Lateral Lunge to Parallel Passé

Instructions

1. Stand tall with your feet wider than hip-width apart.

2. Keep your chest lifted, your core lightly engaged, and your arms ready for balance.

3. Shift your weight to one side and bend that knee to lower into a lateral lunge.

4. Sit your hips back as you lower, and keep the opposite leg longer.

5. Keep most of your weight through the bent leg.

6. Push strongly through the foot of the bent leg to come up out of the lateral lunge.

7. As you rise, bring the leg up into a parallel detached passé, with the knee lifted in front and the toe off the standing leg.

8. Balance briefly at the top on one leg.

9. Then let yourself move back out into the lateral lunge on the same side.

10. Lower with control back into the lateral lunge.

11. Repeat the pattern.

Common Compensations

• Do not let the knee of the lunging leg cave inward.

• Do not collapse your chest forward in the lateral lunge.

• Do not rush through the balance at the top.

• Do not hike the hip when lifting into passé.

• Do not lose control and drop back into the lateral lunge too quickly.

• Do not let the standing foot roll inward or outward as you push up to balance.

Extra Info

• You should feel this mostly in the glutes, quads, inner thighs, and hip stabilizers.

• You may also feel the ankle and foot of the standing leg working during the balance.

• The goal is to control both the push up into passé and the return into the lateral lunge.

• You should not feel sharp pain in the knee, hip, ankle, or low back.