Why should I do lunges?

In simple terms, lunges have the ability to affect a large portion of your body in movements that are relatively easy to do. Many people are afraid of lunges because they have heard tales of injury and difficulty from their friends, but the truth of the matter is that if you take into account both the difficulty of the exercise and the areas which it affects, there are few better exercises out there than lunges.  In a single movement, you can exercise all of the major muscles in your lower body.  In the end, this is the best reason to do lunges.

See also How to get slimmer legs and How to get thinner thighs.

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What are the benefits of lunges?

Lunges have the ability to affect your entire lower body with emphasis on different muscle groups depending on the particular type of lunge that you decide to do.  Choice and effectiveness go hand-in-hand with lunges, making them a valuable addition to anyone's workout.  Additionally, once you learn the proper exercise technique for doing lunges, you will find that there are few exercises that you can do better or for as long at a high intensity and that in turn means that your overall workout will be better because of lunges.  

Are there different lunge types?

There are multiple types of lunges, each one affecting a primary muscle group and a number of secondary ones.  There are lunge exercises that you can do in order to work your butt muscles, your thigh muscles, your lower leg muscles and even different muscles between groups should you wish to do so.  

Should I use weight resistance with my lunges?

In scientific terms, weight resistance does not actually change the overall outcome of the exercise.  What it does is add more weight to the overall movement and in doing so it requires more physical work in order to make each repetition work.  This means that the effect of the exercise is increased, but you will experience results with your lunges regardless of whether you decide to use weights with them or not.  If you do not have proper exercise technique, weights can actually hurt more than they help.  So the best advice would be to learn proper techniques without weights and then consider adding them later only when you are sure that you have the technique down pat.  

How many reps should be in each lunge set?

This is really a matter of personal preference, although there are some general ground rules that you should follow.  For example, sets are meant to be high intensity and short so that you can specialize and concentrate all of your effort into the muscle groups that you are trying to work.  For this reason, 5-10 reps per set are usually called for, although experienced trainers might recommend more to people that have shown a particularly impressive ability in endurance.  

How many lunge sets should I do per workout?

The answer to this question is tied directly to your endurance level.  Ideally, a set is supposed to strain your muscles to the max, allowing you a few seconds of reprieve to relax only after you have burned through the set.  If you do multiple sets with lunge workouts, you need to have the necessary endurance to do them all at your fullest intensity level.  If you feel your intensity dropping off after the first set, doing another one is probably not a good idea.  Additionally, if you do decide to do multiple sets, trying a different lunge for each set might be a good idea to get a more complete workout from your lunges.  

What exercises compliment lunges the best?

Upper body exercises are arguably the best compliment to lunges because lunges themselves do quite a bit for your lower body while doing basically nothing for your upper body.  This means that exercises like push-ups, sit-ups, abdominal curls and arm exercises like extensions and curls are great for inclusion in a workout that includes lunges.  

What exercises can I replace with lunges in my workout?

Any other exercise that exercises the lower part of the body is an exercise that you can replace in your workout with lunges.  A good example of this would be squats.  Many people do squats as a method of getting their lower body in shape, but lunges can be more effective than squats if used in the proper situations.  This is especially true if you decide to use multiple lunges in your workout, in which case leaving the lunges by themselves to work your lower body might be an idea worth considering. Lateral leg raises, another group of lower body activities, are less redundant with respect to lunges than squats are and for that reason you might be able to leave them in.  

What type of stretching is best before I do lunges?

You absolutely need to stretch out your lower body before you do lunges.  Any stretches that you are used to that stretch out the muscles in your legs, lower back, buttocks and feet are good stretches.  Additionally, stretching out your arms is a good idea as the arms have an important role to play in certain lunging exercises.  It will not do to have a great workout going and then have to stop because your wrist or shoulder has started to ache.  Remember that arms do not get workouts from lunges but do have pressure placed on them in certain cases, so make sure you stretch them out beforehand.   

What are the injury risks from lunges?

Lunges carry massive sprain risks with them, but this is mostly because there are many people that do lunges in a method that is not conducive with proper exercise technique.  The truth of the matter is that if you do lunge exercises properly, they are one of the safest exercise groups out there.  Lunges are easy to do improperly however, especially if you jump head first into the exercise without practicing the proper technique first.  And in the end, this is where the injuries come from.

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