Remember the first time you saw a Ladder Barrel? Did your body instinctively want to drape itself over the invitingly padded, perfectly rounded arc for a little stretch? Little did you know then that you’d be asked to perform some less-than-cozy stunts on it only shortly after…
Introducing the Side Sit Up on the Ladder Barrel, our exercise of the month. It’s a special one for there aren’t all that many original exercises executed sideways on the barrels. This one makes use of all the features of the Ladder Barrel: feet hooked into the rungs of the ladder, hip leaning into the barrel, body leaning over the ever-teasing downward cliff of the arc.
While this clearly is a movement for the upper body, the lower body is the unsung hero of the exercise and sets a simple but important foundation to get you through:
Stand on the bottom rung with your bottom leg.
Pull on the top rung with your top leg.
The rest is up to you: how far you go, how far you lever your upper body out from your foundation (from hands behind the head for support all the way into reaching your arms overhead with a—possibly weighted—bar), all determined by the unique point you can bend over to AND be able to return without losing your breath (or alignment) over it.
What’s in it for you? Equal parts burn and stretch all the way down the sides of your body. Don’t you love when that happens?
Let’s take this month and dedicate ourselves to this movement from the why to the how. If you’re on Instagram and want to share your #sidesitup with us, please tag us! Post a picture of your practice, ask a question, contribute answers, and share your top cues and tips.