Good morning from the desk of Rachael! Thanks to my recent birthday I have enough in Starbucks gift cards to last me at least until Thanksgiving! I stopped by for an Unsweetened Iced Green Tea this morning and put my own, all natural sweetener Truvia in- plus a small apple and Banana Creme Greek Yogurt for a protein kick to start off my day.
Like most work days, I'll be teaching and working until around 3:30 and then heading off for a 6 mile run at the beach and probably a lift at the Y after. I've got my eye on a fitness class that I might take this evening, but we'll see how my run goes! I have a 16-18 miler this weekend, my longest run ever by far, so I definitely don't want to go into that too fatigued.
Let's talk training! One of the staples in strength training- the lunge. There are so many ways to complete this glute/hamstring/quad blasting move it deserves a post all to itself. It is a must for any athlete or those looking to simply sculpt, define and strengthen the legs. I put lunges right up there with squats at the top of my priority list when it comes to strength training. This functional move is an absolute necessity and should be utilized in any strength training routine.
Basic Tips for Success- When approaching your lunge, you want to take a big enough step to allow for 90 degree angles in the front and back knee. If you don't step out far enough, your lunge may look a little cramped, with small angles in the knees making it difficult to keep your weight centered and your front knee from going over the toes. If you take too big of a step, your back leg will stay pretty much locked out, so make sure your step isn't so large that you can't drop that back knee down.
The back knee will come almost all the way to the floor if full range of motion is desired, but not quite touching the floor. The lowest our lunges will take us are to the point where the knee is hovering just above the floor.
Chest and head stay high and stacked directly above the hips, and your weight stays evenly proportioned with this upright stance, distributing weight evenly in both legs. Inhale down into lunges with control, and then exhale as you press up with power.
The front knee should never go over the toes, the knee should stay in line with the foot and at the lowest point of your lunge, your chest should not be collapsing down to your thigh. Relax the shoulders.
Forward Lunge
Walking Lunge
Take a step forward with your right leg, push up from the bottom of the right foot to propel the body forward bringing the left foot in front of the right for your second lunge, dropping down into lunge position on the left leg.
Unique Benefit: Adding the walking component to the basic forward lunge really turns the move into almost, a full body move. Now you're stabilizing the muscles of the hips, back and abdominals, you're challenging your balance and coordination and you have an explosive forward motion similar to the reverse lunge, when that back leg comes up to meet the front.
Stationary Lunge
Start with a nice wide stance, right leg in front of the left. Drop straight down, think back knee toward floor, and then stand up and straighten the legs. Repeat all reps on one side before switching sides.
Unique Benefit: For someone just beginning and learning the basic form of a lunge, this is going to give them more control, allow them to move straight up straight down without picking up the foot. This teaches good form and also puts a ton of emphasis on the quads.
Reverse Lunge
Take a step back to drop into your reverse lunge with your right leg, and then step back up into position by exploding from the right leg. Switch.
Unique Benefit: Talk about buns of steel! This move adds an extra "kick in the butt" component to really sculpt those glutes and hamstrings.
Lateral Lunge
Take a step directly out to your right side with the right foot, pushing the hips back and keeping your weight centered in the entire right foot. Although your momentum is taking you to the outside of that right foot, don't allow it to roll over. Chest and head stay high to press from the right foot back up to starting position. Alternate legs.
Unique Benefit: Although all lunges recruit the hamstrings as one of their primary muscle groups worked, this particular type of lunge is going to put a ton of emphasis on the outer thigh of the moving leg. It's also going to change your center of gravity causing you to stabilize using the muscle surrounding the knee, hips and core.
Crossback or Curtsy Lunge
Think reverse lunge with a little spin. Rather than stepping straight back with the left leg, you're going to step back and slight over to the right, while still keeping the right foot planted and pointed forward. Keep your chest squared front and center as well. Repeat all reps on one leg or alternate.
Unique Benefit: Not only are you getting the hamstring, glute and quad work, but now we are adding in the adductors and abductors, the muscles of the inner and outer thighs.
Pendulum Lunge
Now we are gonna get real crazy! Your pendulum lunge is a reverse lunge, that flows directly into a forward lunge. For a modification, you can do a reverse lunge, come back to your starting point and then forward lunge with the same leg.
Unique Benefit: The coordination, balance and stability aspects of this lunge are what makes it different than any of the others. Keeping good posture while moving smoothly from one lunge to the other is challenging to the stabilizer muscles of the ankles, knees and hips, and requires balance and coordination through the core.
Diagonal Lunge
Diagonal lunge is basically the forward version of the cross back lunge. We are going to step forward and over to the left with right leg and vice versa. We want to keep that front foot pointed forward and the chest squared with the hips in the same direction as that front foot.
Unique Benefit: This diagonal lunge is going to put an increased focus on the outer thigh of the front leg, the abductors and on the inner thigh of the back leg, the adductors.
Plyo Lunge
Keeping our stationary lunge in mind, there are two ways we can perform a plyo lunge. One is to drop down into our stationary lunge and come back up to standing with a jump, landing with the same leg forward and smoothly dropping right back down into the second rep. The more intense version is to start by taking a forward lunge with the right leg, explode up through both feet as you hop into the air, your feet are going to switch places landing with your left foot in front and right in back, then smoothly landing into your first rep on the opposite side.
Unique Benefit: Adding the explosive hop to your lunges not only increases the intensity of the move but also adds a cardio aspect and turns this from simply a strength or muscular endurance move, to a powerful, explosive move.
Overhead Lunge
The overhead lunge is a upper body variation that can be added to any of the lunges above, by simply holding the arms locked out above the head, with dumbbells, barbells or simply no weight at all.
Unique Benefit: The raising of the arms requires stabilization from the shoulders and core, providing more abdominal engagement and an extra shoulder component.
Other ways to change it up:
- Add some weight! Lunges can be completed using body weight only, dumbbells in each hand straight down at one's side, holding a barbell on the shoulders or straight overhead, using the TRX for assistance, holding a medicine ball and even using resistance bands.
- Add some more equipment! Using a small box, being your lunges standing on top of the box, taking one leg at a time off the box into an increased range of motion for the particular lunge you are performing. See example:
Question of the afternoon:
How do you like to lunge!?
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