A short and sweet one today, I’m thinking about turning it into a series. There’s a lot of exercises out there which are hugely beneficial however with a small adjustment they can be more effective or improved in a certain way. You maybe doing these corrections already however if not there can be a lot to gain from just doing an exercise differently, so we’ll start off with the lunge.
From previous posts I’m a big believer on protecting your health in the long run not just for the short term benefits. With any exercise we need to be aware of the correct form and the potential damage we could do to our joints. I’ve talked about in a previous post that just running can exert a force 3x your own bodyweight onto your knees (See My Opinion on Running/Jogging). Now the same can be applied to your lunges if you take a step forward and then imagine if you added weight onto the lunge. You’re just multiplying the weight and the force that goes through your joints.
When working your legs you need to incorporate a unilateral movement so that you don’t get imbalances (one leg bigger than the other). Now the ideal exercise would be a Bulgarian split squat however you need dumbbells, kettlebells or a super easy barbell setup. So instead of that I do barbell lunges and I’m pretty sure there are people out there performing static lunges or walking lunges.
The problem with lunges is when you take a step forward, your foot is preparing to absorb a lot of force when it connects with the ground. When you take that step the knee is partially flexed which creates a stretch in the quad so as soon as you connect with the ground all the force goes through your knee (thats how you get the stabbing knee pain).
The solution, the reverse lunge. It’s literally that easy to fix, instead of stepping forward, step backwards. By going backwards your front foot stays in contact with the ground and the stability of the knee is enhanced. When you go backwards you actually flex more at the hip, the more you flex at the hip the less pressure you have on your knee. And finally the reverse lunge will hit your quads more and be more beneficial for quad growth.
And that’s it for this blog post, I hope you learned something and if you’re currently doing lunges make this small change to make you workouts better. As always enjoy the rest of the day, please check me out on Instagram @cmcg.fitness and if you enjoy my content subscribe to the blog.
Thanks
Cameron
Additional Information
Athlean X - Knee Pain with Lunges (HERE’S YOUR SOLUTION!)