Ultimate Sandbag Training The Lunge Strikes Back!
It is almost like dirty locker room talk. “Yea, lunges are for girls!” You would probably being whispered by most trainers and coaches. Even women are taught that lunges are your foundational “firming and toning” exercises. It is time though, time for the lunge to have its revenge on the fitness and sports performance industry!
I’ll admit, I was one of those coaches and athletes that thought the lunge was ok, but if you wanted to get strong, if you wanted to gain muscle, then throw me those squats!!! Probably one of the biggest hindsight concepts for myself is about the value of the lunge.
how most people think of lunges maybe dancing?
I think to start though we have to ask why? Why does it have the reputation that it currently finds? It took two herniated low back discs and a neck spinal fusion to get me to really re-think the whole idea of the lunge. To be honest, without such occurrences I am not sure would have ever questioned them myself. In a lot of ways I consider myself fortunate to have such injuries that forced me to find “better ways” to train and ultimately help others!
Ok, ok, back to lunge! If what I am proposing is right then why is it that the squat is so often thought of “the king” of lower body exercises. To be perfectly honest, I think it almost all has to do with the amount of weight we usually use. Very few, if it all, can people use the same weight to lunge than they can squat with. As silly as this sounds this seems to be a common argument I hear from professionals that re-enforces my thought that fitness has become all about the weight and not about the movement!
Our fitness and sports culture values bigger and in this case the squat can almost always use more weight than the lunge. But what a false premise, it doesn’t take someone with schooling in biomechanics to figure out, “well of course, you are more stable in the squat” and therefore you are able to handle more weight. More weight always equals more results right?
Well, let’s look at this study which used 8 healthy college female athletes and showed the difference in muscle activity during the 90, 60, 30 degree squat and lunge.
Pretty interesting that the lunge showed very similar if not superior results in these athletes with the lunge compared to the 90 degree squat. However, what is more interesting is that the study used 70% weight on the squat and JUST bodyweight on the lunge, hmmmm.
Want more? How about this study that states, “The lunge exercise produced the VMO:VL ratio (1.18:1) closest to the idealized ratio of 1:1. Potential clinical recommendations can be made proposing the lunge exercise as a key tool in early rehabilitation when restoring preferential VMO:VL ratio is essential.” (2)
Ultimate Sandbag Training in the Real World
I know, I know, no one said the lunge wasn’t good, but really great? Let’s try to look beyond just the muscles being used. Let’s actually talk about some real world ideas. Seeing a perfect squat in the gym might be like hunting down Bigfoot in the Northwest. There are people that believe it exists, very few claim they have seen it, and most of us haven’t seen anything resembling anything like it!
Bigfoot and a Great Squat both Rare to Find!
In almost 18 years in the fitness industry I can tell you it is far easier to get people into a good and safe lunge position than it is to get them into a good squat (well, not of course now with the Ultimate Sandbag Training Bear Hug Squat;) From a practical stand point we have far more options to get people to do a good lunge. In our Ultimate Sandbag Training program we have over 100 lunge variations compared to 20 squatting variations. The open stance of the hips just allows the body to do more!
It has been said a million times but not emphasized enough but lunging also provides a great deal of hip flexibility. Guess what hurts a lot of people in their squat? LACK of hip flexibility! It would actually make more sense to make the lunge the focus that would actually help the squat!
Am I getting to you yet? Does it make sense? We haven’t even addressed about working in more planes, stabilizing the lower leg, I could go on and on! The different patterns of lunging have so much value as well I almost think people are crazy for not making the lunge more of a priority.
How does Ultimate Sandbag Training fit into this whole equation and why am I making such a big deal about it? Having over 100 Ultimate Sandbag Training variations sounds cool, but one of the reasons it is so powerful is because it allows us to progress people far beyond just the idea of weight. We can challenge stability, coordination, core strength, strength, power, yea, pretty awesome right? It takes understanding the why’s and how to progress and that is what today’s Ultimate Sandbag Training video is about today. Just a simple way to re-invent what you thought about lower body training and how Ultimate Sandbag Training begins to opens a whole new door of getting more fit, stronger, and actually feeling better!
