Stop Doing Lunges Like This! (SAVE A FRIEND)

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There’s not a day that goes by that I don’t see someone doing my favorite leg exercise, the lunge. And that makes my heart sink. The only problem is, they’re it up. And it starts with the direction that we’re lunging. And of the two popular directions that we can lunge in, forward or backward, [music] the most popular happens to be the most stressful to your knee joint.

Because every time we step forward, [music] we’re placing a lot of undue stress on that patellofemoral joint in the knee, and also on the patellar tendon, that doesn’t have to be there [music] if we just simply were to direct our step backwards. And the issue is not just how much force, which is actually 4. 6 times your body weight, but the rate that we apply it. When we step, this leg is free until the moment it hits the ground. And when it does, we have to quickly be able to adapt to that stress.

So, even if you are able to handle 4. 6 times your body weight, like a lot of knees can, the speed that we apply that force can sometimes be more than you can handle, which causes the knee pain. So, if we step backwards, that front leg stays in contact with the ground. It’s not stepping up and applying itself down every single time. It’s already there, which gives us a lot of relief when it comes to that knee pain.

The next thing though is also, what is the effect on the legs that you’re trying to grow? When we step, the issue is not just how we land, but how we [music] push out of the lunge. When we push out of the lunge from this position, we oftentimes compensate [music] instantly. We slide the hips back and then we stand up. Rather than having to keep the knee bent and come straight up out of there and step backwards.

When we do the reverse lunge, that all happens naturally. We step back, the leg goes straight down, we push straight up out of there, come back to [music] full hip extension. So, biomechanically, you’re doing the lunge properly. Now, if you wanted to step forward, [music] you have to at least continue in a walking direction. You’ll see The Rock doing this variation here, where you step forward and rather than [music] having to try to compensate backwards, you just simply rise up and step through and take your next step.

That will help fix a lot of those biomechanical flaws, but it still doesn’t take away that negative effect of the stresses on the knee joint. You just don’t have to deal with it. And with the step direction in place, the most important next thing for you to focus on is where you’re specifically putting that [music] back foot. Every time you step, there’s a specific place for you to step to. And what we want to do is not turn the lunge into a field sobriety test by stepping too close together.

If your feet stay in line with each other, then balance becomes your primary focus rather than building your legs with this fantastic exercise. Instead, what I want you to do is step back and out. Get at least two shoulder width or outside of shoulder width with your step to give yourself a wider base of support and provide the balance and stability that you need to focus on just building up your legs rather than maintaining balance. As far as how far back you should go, that’s determined by [music] the length of your leg, which can easily be fixed by just using your toe as a landmark. As I [music] step back, reach with your toe.

Once your toe makes contact with the ground, that’s as far back as you’re going to go. You drop straight down from there. Now, that distance is going to be different for everyone that does the exercise, [music] but as long as you’re using your toe as the guideline, it makes contact, you go straight down, that width is properly spaced, and you’ve got GPS-like accuracy in terms of the foot placement to make sure you do this right every time. Next, we have to think about what’s going on with your upper body. Cuz even though this is a lower body exercise, the position of our upper body will determine your success on this lower body exercise.

[music] Cuz you have a great opportunity to screw your body into place and provide additional stability by just simply rotating your shoulders towards the lunging leg when you do the exercise. [music] So, what I’m saying is every time I step back, I want to turn my body just a little bit from my shoulders in the direction of the forward lunging leg. That will actually create a little bit of internal rotation at the hip, but more so with your foot fixed on the ground, it’s going to provide a little more stability and locking of the pelvis in place so you don’t get any of this wobbling that [music] could derail the success of the movement. Remember, every time I step back, I get a little turn from the upper body in the direction of that lunging leg, everything else will feel almost easy. Now, the position of the torso doesn’t just matter in terms of how rotated your shoulders are, but also how forward or upright is your entire trunk [music] when you do the exercise because it determines which muscles you’re actually focusing on.

So, if I do an upright [music] reverse lunge, then most of the focus is going to be directed right here at the quads, [music] the anterior chain, the front side of your legs. Because when I come out of it, I maintain this upright position much like I would during a front squat that targets the same muscles. If instead I were to lean forward a little bit by hinging at the waist, what this does is it creates something called a sprinter lunge. We’re looking like [music] we’re in the starting blocks of a sprinter position here, well, this is going to load up that backside glute and hamstring more effectively. So, if I do it from this side, you can see that by leaning forward, and you’ll feel it yourself just by doing this, you get a lot more loading posteriorly, and this is the focus of the exercise itself.

So, I can do the exercise either way, just be aware of the fact that changing your position, be it upright or leaning [music] forward, is going to dramatically change the focus of the muscles that you’re trying to target with the exercise. [music] Which brings us to the next consideration here, which is how you load the exercise. And that has a lot to do with what we just covered, the body position that you choose to do it from. Because if you were to try to do, let’s say, a posterior chain focus version of this where you’re leaning forward more, and you were going to do it with some type of object, either a kettlebell or a dumbbell or something in a goblet or rack position here, then leaning forward is going to become very, very difficult. You’re not going to be able to keep the weight close enough to your chest to [music] avoid up your back beyond just messing up the exercise.

So, what we do instead is choose [music] the implement that works best. For anything posterior here, you’re best off going to be holding a pair of dumbbells because no matter what I do, my arms are going to be independent of the rest of my body. So, I can tilt my torso forward but not have that affected by the position of the dumbbells that hangs just straight down. [music] Now, if you do want to do this even forward or backward and you want to make sure you’re focusing more on your quads, then the upright position would allow you to put the barbell on your back or the rack position with the weight held up here against your chest. Either one would work but mostly for that anterior focused upright body position.

But how you apply the load to your body is up to you. Just remember it’s intertwined with the position of your body while you do it. >> [music] >> Which brings us to the question of depth. Hey Jessie, how deep is good enough? >> I hope 2 and 1/2 inches.

Poor guy. Listen, the depth is going to be determined by two things. Number on