The WELLthy Mom Lunge Exercise is a single-leg body weight exercise that works your hips, glutes, quads, hamstrings, core, and the hard-to-reach muscles of the inner thigh. Any workout that only requires body weight is my workout of choice. Lunges can help you develop lower-body strength and endurance, and unlike squats, they are highly effective at evening out muscle imbalances.
The WELLthy Mom Lunge Exercise is one exercise that is part of our family exercise routine because lunges can be done anywhere and the effects can be seen in no time. A research study by the American Council on Exercise found the forward lunge to be one of the most effective exercises for eliciting a high level of muscle activity in the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and hamstrings—significantly more than other common lower-body exercises like the squat.
If you’re planning on incorporating the WELLthy Mom Lunge Exercise into your routine, however, make sure you’re not doing more harm than good. It’s important to do lunges properly so you don’t put unwanted strain on your joints. Here’s how to perfect your form:
If you’re a beginner, start with a simple static lunge or walking lunge, concentrating on the quality of each rep. Start with 3 sets of 10 reps for each leg. As you become more competent, think about challenging your body as much as possible, increasing the amount of reps and sets, even working toward 10 sets of 10 reps on a variation of lunges.
The Static Lunge
The static lunge will challenge your balance (since all of your weight is loaded through your forward leg) and your hip flexibility (which will determine how deep you can settle into the lunge).
The Walking Lunge
The walking lunge is a simple, yet effective variation if you want to target your glutes and hamstrings. You can increase the challenge by varying your stance and weight. Hold dumbbells in both hands to develop grip strength, place a bar on your back (or even in the front rack position) to place a greater demand on your balance and engage all your major core muscles, or take shorter steps to put more of an emphasis on your quads.
The Reverse Lunge
The reverse lunge is a great alternative if you suffer from minor knee pain every now and again. Unlike conventional lunges, this lunge allows your knee joint to more favorably respond to hip flexion and still delivers big results when it comes to muscle and strength development.
The Curtsy Lunge
The unique action of crossing over your legs in the curtsy lunge is the most challenging part; you’re putting emphasis on all three gluteal muscles—the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius, and gluteus minimus.
The Lunge and Reach
If you’re looking to build a rock-solid butt and fry your hamstrings and glutes in one fell swoop, then the lunge and reach variation is for you. Also, if you’re plagued by lower-back pain, this could be a great lunge alternative—if done correctly—because it takes a lot of the load off your lumbar muscles. Your glutes, hamstrings, and quads are the primary movers.
The Jumping Lunge
The jumping lunge is perfectly suited for high-intensity interval training. This plyometric bodyweight conditioning exercise helps you gain balance, power, and speed (and it’ll have you sweating almost immediately).
Whether you’re trying to shape your lower body, increase muscle tissue, develop core strength or make your hips more flexible, the WELLthy Mom Lunge Exercise can help you achieve your goal. This functional, multi-joint exercise can be modified to meet your fitness level.
The WELLthy Mom Lunge Exercise targets most, if not all, of the muscles in your lower body. Lunges not only help your legs, they also require the development of your abdominal and lower back muscles to stabilize your core and provide balance.
Lunges are performed on one leg at a time, independent of the other leg. This is known as unilateral training. Unilateral training improves both balance and coordination rather than simply developing strength as with exercises that train both sides at the same time such as squats. Lunges also require the abdominal and back muscles to be tensed to aid in control of the movement and this helps develop your core muscles. Strong core muscles are vital for posture and balance and why I enjoy incorporating exercises like push ups, pull ups, deadlifts and planks to my workout routine.
