Core lateral · Bodyweight

Side hyperextension

A side bend done on the back extension bench. You lie on your side with your hip on the pad and your feet locked in, lower your upper body toward the floor, then lift it back in line with your legs. It trains your obliques and the quadratus lumborum, a deep muscle on each side of the lower back, which is why it also goes by the QL raise.

Side on to the pad, lift the top shoulder.

The cue Reckoner shows you mid set.

Pattern: Core lateral
Trains: Obliques
Kit: Roman chair
Loading: Your own bodyweight
Reckoner prescribes: 2 sets of 8 to 12 reps at RPE 8
Progression step: Nothing to add, so the sets climb instead
Skill: Technical
Recovery cost: Low
Not prescribed if you have declared: Lower back

Muscles worked

Primary

Obliques

Secondary

Spinal erectors

How to do it

Turn side on
Set the pad so your hip rests on it, side on, and stack your feet in the foot holds. Cross your arms on your chest.
Lower to the side
Bend sideways toward the floor slowly, only as far as you can come back from smoothly.
Lift back to straight
Raise your top shoulder until your body is straight with your legs. Stop there.
Finish one side, then switch
Do all your reps on one side, then turn over and match them on the other.

What goes wrong

Rolling toward the floor
Turning your chest down feels easier because it makes the lift part back extension. Keep your shoulders stacked, one above the other.
Lifting past straight
A higher finish feels like more work. Past straight you are crunching the top side, so stop when your body is in line.
Going deep too soon
A big stretch at the bottom feels productive. Lower only as far as you can lift back from, and stop before you feel a pinch.

How Reckoner progresses this lift

Six weeks of this lift, run through the real engine. Nothing below was typed in: the prescription, the decision and the sentence beside it all come from the same code that writes your week.

Side hyperextension, six weeks
Week	Prescribed	What it did
1	2 x 8	More reps 8 → 9 repsYou finished every set with three reps left in the tank (RPE 7) and room left in the range, so the reps climb before the load does.
2	2 x 9	More reps 9 → 10 repsYou finished every set with three reps left in the tank (RPE 7) and room left in the range, so the reps climb before the load does.
3	2 x 10	More reps 10 → 11 repsYou finished every set with three reps left in the tank (RPE 7) and room left in the range, so the reps climb before the load does.
4	2 x 11	More reps 11 → 12 repsYou finished every set with three reps left in the tank (RPE 7) and room left in the range, so the reps climb before the load does.
5	2 x 12	Deload 40% of sets offFive weeks of building, then one week lighter. About 40% of the sets come off. The load holds and your reps stay where you earned them, so you keep the strength and lose the fatigue.
6	1 x 12	One more set 1 → 3 setsYou hit the top of the range and there is no weight left to add. When a lift runs out of load, the set is the increment, so it does three sets next week.

Real engine output, not an illustration. Every row was produced by running the engine itself when this page was generated.

The full rule, and why the reps move before the load does, is in how Reckoner decides to add weight.

Questions people ask

What does the side hyperextension work?

Your obliques and your quadratus lumborum. In a fine wire study, the quadratus lumborum was more active than the other muscles measured while people held a side support¹. This lift takes that same side bend through a range.