How to Do Walking Lunges

Marching lunges work as an excellent exercise to target all the major muscle groups in the lower body while improving balance and core strength. This move is familiar to most people: it involves taking long steps forward, bending your knees, and lowering your back knee to the floor, while keeping your torso upright and high.

Considering the importance of balance and stability for functional fitness, this type of additional challenge is particularly helpful in preventing falls and fall-related injuries.

Generally speaking, the lunge is a strength training exercise for the lower body and as such should be included in strength training routines. That said, since they involve multiple muscle groups and joints when performing lunges while walking for high reps or time, they can also make your heart rate skyrocket. This makes them a good choice to incorporate into circuit training or high intensity interval training routines designed to perform dual tasks for strength and cardiovascular benefits.

Benefits

Walking movements challenge your entire lower body and core, making them a great move to incorporate into virtually any workout, from warm-ups to strength training routines. Specifically, you can expect to "feel the burn" in your quads, hamstrings, glutes, and calves, while feeling the involvement through your abs and lower back.

Any compound exercise that works several muscle groups simultaneously is considered a functional exercise that mimics the movements of everyday life, making it stronger and better for the types of movements that basic life requires.

For example, every time you are on the ground, you have to get up using some variation of the squat or lunge. Likewise, because lunges help you develop better balance, if you hit a bump or tip over, or if you stumble and have to try to grab, you will be better equipped with the strength and body awareness necessary to reduce stress.

Likelihood of falls or injury. taking a "recovery step" (usually wide or long) to hold on.

Finally, because forays on foot require very little equipment or space, you can incorporate them into virtually any exercise anywhere.

You can add some outfits while you are in the park. You can make them in your living room or hallway, or you can even make them in a hotel room or on the beach on the go. They are a great way to build lower body strength, no gymnastics required.

Step by step instructions

As a bodyweight exercise, you need very little to start walking. Most importantly, you need an open space where you can take at least 6 steps in a row. The more room you have, the more lunges you can take without turning around. Parks, gyms, and open hallways are good options, but even an open living room will do.

1. Stand with your feet hip-width apart. Check your posture before you begin: your torso should be straight and high, your center engaged, your shoulders back, and your chin up. Look into the future.
2. Take a big step forward with your right foot; Place it one foot in front of you, allowing your left heel to rise naturally as you step forward. You can place your hands on your hips or move your arms naturally (elbows bent 90 degrees) as you take each step.
3. Keep your core engaged and straight. Bend your knees and lower your back knee toward the ground. Stop just before you hit the ground. Inhale during the lowering (or eccentric) phase of the exercise.
4. Firmly press your right heel and extend your right knee to rise and stand as you lift your left foot off the ground, swinging your left foot forward to plant it about one foot in front of your right foot. Avoid leaning your torso forward from the hips when taking this step. Exhale as you stand up (the concentric phase of the exercise).
5. Continue forward with each lunge, alternating sides. If you lose your balance while walking, pause at the top of each lunge when your feet are together. Gather your balance and carry on.
6. Finish your set by bringing your back foot so that it meets your front foot on the final push.

Common Mistakes

Compound exercises that use multiple muscle groups often have common pitfalls and pitfalls, especially since there are so many joints involved that it's easy to lose shape or not realize where you're going wrong. The lungs are one of the biggest culprits and the form tends to suffer more as you tire.

Take your time and pay attention. If you can, do the exercise in front of a mirror until you are comfortable with it, so you can catch mistakes as they occur.

Feet too close together During Step

Pay attention to foot placement as you go through each step. You want your feet to be hip-width apart (or slightly wider) to provide a good base of support for balance and stability.

If your feet are too close together, where the heel of the front foot is in line with the toes of the rear foot, you are much more likely to lose your balance. As you walk forward, your stride width should feel natural, as if you are simply taking longer strides at your normal stride.

If you step forward as if you were walking a tightrope, with one foot aligned directly in front of the other, you will make the exercise even more difficult to perform and alter your gait in a way that will make it more difficult to keep up. Balance. proper alignment.

