How to do Lunges Without Hurting Your Knees

Lunges are an extremely effective lower body workout. They work all the major muscles of the legs simultaneously, they lengthen and tone and they burn a ton of calories. However, lunges can potentially cause serious damage to the knees if they are performed incorrectly. Below are detailed instructions on how to safely include lunges in your workout routine.

Instructions

Difficulty: Easy

1. Start with reverse lunges. One reason forward lunges hurt the knees is because it forces the distal end of the femur (thigh bone) into the back of the patella (knee cap). Given that the femur is the largest bone in the human body, that’s a lot of pressure to put on a delicate little knee cap, especially if your knee caps happen to be low on cartilage. By stepping backwards into a lunge, the pressure from the femur is pulled away from the knee cap, resulting in a much less painful experience for many people.
2. Try stationary lunges without any weights. Once you’ve mastered reverse lunges, the next step in the progression is a stationary lunge. Make sure your feet are far enough apart so that your front knee does not extend past your toe when you lower into a lunge. And don’t be afraid to use a bench, rod or other fixed object for support when you’re first starting out.
3. Keep your weight in the heel of your front foot. This tip applies to all variations on the lunge--reverse, stationary or walking. Firmly plant the heel of the front foot and drive the weight down through this heel as you come back up to standing. This will engage the gluts and hamstrings as well as relieving some of the pressure on the knee.
4. Form two 90 degree angles with your legs. When you hit the bottom of your lunge, your legs should form two 90 degree angles. Most people fail to drop the back knee down far enough and this throws the whole form of the lunge off. Drop that back knee to within 4 to 6 inches of the floor and use a mirror when you’re first learning so check your form.
5. Keep your upper body erect and shoulders back. A common mistake with lunges is to let the shoulders round forward and the upper body to hinge at the waist. This puts pressure on the lower back and disengages the core. Keep your shoulder blades retracted, chest out and belly button pulled back and up. Get all the depth in your lunge from dropping the back knee, not from dropping your upper body forward.