Fitness Friday - Walking Lunges

One of my goals for Winter Break was to expand my workouts and improve on my leg day moves.  I started with learning and perfecting traditional lunges and now I am moving on to learning Walking Lunges.  I have seen people doing this move all over my gym for the past few months and they have paired this move with weights to help grow upper body strength, I would love to be able to work some minimal lifting into my leg days and see how it improves my back and shoulders.

Walking Lunges are considered to be a "basic lunge with a boost", as stated by the Pop Sugar Fitness website.  They also state that this move works your glutes, hamstrings, and quads plus it helps to stretch your hip flexors.  I tried this move a few times before at the gym and I really need to work on my balance before doing Walking Lunges when there is more than five people present during my workout...

Pop Sugar Fitness also provides a step by step How To for this move...

- Stand upright, feet together, and take a controlled step forward with your right leg, lowering your hips toward the floor by bending both knees to 90-degree angles.  The back knee should point toward but not touch the ground, and your front knee should be directly over the ankle.

- Press your right heel into the ground, and push off with your left foot to bring your left leg forward, stepping with control into a lunge on the other side.  This completes two reps.

- Do three sets of 20 reps each.

This move helps to slim down the legs and build lean muscle, it also helps to increase mobility and overall hip function.  The article states that you can add light weights to increase the difficulty of the moves and I will need to improve my balance before I can try to add weights.

Walking Lunges are my newest workout challenge and I will be adding these into my upcoming leg days!

photo courtesy of Pop Sugar Fitness

Fitness Friday - Side Lunges

I had stated right at the end of finals season that one of my goals over winter break was to visit the gym more and try new exercises with every visit.  I had featured lunges on one of my previous Fitness Fridays and today we are looking at another variation on the traditional lunge.  Side lunges are a move that I have been trying out since the beginning of winter break and one that I am finally beginning to improve at.

I pulled all of the information on this exercise from the Pop Sugar website and I have included detailed steps to follow when performing this exercise.  "Side lunges offer a new take on regular lunges. They allow you to work your hips, glutes and thighs a bit differently than traditional squats and lunges while still targeting the major muscles of the lower body. They offer a really good workout and are friendly on the knees, reducing the risk of injury. First, start with your body weight. Once you get the movement down, add dumbbells for more of a challenge. "

Here is how to do them:

- Holding a pair of dumbbells, stand with your feet and knees together.
- Take a large step with your right foot to the right side and lunge toward the floor.
- Make sure your right knee does not extend past your toes and keep your left leg relatively straight.
- Push off through your right foot to return to the start to complete one.
- Do three sets of 10 on each side.

I am still doing these side lunges without weights and I have to keep my hands on my waist to try and remain stable.  I find it hardest to remain stable when doing these and I have fallen over many times already over the past two weeks.  I can feel these in my thighs the next day but they are starting to get easier and I have finally worked up to the 3 sets of ten on each side!

photo courtesy Pop Sugar

Fitness Friday - Squats vs. Lunges

Lunges were our topic of choice for last Fitness Friday, I started thinking more about this subject after writing that post up and it lead me to wondering if lunges are better than squats or vice versa.  They both work similar muscle areas and I have found that lunges are much harder for me to do.  Is it a better use of my time to work to better my lunges or is it more useful for me to continue my squat routine?  I set out to find the answer to my question and decide how to best use my time during leg day, I have limited time until the end of finals and need to maximize every moment that I have at the gym.

I found a great article from Pop Sugar Fitness that addressed this topic and gave me a much better idea of how I should be using my time at the gym.  The article agrees with me that squats seem to be much easier for beginners and lunges are a more advanced exercise.

We will start with Pop Sugar Fitness' thoughts on squats.  "If you're just starting to get your backside into shape, then consider squats your go-to exercise. Because they are a functional movement, squats are a good introduction to the weight room; it's easy to add weight or resistance to the exercise, which quickly helps to increase strength. Since the weight is distributed onto your heels when doing squats, the exercise requires less balance than lunges. Instead, doing a squat is much like sitting down in a chair, making them a great exercise for working the glutes and hamstrings. Turn squats into a quick cardio workout by adding jumps, or challenge your core with the addition of a BOSU ball. Whatever you decide, expect to build a firm backside in no time!"

I do add weights to my squats but I have never tried adding jumps or any type of BOSU ball.  I have squats pretty well mastered but I was excited to see ways to make them harder and to burn more calories working through them

Lunges work many of the same muscles but in a very different way.  "Rather than the up and down motion of a squat, lunges require a step forward or backward with one leg, lowering your hips until both knees are bent at about a 90-degree angle. Because lunges involve the transfer of weight to one leg, they are a test of balance, especially when using weights, meaning your core gets a workout too! And depending on the variation, lunges can also allow for an increased focus on the glutes or inner thighs; do side lunges to work your hips or reverse lunges to counter the forward movements of everyday life. Bonus: lunges offer something that most exercises don't — a good stretch! Depending on your depth and range of motion, lunges help to increase flexibility in your hips"

Pop Sugar is very correct when they state that lunges require much more balance than squats do, I tend to lose my balance at least once or twice during a set of lunges.  I also can feel the core work that this exercise does and I love that they work two muscle groups at once, I can get double the bang for my buck once I get better at these exercises.