Take very long steps

Another common mistake is overdoing it. Yes, during lunges, your stride should be longer than usual, but not so long as to create an uncomfortable stretch in your groin as you lower your knee to the floor.

Instead, take long strides, but place your front foot about sixty to two and a half feet in front of your back foot. When you launch, both knees should be at roughly 90-degree angles at the bottom of the movement.

Leaning forward from the hips

During gait lunges, you constantly move forward and there is a strong tendency for your torso to begin to lean forward to "help" you move during the lunge. This usually happens when you are trying to accelerate a set and use a forward leaning thrust to help you perform each lunge. It also happens frequently if you are pushing your limits, taking longer than necessary steps for each push.

The problem is, you disengage your core and you could end up hurting your lower back if you're not careful. Slow down and pay close attention to your chest while walking; It shouldn't start to lean toward the ground. Keep your abdominal and core muscles engaged and try to keep your torso nearly perpendicular to the ground during each lunge. Looking straight ahead, with your eyes fixed on the wall in front of you, can also help.

Raise the front heel while jumping

Another common misstep (pun intended) when moving too fast during lunges is the tendency to lift your heel off the floor as you bend your knees and lower yourself toward the floor. The problem is that it unbalances the alignment of the front leg, putting more pressure on the knee.

You should keep the heel planted throughout the lunge, the lower leg almost perpendicular to the ground, the knee aligned over the heel, only allowing the front heel to lift after you have stepped forward from the back leg to the next rep.

Slow down and check your form at the bottom and top of each lunge (ask yourself if your heel is still on the ground) and check that your front knee does not extend over your toes. Paying close attention and taking your time are the best ways to identify and solve this problem.

Alignment of the front rod

One last error common to all forms of thrust is the alignment of the front rod during the thrust. The rodilla must remain aligned with the toes of the feet throughout the exercise. Some people have the "hundir" inside (what is known as rodilla en valgo) there is the middle line of the body, which increases the probability of pain or injury in the rod.

Slowly and always wins this race. Take your time to lower the rear caster to the floor and observe the caster from the front while it takes off. If you notice that your rod is moving inside, try to involve the muscles of the hip and buttocks to align your rod with the fingers of the feet.

Modifications and variations

There are endless opportunities for modifications and variations in carrying out loads on the gear. Comience with these options.

Do you need a modification?

If you want to attempt a short lunge, but your balance is a little out of place, stop with the pieces together between each shot. In other words, after launching there was a delay with the pie derecho, but then it got up to stop, take the pie izquierdo it was adelante and colloquelo in the distance from the chair.

Take a break here, making sure you are well balanced, then continue taking a step backwards with the left foot to make a lunge on the opposite side. Piense en ello as the "nuptial whirl" of embestidas a pie.

Are you ready for a challenge?

The easiest way to make the thrusts are more challenging and add weight to the exercise. Simply take a pair of handrails or a pair of Russian weights and carry one on each hand as you go.

Take your time and change with precision to ensure you maintain perfect shape while facing this additional challenge.

If you feel that you need a greater challenge, hold a handstand on each hand, with your arms extended over the head during the totality of each series.

This variation in the tone of walking above the head requires a greater participation in the nucleus, while burning the arms and arms in the process.

Safety and Precautions

As a bodyweight exercise, as long as you pay close attention to your form, the walking lunge should be quite safe for most people. Remember to keep your abs and lower back engaged; This will help with balance and reduce the chance of tipping over.

It is quite common for people with knee pain to struggle with bumps. Consider trying the exercise with a smaller range of motion, going down just a few inches with each push, if the deeper pushes cause you pain.

You can also test the increments as a modification. Step-ups tend to be easier on the knees while targeting the same muscle groups due to the change in angle of movement (stepping up and lifting your body to meet the first leg, rather than stepping forward and lower your body into a lunge).

The lungs are an excellent lower body exercise that will certainly cause a natural "burning" sensation in the working muscles as they tire. This is normal. What is not normal is a sharp or sharp pain.

If you experience a sudden sensation of pain that is not associated with normally working muscles, stop exercising.

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Source: LIVESTRONG.COM

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