3 Simple Lunges Exercise You Can Do At Home To Get In Shape You Wont Believe What Happens Next

Lunges are one of the BEST bodyweight exercises around. You can do them anywhere, they firm up your backside, give you a shapelier bottom (who doesn’t want that?) and they also strengthen your glutes, hamstrings, quads, and calves. The lunge is also a great conditioning exercise for many sports and activities, including those that involve lunging movements like tennis, soccer, and basketball. I’ve always liked lunges because there are so many ways to change them up, and they get the job done. If you incorporate lunges into your weekly exercise routine, you will see the results of your efforts in your bottom half!

With your chest lifted, chin up and abs contracted take a big step forward with your left foot.  Sink straight down so your front left knee tracks over the top of your shoe and your back right knee points down toward the floor.  You are on your back left toe.  Push back to the starting position. Repeat on the right leg. Keep alternating. A good place to start is with 10-12 lunges on each leg and work your way up to 3 sets.  

Go For Reverse Lunges: The same idea as the forward lunge except you step backward.  Keep your front knee tracking over your shoe and your back knee points down. 

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Do Walking Lunges. These are the same as basic lunges except for you alternate legs and you keep walking (moving) forward.  Try doing walking lunges across the floor and back several times in a row.  Add a set of dumbbells and do some overhead shoulder presses while lunging and watch your heart rate go up!

Try Curtsy Lunges.  Cross one leg back and behind the other, and come down into a curtsy lunge. The front foot stays flat on the ground and you are on the toe of your back foot. Pay attention to your knees and make sure to step far enough back so you are using your quads and not forcing weight into your knees.

Add Weight. Pick up a pair of dumbbells and increase the resistance for a challenge.  Better yet, add in an upper body exercise like bicep curls and get more bang for your buck!

A Beginner's Guide To Lunges

There are even more variations of the basic lunge: you can change directions, add a medicine ball, or add tempo changes—but before you go there, master the basic lunge and watch your results!

Incorporate these lunge variations into a 30-minute lower body workout by performing each exercise in a series of circuits. You will perform each exercise for 45 seconds, taking 15 seconds of rest between each exercise. 

Repeat the entire workout x 4 sets for a lower-body burn. All you need is a set of dumbbells to complete this workout. And as always, if you want to focus on form and a full range of motion, ditch the weights altogether and go for bodyweight! 

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Repeat the entire workout x 4 sets for a 30-minute lower body workout that incorporates all variations. BONUS – you can really count this as a total body workout as we incorporate the upper body in many of these exercises as well! 

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Simple Exercises You Can Do Everyday To Stay Fit

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Any cookies that may not be particularly necessary for the website to function and is used specifically to collect user personal data via analytics, ads, other embedded contents are termed as non-necessary cookies. It is mandatory to procure user consent prior to running these cookies on your website.Are your lunges long enough? Are they wide enough? Are your muscles properly activated? With a few quick self-assessments and some smart tweaks, you can reap maximum rewards from your leg work.

When it comes to lower body strength training, you can’t look past the lunge. This exercise staple features in everything from strength and cardio, to HIIT and even yoga – so it's important to get it right. Adding regular doses of lunges to your routine will ramp up your fitness, building strength in your legs, glutes and core.

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When you lunge, it's your quadriceps and gluteus maximus that do most of the work. Other synergistic muscles, which assist the movement, include the adductor magnus muscle in your inner thigh and the soleus muscle in your calf. Several stabilizer muscles are also activated to maintain posture and stabilize joints. These include the gluteus medius and minimus, hamstrings in the back of the thigh, the gastrocnemius (which is the large muscle in the calf), and the tibialis anterior in the front of the calf. Your obliques and the quadratus lumborum in your core also act as stabilizers. So, while it's a seemingly simple move, multiple muscles are in play. With this in mind, nailing the lunge setup is key to your success.

Lunge length is vital to achieving optimal lunge range and muscle activation. It’s important to use a long stride every time you set up a lunge. This keeps your weight evenly distributed and helps avoid too much joint compression in the front knee.

This should place you close to an optimal lunge position. You should be able to rise up and down in this position, keeping your trunk upright, hips square, and your front knee directly above your ankle at the bottom of the lunge.

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Short stepping is one of the most common lunge faults and can result in too much pressure behind the knee cap in the front leg, making it very difficult to maintain an upright trunk position. This dramatically impacts muscle activation, with some muscles working way too hard, while others disengage.

Your feet should be hip-width apart when you lunge, like they’re on railway tracks. Having your feet too wide will result in the back knee angling inward in relation to your foot as you descend into the lunge. Having your feet too narrow will impact your balance and likely compromise lunge depth.

We know you get a strong glute max contraction in the front leg at the bottom of the lunge, which helps produce vertical drive. This activation helps with activities such as climbing, lifting and jumping. Now, thanks to further studies by Dr. Jinger Gottschall, we know that as you lunge, the glute max fires strongly in the back leg too. This highlights how, as well as improving vertical drive in the front leg, lunges simultaneously train horizontal drive in the back leg – which is important for sprinting, running and walking.

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When you feel that strong glute contraction in the back leg, you know you’re training your glutes to fire the way you need them when running and walking. If you can’t feel it, focus on actively locking the back leg in this position rather than just resting it back there.

One of the other key muscle targets when it comes to lunging is gluteus medius. This muscle is a key stabilizer of the lower limb and works during all weight-bearing activities to prevent your knee from rolling inwards toward the big toe – which could increase risk of injury. Recent muscle activation studies have shown that a great way to increase activation of this important stabilizer muscle is to lunge with a weight plate in the opposite hand to the front knee. This slight shift in our center of gravity toward the plate requires more gluteus medius activation in the opposite hip and helps build stability.

To maximize glute activation benefits, make sure you drive down through the front heel as you stand. This will isolate and activate the glutes, adding real fire to the movement. There are a number of lunge variations designed to maximize glute activation; you can discover the best moves for your butt by following this science-backed glute guide.

How To Do A Lunge And Why They're So Good For You

Static lunges involve stepping back into the lunge and then maintaining that foot position as you move up and down through a set of lunges. Static lunges are an ideal starting point for learning the lunge movement pattern. Once you’ve mastered the movement, yu can add variety by opting for dynamic lunges which involve stepping into each rep. All of your muscles – the primary, synergists and stabilizers – work harder during dynamic lunges, so

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