UN(dis)TALENTED: Lunging Model Sketch and Motivation

Do you ever perform lunges in your quest for exercise? This model is caught in a pose of lunging and twisting at the same time. But she is leaning too far forward to help us with this move.

My History with Lunging

I had a misunderstanding about lunging for most of my life. In almost every instruction I saw for them, the focus was on your front leg, and keeping you knee from going over your foot too far. This led me to keep my weight in the front and worry about that front knee. I really never got a thing out of lunging for most of my life.

It turns out the front leg is not your focus while lunging!

You are supposed to be focusing on the back leg and getting a stretch in your calf and Achilles tendon. If you do the move by sitting back on that back leg, you will never have to worry about the front one at all. It will fall into place and have none of the problem you are warned about.

Once I changed my ways to a focus on my back leg, my lunges changed for the better. I do some lunges most every day now and get a lot of benefit out of them. One of the most satisfying moments of lunging is when my back ankle cracks! I love that relief in my arthritic feet.

Directions for Lunging

• Stand with both feet under your shoulders.
• Get some breathing going on.
• Engage your abdominal muscles.
• Step one foot forward at a comfortable distance.
• Keeping your back straight and shoulders down, lean back (sit back) on the back leg.
• Focus on bending your back ankle, knee and hip.
• Engage your back quad muscle.
• Keep breathing!
• Get to your lowest comfortable place and stay there a moment.
• Push back up with your back quad muscle.
• Bring the front leg back to your shoulder.

Keep going

• You can repeat a few times with the same leg or alternate your legs.
• You can vary the distance you extend your front leg.
• You can vary how low you sink down.
• You can walk forward or backward in small steps, depending on space.
• You can twist you head or upper body while in the lunge, to bring in some additional body parts. Be careful with this. Start small, and see how it goes.

How to fit lunging into your life.

I am sitting at the computer most of the day and do my lunges and other stretches and strength moves when I get up and down for any reason. I try not to sit back down until I have done something to get my body moving.

Your turn!

Are you trying any exercise moves to get your fitness plan started? Please tell me how it is going for you. Small actions, taken consistently are all you need for better health.

Here are some earlier posts to get you started.

Get Down on the Floor While Obese
Back and Neck Stretch
Forward Bends
Wall Push Ups

Post your talent to the Untalented tag

Untalented is an initiative by @surpassinggoogle and can be found on the ulogs platform he created for us. All of us have something to give, so please show us what you’ve got!

My text is inspired by the sketch done by my son @bxlphabet. I am finding so many fitness moves in these dancers who posed for his art class. We may not all be able to dance like the pros, but we can all treat our bodies to some exercise!

And please come to my blog as well @fitinfun. I am re-vamping my weight loss coaching to be more effective and you can join right in.