Breakfast LUNGE and dinner

Oh lunges, how I love thee. As far as lower body exercises (targeting the legs), you’d be hard pressed to find something that surpasses the lunge in overall efficiency and effectiveness.  The lunge and its varieties can utilize so much of the leg muscles that it’s ALMOST all you need.

Don’t get me wrong: we can’t ignore the hamstrings, and squats most certainly have their place in the hall of fame of greatest exercises ever created as well. But for my money the lunge, so complex and yet so simple, trumps them all.

The thing with lunges is if you have a back issue, you are far less likely to hurt yourself while lunging than squatting.  Squats are fantastic when performed correctly, but I often cringe while watching people squat in the gym with their horrible back positions and lack of range of motion.

So listen up and listen good. When doing your lunges (and I know you are going to get up from your computer as soon as you finish reading this, and start lunging across your office or living room), there are a few simple things to remember to get right.

1. Take a step forward with one leg -- not a huge step, just a step. 
2. Bend both knees and keep your knees at about a 90 degree angle. Try to get your back knee as close to the ground/floor as possible. If you can touch the ground without smashing your knee, definitely do so. 
3. Make sure your front knee doesn’t extend in front of your front foot. This is the most common mistake I see when people are lunging. They lean out over their front foot so that their knee is the farthest point forward on their body. THIS IS WRONG, SO DON’T DO IT!
4. Keep your weight on the heel of your front foot and push off hard in one motion. 
5. Keep your core tight to minimize wobbling from side to side. 

That’s pretty much it.  Walking lunges are my favorite variety, and if you choose to embark on a journey of walking lunges, try your best not to take a step in between lunges as though you were walking down a wedding aisle. We don’t really want step, feet together, step, feet together. As you get tired and fatigued from the hundreds of steps in a row that you’ll do, you may have to do this eventually, but avoid it as long as possible. Try your best to step from one lunge right into the next.

Happy lunging!