How to do lunges
Lunge exercises train...
There are many different lunge variations and they train almost every muscle in your legs.
Basic guidelines
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Inhale on your way down, exhale on your way up. You should always exhale during the hardest part of an exercise.
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Put your front leg on full foot. It will help you retain balance.
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Keep your back straight. Don’t bend forwards or backwards.
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Use full range of motion. Stop your down going motion when the thigh of the forward leg is approximately parallel to the ground and the knee of back leg almost touches the ground.
Lunge exercises for beginners
Forward lunge. Stand with your feet together and upper body straight. Step forward with one leg. Don’t step as far as you can but far enough so that you train your muscles and also get a good stretch. Shift your weight forward and squat down bending your front leg until the knee of your back leg almost touches the ground. At this point the back leg should be slightly bent. Push off with the front leg and with a rapid movement get yourself back in the starting position. You should inhale on your way down and exhale on your way up. Pause and repeat with the other leg.
Make sure that your upper body stays straight all the way through the exercise. You shouldn’t lean forwards or backwards. You can keep your arms at your sides, in front of you, behind the head or wherever you feel you can keep your balance the best. This is the easiest lunge. There is also another exercise called the reverse lunge. It’s basically the same but instead of putting one foot forward you put it backward when perforforming the reverse lunge.
Advanced lunge exercises
What I really like about lunges is that you can get the whole package just from one exercise. If performed correctly lunges will build muscle mass and improve strength and flexibility. You can do lunges as a part of cardio workout as well. There is a great lunge variation called the sprinter's lunge.
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Sprinter's lunge. This exercise is similar to jumping lunge but instead of keeping upper body straight you put your palms on the ground like sprinters do before start. Your palms should remain in constant contact with the ground. Then do small jumps and switch your feet in midair. Don’t slide your feet on the floor and land your front leg on full foot.
It’s pretty hard but if you feel that regular lunges are too easy for you I suggest you to try this exercise. It works not only your legs but also core muscles and it gives you a good cardio workout too.
Lunge mistakes
Leaning forward. In the majority of lunge exercises upper body is supposed to stay in an upright position. If you lean forward you most likely will lose balance and put unnecessary stress on your lower back.
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Bending knees forward. Knees shouldn’t go past toes. Like with squats your knees should be on the same vertical line as your toes. If you go past that line you put too much stress on your knee joints.
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No warm-up. Always do your warm-up exercises. You always need to do a proper warm-up before performing any kind of exercises. Warm up is especially important when doing advanced exercises like sprinter’s lunges. Exercises like this incorporate very powerful and explosive movements. If your muscles are cold you have a high risk of injuring yourself.
