Lunge Your Way To A Great Booty

As anyone who has ever trained with me knows, one particular lower body exercise that I feel you should regularly include (as long as you have healthy knees) in your workout sessions is the lunge.

The lunge is a great movement for working the glutes, the hamstrings, and quads as well as stimulating the calves and core. It pretty much should be viewed as a full lower body exercise.

Some of you reading that may be saying "how does a lunge stimulate the core?" Because the lunge does require more balance, agility, and control than some other exercises, there is a great indirect effect of strengthening those core muscles.

This said, it’s important that you don’t allow yourself to always stick with just one lunge variation throughout the course of the plan. Ideally you want to mix it up every so often, performing different lunge variations as time moves along.

Let’s look at a few of the top lunge variations that you should embrace for optimal progress.

Walking Lunge

The #1 lunge on my list is the walking lunge. This one is great for glute development as the butt is called into play slightly more than other variations. Be sure while walking that you never allow yourself to break at the waist, however, as that would place excessive strain on the lower back.

Keeping the head up will help you with this.

Stationary Lunge

This one is easy to overlook and it's probably the one I utilize the least. But this lunge variation is great for those who are working out in small spaces or those who want to really test their core strength. It takes a little more abdominal strength to do these since you’re not allowing momentum to move you constantly forward.

Reverse Lunge

The reverse lunge is really #2 on my favorite lunge list. It is considered an advanced variation of the lunge yet it has less impact on the knees. It's excellent for those who want to build up their quads. When doing a reverse lunge, you’ll be training your muscles in an entirely different manner due to the fact that you’re moving in the opposite direction.

Just be sure that you have enough open space behind you before doing this variation so you don’t risk injury. You need to be confident in your foot placement or your knees may not move in line with the toes (as they should) and you could wind up in pretty significant pain.

Lunge With A Twist

I couldn't leave you without a lunge variation that brings the core into play a little bit more. This is one that I like to utilize in my own warm-ups. I like how it loosens up the core muscles and tests agility, as well. For anyone who is involved in sports of any type, it’s a fantastic one to consider.

To perform it, move down into a standard lunge movement and once there, twist to one side of the body (towards the side of the forward leg). Pause and then twist back as you rise up again. I like to combine this twist while doing a walking lunge. I also like to hold a medicine ball while doing so.

So keep these different lunge variations in mind and make sure you are adding them to your program every so often (as I do with almost 100% of my clients). They will bring you fantastic results.