How to Do a Rear Lunge Lower Body Exercise

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Dr. Garrett Smith for Expert Village and this exercise we're about to cover now is called lunges to the rear, or rear lunges, or backwards lunges. It's an exercise where we're going to stay in one place, we're going to be stepping backwards, the opposite of our front lunges. Lunges to the front stepping forward, lunges to the rear we're stepping back. Get your stance. Make sure there's nothing behind you, we don't want to be stepping into anything. We step back, and down, and forward. This one involves a bit more of a push off the back leg to come back into position. All the other rules for lunges apply. We want our feet like this, we don't want them on one track or you'll lose your balance. Again, at the bottom body straight up and down, shins vertical, thighs vertical. This really, actually, gives you a nice quadriceps step if you do them right. One of the major benefits of the 'rear lunge' is it doesn't put as much stress on the front knee as lunges to the front do. When you go to a front lunge and you do this, your front leg has to stop you which means that there's more pressure in the knee. When you're going to the back, all your front leg has to do is just lower you down. So if you've had knee problems or if your doctor tells you to watch it with your knees, you might want to try the rear lunge first with this warning. You're doing lunges backwards when you've never done them before. Just take care in that manner. They're a great exercise. Try them out. "