How to Perform Lunges

Charlotte Hellhoff: Hi! I am Charlotte and this is Cinda from Performance Private Training and we're both Personal Trainers. Today, we're going to show you how to get ready for swimsuit season. So we're going to start with having Cinda show you how to perform a lunge.

So Cinda, I want you to give me a front lunge stepping forward with your foot and coming back and again. As Cinda stands here, I am going to show you what not to do. This is a no-no. She has to come back more with her leg, so that leg is in a 90 degree angle. Otherwise, she'll put too much pressure on her knee. So set back and give me one more lunge please, very good. That's prefect.

Now to make this a little bit more interesting, we can give Cinda a pair of weights. We'll start at 5 pounds to make things a little harder and step forward again for me, very good. One more time. That makes it a little harder, also involves more of her core and her arms. I can take the weights from you, if you can show me a side lunge. So you're starting with a front lunge and getting over to the side and back, very good. Now come and stand still right there. That's a side lunge. Now a back lunge, foot back. Again, be very careful with your knee. Don't do that, come on back more of a 90 degree angle and step forward and back again, perfect.

Now we can actually make a little bit of pattern of this. So she's going to start with a front lunge, go over to a side and then a back lunge. So now you're working different muscle groups. You're working your quadriceps, you're working your glutes and also your core.

So it is important that when you perform a lunge or any exercise, that you perform equal amount of exercises on both sides. So in this case, I would suggest if this is the first time for you doing a lunge, you maybe start with 5-8 lunges on each side. So five on your right leg, five on your left. As you become more and more used to these exercises, you can go up to 15-20, if you wish. Coming up next, we will show you how to perform a push-up.