Stop Doing Lunges Like This! (SAVE A FRIEND)

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