Strength training matters if you’re trying to age gracefully, stay functional, and prevent frailty. Plus, working your muscles against resistance improves your ability to run, jump, climb stairs or lift heavy items without fear of injury. All good things! Working your muscles against resistance helps you stay functional throughout your life. The earlier you start, the better, but you can get benefits from strength training even if you start in your senior years.
Some of the best exercises for boosting functionality are those that involve the lower body since you use your lower body to do so many movements such as lifting heavy items, climbing stairs, and walking. One exercise that stands out for strengthening the lower body is the lunge.
Why the lunge? This movement builds strength while it improves your balance skills. Just as you want to remain strong as you age, you don’t want your balance to deteriorate, leading to a higher risk of falls. The lunge is ideal for lower body strength and building better dynamic stability and balance. Plus, they enhance balance, mobility, flexibility.
But what if lunges cause knee pain? If you have chronic knee problems, it’s safest not to do lunges, especially if descending into a lunge aggravates the pain. However, there are ways to make lunges easier on your knees. It starts with perfecting your form.
Learn Forward a Little
One way to reduce the pressure on your knees is to lean your body forward slightly from the hips when you lunge. By leaning forward slightly, you force your glutes, the strongest muscles in your lower body, to do more work and your quads to do less. This helps because your glutes are stronger and because taking the load of your quads gives your knees a break. Your quads are directly connected to your knees.
Don’t Lift Your Front Heel When You Come Up from a Lunge
Another common mistake: Some people let the heel of the front leg rise up when coming up from a lunge. This places more stress on the knee of that leg. A safer approach for the health of your knees is to press the heel of the front leg into the ground as you come up from a lunge. When you keep your heel planted, you also work your glutes harder for a more rounded booty.
Do Reverse Lunges
If front lunges aggravate your knees, make the reverse lung your go-to lunge variation. When you step back into a lunge, the force shifts from your knees to your hips, and your knees get a break. Your hamstrings and glutes chip in more when you lunge in reverse. Stepping backward also places less stress on your lumbar spine than stepping forward. Plus, reverse lunges are easier to do if you have balance issues with a front lunge.
Another safer variation for your knees is the static lunge. With a static lunge, your feet don’t move forward or backwards and this reduces stress on the knees. This is also the best lunge variation if you have problems with balance. Start with static lunges, then move to reverse lunges once you develop better balance and aren’t experiencing knee discomfort.
The worst lunge you can do if you have unhealthy knees is the curtsy lunge, a lunge variation that causes the knee to shift inward and creates valgus stress on the knee. This type of stress can lead to an acute injury or longer-term micro-damage to the ligaments and cartilage on the inner aspect of the knee. This variation is one to avoid if you have a history of knee injury.
Widen Your Stance
Another adjustment that will take the stress off your knees is to use a wider stance. When you widen your stance when lunging, you place your torso in a more stable position. More stability is safer for your knees. Widening your stance also makes it easier to balance when you lunge. Try doing lunges in front of a mirror, so you can assess your current stance and try widening it a little. See if it doesn’t feel easier on your knees.
Keep Your Front Knee Stable When You Lunge
When you lunge, letting your front knee wobble or fall inward can damage your ligaments and cartilage. There’s a chance you don’t feel anything right away, but if you don’t correct this problem, you could end up with knee pain in the future. The worst-case scenario would be an injury to the anterior cruciate ligament, which could cause lifelong knee problems.
What can you do to fix this? Keep your knee aligned when you lunge. It should track over your midfoot. You can reduce your lunge depth until you get it fixed. If your knees keep moving inward when you lunge, you may need to strengthen your glutes. Exercises like glute bridges, clamshells, and hip thrusts work well. Clamshell exercises strengthen your smaller gluteus medius muscle, which stabilizes your knee when you lunge. Having a strong gluteus medius makes lunging less risky for your knees.
The Bottom Line
Lunges are one of the more effective exercises for your glutes, hamstrings, and quads but they’re not without risks. The key is to build up baseline leg and glute strength before adding lunges to your routine. Start with static lunges and then proceed to reverse lunges. Learn to do them with good form by not letting your front heel come off the floor and by tracking your knee in a straight line.
References:
- Riemann BL, Lapinski S, Smith L, Davies G. Biomechanical analysis of the anterior lunge during 4 external-load conditions. J Athl Train. 2012 Jul-Aug;47(4):372-8. doi: 10.4085/1062-6050-47.4.16. PMID: 22889652; PMCID: PMC3396296.
- American Council on Exercise. “Are All Lunges Created Equal?”
- “Lunging after knee replacement surgeries.” .conformis.com/uploads/2017/08/MK-03002-AA_iDuo-Biomechanics-Wang-et-al-WAC-2015.pdf.
- “Can Your Knees Extend Beyond Your Toes When Squatting ….” 03 Mar. 2010, acefitness.org/education-and-resources/lifestyle/blog/562/is-it-ever-okay-for-your-knees-to-extend-beyond-your-toes-while-doing-squats-or-lunges/.
- Journal of Orthopaedic and Sports Physical Therapy. Volume 47, Issue 1January 2017
- Pages: 1-A226.
Related Articles:
Front vs Back Lunges: What Are the Advantages of Each?
5 Movement Patterns to Master for Greater Functional Strength
More Than a Leg Exercise: 5 Reasons to Love Lunges
Do You Hate Squats and Lunges?
Are You Making These Common Lunge Mistakes?
Squats vs. Lunges: Which is Better for Glute Development?
Related Cathe Friedrich Workout DVDs:
STS Strength 90 Day Workout Program
All of Cathe’s Strength & Toning Workout DVDs
Total Body Workouts
Lower Body Workouts