Our Legs Do Love Lunges! Weekly Exercise # 4

After days of waiting... they have finally arrived! Wait for it... Drum roll please... Our Legs! Please hold the applause until the end of the presentation.

Earlier this week, we were presented with challenge. Amanda of 5 Miles Past Empty challenged us to perform lunges three days per week for the next four weeks. I, Track Coach, quickly accepted as I adore lunges. The wife on the other hand, basically had to be called out by Amanda on National Blog to agree to take part. To accept this challenge, Amanda DEMANDED that we post pictures of our minimally athletic stems on our blog to show the "before" and hopefully we will get an "after" to post later. So without further adu... here they are: and take note of Adorable Wife's super skinny calves and btw, can you tell I am trying to flex?

  

I know you're asking yourself "What does this have to do with the weekly exercise?" Well, if you'd just have some patience instead of interrupting me, I'd tell you. We thought in light of The Legs Love Lunges challenge, we would do our weekly exercise and our challenge; performing lunges... of course... it's brilliant! Plus, help some of you get the proper lunge form down.

The greatest thing about lunges is they work pretty much every part of your legs. Usually, it ends up being the part of your legs that needs it the most that gets the most sore. I was also told by my college trainer that lunges is a fantastic exercise for preventative maintenance on leg muscle injuries. 

Little Track Star and I displaying proper technique. I know, Adorable Wife is missing again, but she wanted to make sure that you had good form to follow (her words not mine) and she didn't know if she could do a proper lunge under pressure.

A few points to remember if you want to get the most out of your lunges: 1.) NEVER let your knee go past your ankle, this is bad for your knees and it also doesn't allow you to get all the stretch you need out of your lunge. 2.) Get to the bottom of your lunge and pause for a one or two count, you should really feel the stretch on your hip flexors and feel your hamstring working during the bottom portion of the lunge. 3.) Don't let your knee hit the ground at the bottom of the lunge. Again, not so good for your knees.  

So, if you are looking for a good way to strengthen your legs and make them sore like crazy, this exercise is for you. And if you are a fan of posting your sexy sticks on the Internet check out Amanda's blog here and sign up for the Challenge. Let me know of you like these, currently use, or have modified them. Happy Lunging!