Complete Guide to Increase Lateral Quickness

Lateral explosiveness is the ability to create quick and powerful movements in one or both directions. This can be done through a variety of exercises that target the glutes, hamstrings, and quadriceps.
 

This article shows a workout that you can add to your existing workout, to help you increase your lateral explosiveness for any sport. You will learn a workout that you can add to your current routine, whether it's lifting weights or playing basketball. It's a mix of both, so here's what you’ll learn:

First, you’ll learn how to do lift, lateral lunges, and lateral squats with the real weight, second, you will learn how to do a skill or exercise, defensive slides, ice skaters, and third, how to stretch your hips, this will help you get better at moving laterally and being quick on your feet. So, let's start working out. 

Step 1: Lift Weights to Increase Lateral Quickness

Let’s start with a lateral squat. Put your feet outside your shoulders, with your toes pointing forward, and just sink each side, think about putting my butt cheek back against that wall, pop out of it, and then, ease into it. Stick it for half a second to get down there, and then push up out of it. 

When you go down, you may feel a strong stretch in your groin. If you’re doing it right, you should also feel a good stretch in your buttocks. Repeat the same for both sides.

Spread out your weight evenly so that you don't move too hard. Push out of that and move your hips and glutes. Then do 30 seconds of lateral squats. Just think about pushing your but-cheek back to the wall and keeping your head and chest up, then push up out of your heel, push your hips and glutes out of that movement.

Repeat this routine for both sides for 30 seconds while carrying your weight. Then, put your weight down and take a break for about 20 seconds. 

Second, we’ll go into the defensive slide, we're going to do a simple defensive slide drill. Use the muscles you just used to do 20 seconds of defensive lane slides. Use the Lockdown Defender resistance bands to add some extra resistance to your movement, which is good to improve your lateral quickness and explosiveness.

Now, add a little bit of balance by doing a yoga pose called "chair." It will stretch the muscles you're using right now, and then you'll sink flexibly. Switch sides, and do this for about 15 minutes. 
 

Spend 30 seconds on each side, and then, sit on it.

This will stretch the muscles you're using, and then you'll sink into it. We're working on both balance and flexibility. As you get used to it, you'll have to work on your balance. If you fall out, just get right back.

The deeper you can sit into it, the more you'll stretch. Again, from the side, don't lean forward very far or you'll fall, so you need to sit into this like you’re sitting down into a chair, kind of like a one-legged squat, with your chest and head up.

Step 3: Balance and stretching to Increase Lateral Quickness

Spend 30 seconds on each side, and then we'll just sit down into it. Now, switch sides. It's okay if you fall, you'll be better on one side than the other. That's where you can really improve your balance, and when you actually try, you'll get better on that one side. 

Now, the deeper you can sit into it, the more you'll stretch. From the side, don't lean forward too far or you'll fall, you need to sit like you’re sitting down in a chair, kind of like a one-legged squat. Your head and chest are both up, you'll have to work on your balance here as you get used to it.

When you're doing the weight training part, you're using something called a "linear variable resistance string," which means that as you squat down, the bands stretch and give you more resistance. 

If you are just using weights, it would be easy to sink down, but the lockdown defender bands help you stay up.

This band pulls on you as you go down, you are meeting resistance that wouldn't normally meet, so you’ll be using more hip and glute muscle fibers. That will make you more explosive because the hardest part of lifting the weight is obviously pushing it back up, which is where the bands will start to tighten. The easy part of the weight is going down and the hard part is going back up.

The band kicks down as you go down, so you use more muscle fibers throughout the whole movement. And you must make sure to keep breathing. As you rise, try to breathe out. For that explosiveness, you inhale on the way down and exhale on the way up.

By putting your feet together, standing up, and going up and down, we want to be low and quick, pushing that push that pushes step, and covering as much ground as quickly as possible.

As you use the lockdown bands and get that resistance, every time you go, its resistance against your body and muscles makes to work harder and recruit more muscle fibers. When you take the bands off, you'll have stronger muscles to be more explosive, and over time, you'll get much stronger and faster by using the bands and adding the resistance chair.

As you get better, you will do this more. This move will help you become more flexible by stretching your hamstring and inner thigh. It will also help you become more flexible in other ways.