If you stopped doing lunges because you feel the balance required to do the exercise prevents you from either using enough weight to help grow your legs then be rest assured, you’ll love doing lunges after this. I’m going to show you the right way to step to make sure that balance is never an issue again whether you are doing barbell lunges or dumbbell lunges.

People forget about the need to keep their base of support wide during the lunge. They think that they have to step forward (or in some cases backwards) in one straight line. This makes it almost impossible to balance, especially when you have an appreciable amount of weight in either your hands or across your back.

As you watch Dwayne The Rock Johnson perform his walking dumbbell lunge in this clip, pay attention to the direction of his feet when he steps. They don’t just step straight ahead. Instead, he steps up and out every time he picks up his feet. At the bottom of the lunge you can see just how much wider his base of support has become. The distance between his feet has increased by many inches, which helps to keep his balance intact throughout the exercise.

In truth, the barbell lunge or dumbbell lunge is one of the greatest leg exercises you can do. Far too many people opt to skip it in favor of a leg machine because they don’t like the feeling of compromised balance when doing the movement. This unilateral leg exercise is not only a must do for athletes but it has so many benefits that amplify any program that is based solely around squat patterns and exercises.

If you do get your balance corrected and decide to start doing the lunge as you should in every leg workout, I would next suggest that you perform the reverse lunges if possible. This variation of the lunge can be so much easier on the knees if you are already someone that deals with knee tendonitis issues or anterior knee pain.

The lunge that requires you to step forward can be pretty aggravating to the knee joint, especially if you forget to step into your forward lunge. As you’ll see if you watch the complete video which is linked to this one, The Rock remembers to lift the stepping foot high into the air and places it down from above rather than approaching the ground from a low angle.

This helps to minimize the shearing stresses of the exercise on the knees.

Combine that with the improved balance that you get from doing the lunge properly and you will no doubt love doing lunges again.

The hypertrophy benefits of this powerful leg exercise are also something that you don’t want to take for granted. Yes, squats need to be the foundation leg exercise for all of your leg workouts but not remembering to do a great unilateral leg exercise that utilizes the lunge pattern would be a big mistake in terms of completing the growth of the legs.

For more ways to to make sure that you are getting every exercise right with proper form to build the most muscle possible, be sure to stay tuned to this channel and remember to subscribe so that you never miss another video from a physical therapist with a pro sports background as a PT and strength coach.

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For complete step-by-step workout programs that show you how to do every exercise without the guesswork, head on over to athleanx.com and make sure to use the program selector to find the training program that is best suited to your personal goals.

Jeff Cavaliere MSPT, CSCS served as both the head physical therapist and assistant strength coach for the New York Mets. Jeff earned his Masters of Physical Therapy and Bachelor’s of Physioneurobiology from the College of Health Sciences University of Connecticut Storrs. He is a certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist by the National Strength and Conditioning Association (NSCA).

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