Exercise of the Week

Today’s exercise of the week is the Lateral Pallof Press.  We’ve been using the “regular” Pallof Press with clients for sometime now (I believe I first learned it from Eric Cressey).  The original version is a great “anti-rotation” exercise.  For those of you that are not familiar with the anti-rotation version (one of the main roles of the core is to resist rotation), here is a video for you…

If this is your first time seeing this version of the Pallof Press, you get a 2 for the price of 1 as far as new exercises to add to your workouts. For those of you that have not seen the Lateral Pallof Press, let’s get to it.

Lateral Pallof Press

I just found out about this exercise about a week ago.  I got if from Coach Nick Tumminello.  Nick uses a much higher percentage of is brain than I.  After watching him go over the Lateral Pallof Press in one of his videos, I thought to myself, “DOH, why didn’t I think of that!?!”  (refer to the higher percentage of brain usage above)  Anyway, the purpose of this exercise of to prevent lateral flexion (think bending sideways).  Your core must fire like crazy to prevent you from bending sideways/getting thrown into the cable. 

As you can see in the video, I set up so that the cable is to the side of me.  I then set the handle so it is up overhead.  Next, I grab it and bring it to my chest area.  I then brace my core (squeeze my abs really hard) and push my arms up overhead.  The longer I make my arms, the harder the movement.  Pick a weight that really challenges you (trust me, if you do these right, you’ll feel your abs/obliques really working), but not a weight so heavy that you can’t keep good form.  Good form means to keep your arms long, and your shoulders and hips level throughout.  There are a number of different rep options, and you can hold each rep above your head as long as you wish.  I usually go with about 5 reps above head, with each rep held for 3 seconds.

The majority (not all) of your “core” training needs will be covered if you incorporate McLarty Rollouts, the Pallof Press variations, and use BIG compound movements in your training.  So there you have it.  Give Lateral Pallof Presses a shot and you’ll have a stronger, healthier core.