Research Update: Ham it Up with Lunges
Are you using the lunge to target the right muscles?
I like lunges because they're one of the few multi-joint, free-weight exercises that you can do for legs.
In essence, they're actually one-legged squats. However, unlike squats, lunges have the added benefit of having a large eccentric (negative) component. Think about it, when you do a lunge, you take a huge step forward and then land on that front leg. That landing, with the weight of your body and the added weight of a barbell, dumbbell or even weight vest, places a huge amount of eccentric stress on the legs, which causes a lot of muscle damage (the good kind of damage that results in muscle growth and strength gains).
But if you're using the lunge as a quadriceps exercise, you may have it all wrong, at least according to research from Sweden.
Swedish researchers had competitive soccer players
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