Never give up on your dreams of having a well-groomed body just because you cannot afford to purchase expensive equipment or don’t have a gym nearby. Only performing a set of exercises at home can help you achieve the body everyone craves for but it requires investment of time and effort.
Lunges must be an important part of your daily exercise routine to get the desired body. But many people still have this question unanswered – what muscles do lunges work on? This resistance training exercise engages a long list of list of muscles primarily in your lower body. It targets the quadriceps and glutes with more intensity but also hits the hamstring, core and calves.
Incorporating lunges in your routine can be highly useful for your muscles. Here are some ways in which it positively impacts your muscles and body as a whole:
Better functionality
Everyone one craves for an active and highly functional body. This compound leg exercise enables your muscles to function in a much better way than before. It is essentially an exercise that directly enhances your performance of natural everyday movements.
More balance
These are unilateral exercises that one side of your body is independent of another while training. Training at one side only can improve your balance and coordination. Bilateral exercises are good for overall strength, however muscle balance is acquires through lunges. The stabilization benefits received by this activity at unbelievable.
Increase hip flexor flexibility
The lunges predominantly focuses on your hip flexor. These chronically tight muscles are stretched. It is an amazing exercise for hip-flexibility. A well-structured stretching routine can do miracles.
Improved glute activation
Gluteal muscles are not fully utilized by many lifters because hampered by overactive hip flexors and spinal erectors. These overactive muscles are neutralized when lunges are performed in the right manner. The ultimate result is your body positioning in a where glutes are isolated and activated. In case your primary focus is on glutes, then you can perform exercises like glute bridge and cable pull through.
Spinal deloading
Lunges are good at deloading your spine. You can specifically perform dumbbell variation to work on this aspect.
Spinal loading is not a bad thing but deloading can be beneficial for giving your spine some rest especially when you are training for a constant period of time. If you are an experienced lifter, your body is capable of enduring greater compressional pressure on spine compared to beginners. You can utilize lunges which gives your spine the rest it needs.
Core stability
All weight lifting exercises are good are enhancing core stability. Core stability is basically the ability to your pelvic position and control spinal orientations during movement. Lunges are supposed to work on this aspect in an excellent manner.
While performing lunges, your body needs to work hard and keep your torso upright. This limits the spinal extension as you lunge up and down working on this facet.
