Have you ever lunged?
A lunge exercise provides many benefits to your overall fitness. They're classes as unilateral exercises, which means that they train one side of your body independently from the other.
Training your body one side at a time vastly improves your balance and coordination.
Lunges are also great at helping to strengthen your lower body muscles, in fact there are very few leg exercises that are as good as the lunges.
Muscles in the hips, thighs and butt are strengthened with this workout.
How to Perform:
- Start with feet next to each other, with six inches between them. Hands by your side, pelvis in a neutral position, with abdominals gently pulled in.
- Step forward approximately two feet with the right leg, and bend both knees until the back knee is six inches from the floor. Keep weight distributed evenly on both legs, and back heel lifted up.)
- “Push-off” with the right leg, and lift back to starting position.
- Repeat on other side.
Adding dumbells to the workout will also work your arms at the same time, this increases calorie burn - which is effectively what we're all after.
Exercise Ideas & Progressions
- Start with 3 sets of 10 repetitions (alternating right and left.)
- Use dumbbells in your hands for a more challenging exercise.
- Perform lunges stepping backwards or sideways.
- Perform a pivot 180 degrees into a lunge.
- Perform lunges in multiple directions during one set.
- Make the base of support smaller to challenge your balance (e.g. start with your feet touching in the starting position.)
- In a “lunged position” drop down and up 10 times before switching to the other leg.
Femalefirst Taryn Davies
Tagged in Muscles exercise Train Fact Healthy Body fitness tips Workout