Side V-Lift Exercise

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Amy McCauley, and I'm going to demonstrate how to do a side V lift. The lifts work on your internal and external oblique. That's our main focus here. To modify this, drop down to your elbow so that your wrist, your elbow, and your shoulder are at a ninety-degree angle. You want to ideally lift up out of the shoulders so your chest is open. You're going to rock back onto your glutes, so that you're on the soft tissue and not on your bone. You can take your hand behind you, in front of you, or on your head. This is your modification. Exhale and inhale; this is a nice slow range of motion. You want to pinch the ribcage to the hip. It's a nice slow movement. Exhale to inhale. A full version if you want to make it more challenging; lift up out of the shoulders. You're sweeping the legs up; trying to get your elbow to the kneecap, and then back down. You don't want to go all the way down to the floor; taking the tension off that abdominal muscle. You want to go about a foot off the floor. Exhale as you pull up, inhale as you lower. A couple things you really want to focus on; make sure that you're not dropping down into that shoulder, so if you put pressure on your neck you'll feel a lot of strain. Lift up nice and high, nice tall posture. If you can't do it with your hand over your head take your hand out in front of you to help stabilize; that's your supporting arm, up and down. Slow lift and lower. We're going to try to do as many as you can up to about twenty five on each side; switching, coming back if you want to work em' a little bit harder; doing two to three sets on each side. And that is how we do our side V lift."