Alternating Lunges Exercise: How to Do It Correctly?

The alternating lunges exercise is a great way to target the glutes, quads, and hamstrings. Besides building strength and muscles in the lower body, the lunges help to make the back stronger, increase mobility & flexibility, and enhance your balance.

Moreover, alternating forward lunges are the second favourite to squats of most personal fitness trainers. Also, cyclists, runners, and other athletes perform lunges regularly because of the benefits that they offer.

Unfortunately, many people perform the leg lunges incorrectly, which could lead to injuries and pain. Therefore, today we are going to uncover the correct method of doing alternating leg lunges.

How to Do Alternating Leg Lunges Correctly?

Step 1

The first step to do a bodyweight leg lunges is to stand straight on the ground and move your leg forward until the leg you have moved forward is at 90 degrees from the ground. Keep the leg that you haven’t moved forward slightly up from the ground, and don’t touch your knee to the ground. While doing so, keep your hands behind your head with elbows straight outwards.

Step 2

The next step of alternating leg lunges is to push back your leg to the original starting position. While moving your leg backwards, ensure that you maintain your posture properly and don’t bend your back too far forward while you move forward or backward.

Step 3

Once your leg reaches the original starting position, you should do the same method with the other leg, i.e., move the other leg forward until your knee is 90 degrees from the ground and the backward knee is slightly above the ground.

Step 4

Once your other leg is in a lunge position, pull it back to the original starting position and then perform the same activity with the first leg. Please note that once you complete lunges from both legs, you have finished one repetition from each leg. Now you have to perform ten similar reps from each leg, and you will complete one set. Beginners can do 3-4 sets, intermediate athletes can do 5-6, and advanced-level athletes can do more than 6 sets.

Tips While Doing Alternating Leg Lunges

• Don’t keep your body loose; otherwise, you can bend your back or knee forward.
• Do the alternating bodyweight lunges at a manageable pace to avoid injury.
• Keep your hands behind your head and don’t bend your elbows too much.
• Try to complete all the reps properly and increase the reps or sets only once you can.
• Increase your reps from 10 to 15, 20, or more after you build your lower body strength.

Conclusion

Alternating bodyweight lunges are a great exercise for building lower-body strength. However, many newbies and even experienced people often fail to do it properly, risking injury and pain.

Although the alternating lunge exercise might seem easy when seeing others do it, and it is, I have uncovered the proper method of doing them in the above blog. In short, it requires keeping your hands behind your head while standing straight, and moving your leg forward until your knee is 90 degrees from the ground, and keeping the backward leg slightly above the ground.

After that, you have to just move the leg back to the original position and do the same with the alternate leg. An online personal trainer can prove beneficial in giving you instructions for doing alternating bodyweight lunges correctly. Hire an online fitness trainer today and begin your calisthenics, weight loss, or bodybuilding journey.