By Praveen & Maahek Nair
In a lunge, many muscles work to stabilize and move the body during the exercise. These include the quadriceps, glutes, hamstrings & calves. Both concentric and eccentric movements of these muscles get worked in lunges. Some basic instructions before you start – Make sure you don’t put pressure on your knees, keep your back straight and chest up, make sure to move slowly at first, & keep your shoulders open. Remember to breathe out (through your mouth) as you go up and breathe out as you go down.
These are great exercises for toning your lower body, making your legs look thinner and better defined.
Forward Lunge
The most basic movement that works muscles I mentioned involves the forward lunge. The forward lunge involves:
- Keeping your legs shoulder-width apart (with your hands on your hips)
- Step forward with one leg
- Lowering your body
- Keeping your back erect & face forward
- Your Knee should create a 90-degree angle
- Returning back to the start position
- Switch to the other leg
You should feel pressure in the muscles of your front leg during this exercise.
Slide Lunge
You will need a slider disc for this variation. Place the slide onto a smooth floor surface and similar to the lateral lunge arch your back and instead of moving your leg slide it from the starting position to the side.
Steps:
- Legs shoulder-width apart
- Chest up, Back Straight
- Place the slider under one foot
- Bend the other leg and slide the other to perform the movement
- Bring the extended leg back to the starting position to finish one rep
Weighted Forward Lunge
You can perform this variation with either dumbbells or kettlebells. Hold 2 dumbbells or 2 kettlebells, don’t try to copy the picture as for balance you will hold them both down in your hands and not over your shoulder.
Steps:
- Hold dumbbells in each hand
- Keeping your legs shoulder-width apart (with your hands on your hips)
- Step forward with one leg
- Lowering your body
- Keeping your back erect & face forward
- Your Knee should create a 90-degree angle
- Returning back to the start position
- Switch to the other leg
Reverse Lunge
Similar steps to the Forward lunge but be more careful as this is much harder to balance. These are a great alternative to forward lunge if you have knee pain.
Steps:
- Keeping your legs shoulder-width apart (with your hands on your hips)
- Step back with one leg
- Lowering your body
- Keeping your back erect & face forward
- Your Knee should create a 90-degree angle
- Returning back to the start position
- Switch to the other leg
Lateral Lunge
The lateral lunge may seem awkward to balance but it’s easier if you properly arch your back and push back your hips. Proper posture is key to every exercise, even more so for those that involve proper balance.
- Stand with your feet close to each other
- Keep both hands on your hips
- Take a big step out to the right side
- When your foot lands lean forward
- Push your hips back when you lean forward
- Returning back to the start position
- Switch to the other leg
Stationary Lunge
The stationary lunge essentially involves holding the position keeping your leg stepped forward the whole time. Usually done with weights, these are great for added resistance on your glutes and hamstrings. Compared to the other variations you start from the bottom, meaning you start on your knees then lift up instead of the usual step of lowering your body.
Steps:
- Hold a dumbbell in each hand
- Start on your knees with one leg ahead flat on the floor
- Start by holding yourself up in this position (a few inches off the floor )
- Then start pushing up as you try to stand by using your legs
- You don’t put your legs back together in this movement
- Instead of keeping them in the same position
- As you extend your legs and bend them to go down.
The difference in this lunge variation is you hold the position slightly longer thus adding to the resistance but keep the rep count low so as to not put too much pressure on your knees.
Curtsy Lunge
The exercise looks just as fancy as the name implies, an interesting fact: these can be performed with a barbell on your shoulders, which is fun to watch. While a great variation makes sure you start slow as not everyone can balance this as well. Apart from your hamstrings and glutes, this also activates your hip rotators as you perform the movement.
Steps:
- Keep both hands on your hips
- Take one leg back & make it cross your other leg
- The knee of the leg going behind should go behind the ankle of the front leg
- Keep your back straight as you go down
- Chest up, shoulder wide & open
- Face forward
At first, just try to balance with your leg back & slowly get accustomed to performing this variation. Try and see if you can lift yourself up from the position of the crossed legs.
