Women’s Leg Exercise Walking Lunge Help

I recently received the queston below and thought it was important to not only answer it but to also share it with all women looking to tone, strengthen and tighten your legs. The walking lunge is one of the best leg exercises for women, afterall, it works your thighs, calves, butt and abs!

Q: What is the correct way of doing Lunges with weights?

A: This is a big question and has been debated for years. For a long time and still today expert trainers argue that in a correct lunge the knee should never extent past the ankle… this I believe doesn’t really matter. In our ever day lives we often move in a way where the knee bends beyond the ankle, even beyond the entire foot. Think about when you climb stairs for instance.

The big part of lunges is that when you take your giant step, make sure the back knee comes close to the ground but not quite making contact with it. When it comes to adding weight to the lunge there are a few ways:

1. Walking lunges: hold a dumbbell in each hand down by your sides, make sure that each weight is the same. Or you can use small pre-weighted barbells that you can “sweep” onto your upper back… don’t  place the bar on the back of your neck, it should be resting comfortably on the back along the shoulder blades.
2. Standing: with standing you can load up generally more weight than when walking. Follow the same weight ideas as above but you can use a normal barbell if you would like. Stand with feet together and step either forward or backward (reverse lunge) to the lunge position. The push off the foot to return to standing.

The lunge is a great move. If it’s new to your workout you’ll feel it instantly burning your hamstrings, quads and butt! Remember to make continuous gains that it is important to up the weight, or the reps. If you’re doing 3 sets of 8-10 reps and you can easily get to 10, then its time to up the weight.

Look out for move great women’s leg exercises.