Reading over this article, I feel that my best bet for gym will be to spend some time working more cardio into my squats and then deciding how it balances out with reducing my time spent on the treadmill.  I need to continue to improve on my lunges and keeping my balance while doing them so that I can do a bit of extra core work on leg day.  I'm not surprised that this article didn't give a clear answer as to which exercise is better and I agree that doing both of them will be more beneficial than trying to only do one.  It will be easier for me to work the cardio into my squat routine now and then I will need to take more time at the gym after finals in order to put the time into perfecting my lunge formation.

photo courtesy of fitwirr.com

Fitness Friday - Lunges

The semester is over in a month and I need to really start hitting the gym as I did during the summer months.  I have a month until the break starts and my goal is to add more time and reps to my current cardio and weight lifting moves and also start to work new moves into my daily regime.  I decided to start with adding more moves to my leg workouts, squats are usually my workout of choice and then I end with multiple reps on many of the leg machines at the gym.  While flipping through an old issue of Women's Health, I saw that lunges are among the best workouts for the lower body area and this is the first move that I want to add to my leg workouts.

There are traditional lunges, side lunges, and walking lunges.  Today we are starting with traditional lunges and then I may start trying the other moves once I have these down to a science.  Traditional lunges work the butt and thigh area, two of the largest muscle groups in the human body.  Tightening both of the those area certainly won't hurt me and we will see what the results start looking like in a few weeks.  If I can master the simple version of the lunge, then I will learn and report back on the other versions.

How to do a forward lunge...

- Start by standing up straight with your feet hip-width apart and flat on the ground. Relax your shoulders and allow your shoulder blades to sink down towards your hips. Keep yourself in this position by flexing your abdominal muscles to keep your spine straight and stable.

- Place your right foot on the ground, heel first. Lean your body forward so that about 70% of your weight is on your front foot. Keep your back and upper body straight. Hold this position.

- While keeping your upper body and back straight, continue to move your body forward until your right upper leg (thigh) is parallel to the floor. You may need to bend your hips slightly to stay in this position, but keep your back straight.

- Once in the lunge position, your left (back) knee should also form a 90-degree angle, but your lower leg (shin) will be parallel to the ground while your upper leg (thigh) will be perpendicular to the ground.

-  Use your right foot to push yourself upwards. Return your body to the position you started in, standing straight with your feet hip-width apart.

- Once you’ve completed a lunge with your right leg, you can either switch sides and perform a lunge with your left leg, or you can continue to work your right side. It doesn’t matter what order you do lunges in, but try to do an equal number of lunges using both your left and right side before you finish.

I have seen people at my gym doing lunges and putting their knee on the ground instead of keeping it level with the ground.  I tried it the first way and found that I could barely hold myself upright doing the exercise.  The way that was outlined in this article from Wiki How is much easier for the beginner to maintain position while doing reps and I would recommend following the steps exactly while you are learning how to do this exercise.

I find that alternating legs is my favorite way to do more reps of lunges, I started by doing ten on each side and am want to see how I am able to work up to more.  I am looking forward to seeing what the results are in a month or two...

photo courtesy of Gethealthyu.com

Fitness Friday - Squats

Squats are a core part of every male and female's fitness routine, these were once considered an exercise that everyone suffered through twice a week but have come to be one of the hottest exercises for females.  With the changing trends in female body shape, Beyoncé and Kim Kardashian are the now the ideal body types and many females are adding/increasing the amount of squats they perform on a weekly basis.  There are very few exercises that are both as simple and effective at working the major butt and leg muscles as squats and they are the topic of today's Fitness Friday. 

I decided to look up how to best do squats as ladies, we hold weight in different places then men do and shouldn't be trying to do these exercises in the exact same fashion as they do.  I pulled my information from Pop Sugar Fitness as this is one of the best websites for women's fitness and health.

- Stand with your head held facing forward and your chest up and out.
- Place your feet shoulder-width apart or slightly wider.  Extend your hands straight out in front of you to help you keep your balance.  You can also bend the elbows or clasp the fingers.
- Sit back and down like you're sitting in an imaginary chair.  Keep your head facing forward as your upper body bends forward a bit.  Rather then allowing your back to round, let your lower back arch slightly as your descend.
- Lower down so your thighs are as parallel to the floor as possible, with your knees over your ankles.  Press your weight back into your heels.
- Keep your body tight, and push through your heels to bring yourself back to the starting position.

The website recommends starting with three sets of ten squats each then working up to twelve or fifteen as needed.  They stress that form is more important then amount and I can agree.  I still am doing the three sets of ten and making sure that I have my form correct through the whole process.  By the last set, I need to really concentrate on my form so I know that I am not ready to start adding more reps yet.

Why should women do squats?  This is a common question that many women ask.  This is not about building up huge butt and leg muscles but rather keeping them tight and toned.  When searching for a picture for this post, I found a lot of VERY NSFW pictures about women that do squats but the major point in doing this exercise is to keep those huge muscles in shape and looking tight.  This will improve your appearance in everything from skirts to skinny jeans. 

I have read that squats can be done at anytime as they only require your body weight to be done correctly.  That being said, I only do mine at the gym as of right now.  I don't yet have the form and the endurance to do them while brushing my teeth or cooking but I would like to work up this one day.

photo courtesy of Pop Sugar Fitness