You're Using Side Lying Wrong

You're Using Side Lying Wrong

From Reconsider... with Bill Hartman by Bill Hartman

April 21, 2026 · 35 min · Episode 87

About this episode

This episode discusses the proper use of side-lying in movement training and assessment.

The last couple of episodes we covered quadruped and half kneeling. Before either of those positions can work, the system has to be able to manage something with less gravity involved. Side-lying is often that place, and most practitioners are using it without understanding what it actually demands or what it breaks down into when it fails. If your clients complain of a pointy hip, a pinching shoulder, or a knee that will not touch the ground in side-lying, this episode explains exactly what those signals mean and what to do next. We are speaking to the physical therapists, strength coaches, personal trainers, and movement professionals who want a more coherent framework for where to start and why. The ones who have been putting clients in side-lying for years without a clear model for what they are actually looking at. What we cover: What side-lying actually demands from the hip, thorax, and axial skeleton Why anterior-posterior expansion is the goal and how side-lying creates it The two compensatory strategies you will see and what each one means How to read ground contacts as a real-time assessment of shape access Archetype-specific behavior: wide ISA versus narrow ISA in this…

People in this episode

Host: Bill Hartman

Topics covered

  • side-lying
  • movement assessment
  • hip and thorax demands
  • compensatory strategies
  • ground contacts
  • progression to loaded movement

Keywords

  • side-lying
  • hip
  • thorax
  • compensatory strategies
  • movement professionals
  • assessment
  • loaded movement

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