Lunges are one of the most effective body weight exercises for lower body strength! Let us take a look at how to do Forward Lunges the right way and get the most out of it!
Start by standing with feet at shoulder width apart or at a comfortable width & shoulders as wide as possible. Make sure to stand straight and tall with arms either on each side (or) in your front for the sake of balance. And finally, pull in your abdominal muscles to keep the core tight and start off with your lunge.
For Lunging properly, go down on both knees until the angle at both knees is around 90 degrees. Keep the front leg thigh parallel to the ground. Use your hamstrings and glutes to push up to the original position.
Keep your back straight while lunging & keep your chin up. For an effective breathing technique, you have to inhale/breathe in when you go down and exhale/breathe out when you come up. You have to continue to focus on your core to balance the posture and maintain the center.
Make sure your torso is completely straight while coming up from a lunge. It is very important to NOT use your body momentum to come up from lunge. This is a very common mistake seen very often. Use your lower body & core to come up! Else, the major purpose goes waste!
Now, if you are a beginner, do not let the back knee touch the floor. Else, it is not very wrong to touch the knee to the floor until you can come up with the right technique!
When you are lunging, be firmly on the ball of the back foot. Also, lunge with a proper distance between the two feet, so that your knees will not have to go ahead of your toes.
Coming to few more tips to do lunges, make sure to press through the front heel when going down and coming up. Your torso and hips should face forward & not get inclined to the sides as you lunge. As mentioned previously, make sure your front knee stays behind your toes. Also, the back foot heel should remain elevated.
Let us take a look at the muscles involved. The primary muscles involved in this workout are your Glutes, Hamstrings, Hip Flexors & Quadriceps. The secondary muscles engaged are Calf muscles & of course, the core muscles for balance.
If you have bad knees, only go until less than 90 degrees at your knees (like in the image below, or an even lesser angle based on your knee pain). This is advised to avoid any possible knee damage.
This is a functional movement and these improve your movements like walking and running. Therefore, this is the basic workout for many sports persons and athletes. As a bonus, Lunges also improve your hip bone density. So, keep lunging and keep getting stronger on your legs!
Checkout the Forward Lunges dissection video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJYCgF7Sg44 @ “Fit Bits” YouTube Channel by FitRim.
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Chetana Samprati 