Lunges are a series of exercises done to strengthen and tone the leg muscles. They strengthen your hamstring muscles, your thighs or quadriceps muscles and your buttocks or maximus muscles.
They each have a varying degrees of advantages for the legs, among which the following five are the best.
1. Dumbbell lunge
Holding a dumbbell, a small heavy object in each hand, as you perform your lunge, puts more strain on your leg muscles as they go down, and hence increases their strength. Your knee joints are also improved.
Hold the dumbbells in your hands as you go down on one knee with your other foot still flat on the ground, then come back up without support, and going down on the other knee and coming back up again, repeating the process.
2. Curtsy lunge
This lunge position works on the buttocks, and also strengthens the thighs and hamstring muscles.
To do it, stand with your weight placed on your right leg, and then moving your left leg sideways and backwards behind your right leg, bend your knees. You should notice that you will be in a curtsy position (hence its name), as your left leg and knee should be touching the ground. Repeat this a for the other leg.
3. Reverse lunge
This lunge mostly strengthens the thigh and hamstring muscles more than the standard lunge position.
Instead of getting down on your knees in front of you, you get down on your knees behind you.
4. Walking lunge
This lunge position is good for increasing the functions of your legs, as you alternate your legs in this pose.
Do the regular standard lunge, but this time do it walking forward, and push from the back knee on the ground when coming up.
5. Kick reverse lunge
Kicking after a reverse lunge puts more strain on the legs, strengthening them further and ramping up your blood flow and heart rate. It also increases the flexibility of your hip.
Do the regular reverse lunge; get down on your knee behind you, and this time kick out when you come back up.
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