Floor Lunge

Floor Lunge

3-POINT SET-UP:

1. Primary (lunging) leg on the floor

2. Secondary (extended) leg on carriage (ball of foot)

3. Hips in allignment and feet hip width distance apart

Body Part • Direction • Action Verb:

• HINGE at your hips as you slowly PUSH the carriage away, bending at the knee of the primary lunging leg

Range of Motion:

• Lower down, stopping right before knee aligns with hip (or just prior to 90 degrees)

• Lift up, stopping before the knee of the lunging leg fully extends

• Focus on maintaining a slow, controlled, continuous tempo, avoiding excessive pausing at top of lunge

 Kinetic Checkpoints:

HEAD:

Same as PLANK

PRIMARY LEG/FOOT:

❌ Put all of the weight into your heel

❌ Lift your toes towards the ceiling 

✅ Maintain an equal weight distribution in all three points of contact in your foot (the tripod: below the big toe, below the pinky toe, and in the heel)

✅ Keep the arch of your foot engaged and lifted 

Secondary Leg/Foot:

❌ Drop to your heel as you pull the carriage in

❌ Bend your knee as you pull the carriage in 

✅ Stay high on the ball of your foot

✅ Keep your leg fully extended  

HIPS:

❌ Moving your hips up OR down 

❌ Tipping your pelvis forward by keeping your torso upright as you lower down

❌ Tucking your hips under by squeezing your glutes at the top 

✅ Keep your hips frozen in neutral position and level throughout the movement

KNEES:

❌ Driving your knee past your toes as you lower your hips

❌ Pull your knee behind your ankle and you rise to the top of your lunge

✅ Aim to keep your knee in alignment with your mid foot as you lower into a lunge

✅ Keep your knee slightly in front of ankle at top of lunge

Talking Points:

• The goal of this exercise is to maintain a neutral pelvis/spine throughout the entire range of motion of the lunge. The flexion of the knee of the secondary leg (or lack thereof) ultimately decides the appropriate hinge of the hips necessary in order to do so.

• Simple visual tracker: you should be able to draw a straight diagonal, unbroken line from knee, hip, shoulder. 

• Think about pulling the hip of the secondary leg forward and the hip of the lunging leg back. This will help keep the hips not only squared, but level/in alignment 

• A good visual to use for clients is to tell them to imagine that they are growing taller as they lift to the top of the lunge in a similar angle of which how a plane may take off. 

• Some muscles to mention during a lunge- “quads as lower down, hamstrings and glutes to lift, hips squared and leveled, inner thighs activated and knit your ribs in.”