teh barbell lunge: effective?

[binö]

discuss

 

[UA_Iron]

for chicks? yeah probably.

 

[Smurfy]

yeah if you can do it without falling over

 

[binö]

for chicks? yeah probably.

luckily nobody sees me do them
but i'm sore as fug

 

[Smurfy]

luckily nobody sees me do them
but i'm sore as fug

hell yeah. you get a great stretch of the muscle doing lunges

 

[binö]

hell yeah. you get a great stretch of the muscle doing lunges

smith machine, so i don't fall over or trip

 

[lartinos]

never did them, i feel awkward doing them. I'm a little tall too so it makes it harder to do I think.

 

[Jocques Straap]

Effective at what?

Building mass, no not really.

But very effective for enhancing unilateral stability, improving mobility, function and correcting imbalance. Once you get better at them they can become an effective strength exercise as well, or endurance exercise.

 

[SaiBoT]

If you mean walking lunges with a barbell I have to say yes, if you say side lunges yes, if you say jumping lunges it's yes too! Those are good for functional hypertrophy, the kind of of strength you can actually use for something like kicking some smartasses...

 

[FunFun]

For bodybuilding I would say that lunges have a high risk to benefit ratio.

They often produce DOM due to the extreme eccentric (negative) nature of the movement. Basically you're braking an accelerated load. I think a lot of guys confuse this DOM with actual mass building benefit.

Definitely avoid this movement if you have any sign of weakness in the knee.

 

[ironwings]

Not a fan - rarely do people do them correctly to get the benefit that Saibot mentioned. A more effective exercise (imao) is the step up. Put a bar on your back (a shorter bar - like 30lbs) and load it up. Step up onto a bench or step (just so thigh is parallel to floor when stepping up) with one foot and stand up on the bench without letting the other foot touch (you can knee up or just leave it hanging behind). You'll see people doing these with dumbbells and leaning all over to get up on the step. Use a bar and it will ensure your form is right on. If you want to do lunges do them for two reasons: loosen up the hip flexor, jump lunges for HITT. just saying...

 

[SaiBoT]

Not a fan - rarely do people do them correctly to get the benefit that Saibot mentioned. A more effective exercise (imao) is the step up. Put a bar on your back (a shorter bar - like 30lbs) and load it up. Step up onto a bench or step (just so thigh is parallel to floor when stepping up) with one foot and stand up on the bench without letting the other foot touch (you can knee up or just leave it hanging behind). You'll see people doing these with dumbbells and leaning all over to get up on the step. Use a bar and it will ensure your form is right on. If you want to do lunges do them for two reasons: loosen up the hip flexor, jump lunges for HITT. just saying...

Yes you are right, lunges and all the varieties I mentioned are not for everyone, overweight people or people with joint problems should avoid them, plus there is always the technical issue that takes sometime to develop. Step-ups is a great specially if gradually the step height it's increased until knee height imo (My girlfriend does them). Good call ironwings.