(gentle music)
- Hi, my name's Tiffany Millikan
and I am a functional fitness trainer here
in Portland, Oregon.
I'm so excited to be with adidas today
to break down a standard lunge
and three other lunge variations.
We love a standard lunge
and lunge variations for how functional they are
for not only your legs, but your entire body.
Let's get started.
First up is our standard lunge.
Go ahead and meet me with your feet
right underneath your hips.
Take a soft bend in your knees
and then step your right foot forward.
Your left knee drops towards the ground.
Your hands come to your hips and hold.
Notice your knee is right above your ankle,
your back knee right underneath your hip,
and then start to draw your abs in,
and relax your shoulders wide away from your ears.
From here, push your front foot,
lengthen your back leg to rise,
and then drop the knee right back down
towards the ground.
Lifting and lowering.
Love a standard lunge because it works all plains
of your legs, your quads, your hamstrings, and your glutes.
Now we're gonna get into our other lunge variations.
We're gonna start with the reverse lunge with dumbbells.
Go ahead and grab a pair of dumbbells
and meet me with your feet directly underneath your hips.
Take a soft bend in your knees,
let your left leg stay forward,
and then step back with your right leg.
Bend your right knee and hold.
Notice your front foot anchors down.
Your knee is right above your ankle.
Square off your pelvis.
Drop your back knee underneath your hip
and then let your shoulders be wide away from your ears.
From here, push into your front foot,
start to lift all the way up.
And then come all the way back down,
dropping your right knee underneath your hip.
From here, you're gonna notice
your knee might not touch the ground, and that's great.
You're gonna go to the place where you can find the length
through the top of your quad
and then push into your front foot to rise.
Really common to wanna rebound off your back foot,
so try to draw your energy into your front foot to rise up
and then let the length happen
through the front of your right quad.
Once you've finished, push into your front foot.
Stand all the way up.
The reverse lunge with dumbbells activates your glutes,
your quads, and your hamstrings.
You're gonna feel a dominant burn
in your glute every single time you push
through your foot to stand up,
and you should feel a lot of balance challenge
in the split stance posture.
Next up is our side lunge.
Go ahead and bring your feet right underneath your hips.
Take a soft bend in your knees, draw your abs up and in
and bring your hands to your hips.
Step out with your right foot.
Start to lunge and hold.
Draw your foot into the ground,
your knee right above your ankle,
tracking towards your outer toes,
and then level your pelvis.
Wrap your abs in and relax your shoulders.
To move through this,
you're gonna push through your right foot to stand tall
and then you're gonna come right back down.
Push through your right foot to stand tall,
and then step out with your right leg.
Another variation of this is to keep your foot grounded
and to lift up through center.
You can draw your hips back, keep your chest bright,
and then push through your foot to rise.
Either variation is really going to tap
into the side of your seat, your quads, your glutes,
and your abdominal wall.
From here, to get out of it,
you're just gonna push right through your right foot
and stand all the way back up through center.
Side lunges are a really great move
to work not only your glutes, your quads,
and your hamstrings, but also your outer hip
and inner hip stabilizing muscles.
We also don't get a ton of lateral movement in life.
Moving side to side is not something we normally do.
We tend to be chronically weak
through our outer hips, inner thighs,
and stabilizing muscles like our abductors and adductors.
So next time you feel like you wanna really work your core
and your legs at the same time, step out into a side lunge.
Last up is our walking lunge.
Go ahead and meet me with your feet hip distance apart,
hands to your hips, wrap your belly in,
and then take a step forward with your right leg.
Drop your back knee underneath your hip.
Push into your right foot, stand up,
step forward with your left leg,
drop your back knee underneath your hip.
Push through your left foot,
stand all the way up and repeat.
The walking lunge is great
because it's a highly functional movement
that we replicate in real life every day when we walk.
It's highly functional
for the quads, the glutes, the hamstrings,
all of which perform by pushing through your front foot
and your ab wall, which protects your low back.
Great work doing all these lunges.
You just did a lot of work in your quads,
your hamstrings, your glutes, and even your core.
Keep showing up for yourself.
Keep betting on yourself, and we'll see you next time.