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Lateral Squat Progression
In general, I think most people need to spend more time moving laterally. From the warm-up to the weight room the average gym-goers spends the majority of their time moving sagittally with no thought of moving in the frontal plane.
Shuffles, crawls, crossovers and lateral medicine ball work are great tools to spark your brain in the warm-up and introduce your body to more novel and dynamic movement patterns.
Similarly, in the weight room the lateral squat is a great tool to develop AB/ADDuction strength in hips as well as improve frontal plane hip mobility.
Hockey players especially require huge amounts of concentric hip abduction and eccentric hip adduction strength. I have found the lateral squat to be a great tool to rehabilitate hip injuries and develop strength specific to the stresses that occur during skating. Additionally, I find it to be a great option for general population clients who would benefit greatly from an expanded movement vocabulary and improvements in hip mobility.
I would recommend starting with the assisted variation for a low volume of repetitions as clients will need time to learn the pattern and will have significant hip soreness after their introduction to the movement.
