maratoolStanding Lateral Stretch
How to do the standing lateral stretch
- Take a slightly wider than hip distance stance with your knees slightly bent.
- Place your right hand on your right hip to support the spine.
- Raise your left arm in a vertical line and place your left hand behind your head. Keep it there as you incline your torso to the right.
- Keep your weight evenly distributed between both legs (don't lean into your left hip). Switch sides.
Muscles worked
The muscles under tension are the rectus abdominis and the obliques, which flex the trunk forward and resist it being pulled into extension or twisted out of line.
A stretch loads them at the far end of the range they normally work in, so the position you hold is itself the resistance.
Every exercise for:Abdominals
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 abdominals too, using equipment this one does not:
- Standing Rope Crunchcable
- Stationary Abdominal Draw Inbody only
- Supine One-Arm Overhead Throwmedicine ball
- Torso Rotationexercise ball
- Ab Crunch Machinemachine
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 97 abdominals exercises in this database, 69 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.