In much the same way as you shouldn’t eat the same foods at every meal, no matter how healthy they are, you shouldn’t do the same exercises every time you do a workout. It’s all too easy with a weight and fitness routine to get into a rut, but if you keep going over the same exercises day in day out, you will actually find that they become less beneficial for your wellness and wellbeing as time goes on.
Next time you hit the gym, try to mix it up a bit with some of these great new lunge-based exercises, to increase your chances of building some great, noticeably toned legs.
To try lunge variations, you should – of course – start by making sure you are able to do a basic lunge properly, with good form. To do a basic lunge you should stand with your hands on your hips and your shoulders back. Step forward with one leg and then lower your body until your right knee is bent at 90 degrees, making sure that you shift your weight forwards onto the front leg. Pause and then stand up again, stepping back in to the centre.
Now it’s time to mix it up and start increasing the complexity of your lunges. One way to do this is by grabbing a pair of dumbbells and holding them down by your sides, with the palms of your hands facing each other. Stand up tall and make sure that your feet are about hip width apart. Step forward onto your right leg and lower your body down into a lunge. As you lower in to the lunge, curl your dumbbells up to both shoulders. Then, as you step back into the starting position, uncurl the dumbbells again, back to their starting position. This added bicep curl will help you to tone your arms whilst also increasing the toning of your legs due to the extra weight.
For the next move, hold a dumbbell vertically up to your chest, both hands cupping it. Step backwards with your right leg and lower into what is called a reverse lunge. Pause and then return to the start.