• Latissimus Dorsi-SMRfoam roll

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 45 lats exercises in this database, 23 are listed at beginner level.