side lunges muscles used?

[mom418]

i did the sts plyo legs w/o on tuesday, still recovering from doms 2 days later. great work out! gave me the challege i was looking for. i think my doms are from doing side lunges with weight and the other lateral moves in the w/o. those are the exercises i havent been doing very often. i only feel the doms in outer part of the glute, near the joint, i guess thats my pelvis ? not my hip bone.

which muscles did i use? i tried to figure this out on a muscle diagram, but other than the gluteus maximus, its not clear. i'd love to find which muscles are used, then find out other exercises to work those muscles. can anyone help me out?

 

[kathryn]

I'd say more gluteus medius, outer thigh and inner thigh.

 

[maddiesmum]

Kathryn is right and you can target those muscle groups further with what Cathe calls firewalkers or with the clamshell move. In one of the current blog pictures, Cathe demonstrates a version of the clamshell move on all fours, with a versaloop around the mid thigh. It's like a fire hydrant move when done in this position, but the effect is the same since you are lifting the leg away from the body. You can also introduce fast lateral shuffles and carioca fast footwork into your program (especially outdoors) and these also work the outer thigh and gluteus medius.

Speed skaters are a kind of static side shuffle and these would work too, especially if you are indoors and short of space, and the bonus here is an increased cardio effect!

Clare

 

[Bobbi-B]

Thanks for this info Clare, it's helpful to me in making sense out of lower body muscles and exercises. Oh, and my daughter's name is Claire!

 

[mom418]

thanks everybody this helps alot.
can i do fire walkers with ankle wts instead?

 

[kathryn]

can i do fire walkers with ankle wts instead?

You really need the resistance of a band around the ankles.
With ankle weights, you could do side-lying abductions to get the same muscle groups.