Can anyone sell me on lunges?

Semi serious thread:

I've never seen the point in lunges.  At all.  I figured since the people on this forum are the only people I actually listen to on a regular basis, maybe someone here could convince me lunges are worth doing?

After the basics have been mastered, heavy lunges are one of my favorite exercises. Perform several sets of deep lunges with at least bodyweight and you will see for yourself.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

You have here a tool that can both stretch and strengthen parts of the legs like the hip flexors and calves. Areas where tightness leads to both nagging and sudden injuries.

Then you have the fact that it can help fix VMO imbalances as well as imbalances between both legs.

And it can be modified to work for people with these very issues.

Of course, this depends on it being done properly which is rare.

I used to do a lot of lunges back when I was in track. I believe they are almost as good as squats.

Doing laps of lunges back and forth with a partner in a fireman's carry is standard in grappling schools, and has been for many, many years.

Coach Sommer said:

After the basics have been mastered, heavy lunges are one of my favorite exercises. Perform several sets of deep lunges with at least bodyweight and you will see for yourself.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

I take this to mean with a barbell on the back or a pair of dumbbells equal to bodyweight or more, Coach?

bamartens said:

I take this to mean with a barbell on the back or a pair of dumbbells equal to bodyweight or more, Coach?

Correct.

Yours in Fitness,

Coach Sommer

And by mastering the basics, I would assume you mean the SLS series through F4?  Unless.....weighted barbell work for the legs will be appearing in the Foundation series......hmmmm.....

bamartens said:

And by mastering the basics, I would assume you mean the SLS series through F4?  Unless.....weighted barbell work for the legs will be appearing in the Foundation series......hmmmm.....

That would be interesting, hybrid training...

I thought they were pointless until I did them with (I think) better form in a warm up. My hip flexors the next day....

I do splits to stretch my hip flexors (since years). Are lunges better?

Christoph said:

I do splits to stretch my hip flexors (since years). Are lunges better?

A front split is nothing more than an extremely deep low lunge, yes?   The low lunge isn't necessarily better stretch-wise but I think that you might get a bit more hip opening if you stopped with the knee above the ankle and then roll the up knee out and drop onto your elbows.

I got my front splits by just focussing on weighted deep lunges (bulgarian split squat), with the back of the back leg on an elevated surface. In this way you get strong in the lowest part and also flexible. After a while I was warmed up after my bulgarian split squat session and my front split was just a consequence of this training. Be careful though, to not overdo (= going to deep for your current mobility) it if this is new to you... 

Rachid Tahri said:

I got my front splits by just focussing on weighted deep lunges (bulgarian split squat), with the back of the back leg on an elevated surface. In this way you get strong in the lowest part and also flexible. After a while I was warmed up after my bulgarian split squat session and my front split was just a consequence of this training. Be careful though, to not overdo (= going to deep for your current mobility) it if this is new to you... 

Sold!

How would you integrate these with F1?

Murray Truelove said:

How would you integrate these with F1?

You wouldn't: by definition, if you're working on F1, you haven't yet mastered the basics.

Joshua Slocum said:

You wouldn't: by definition, if you're working on F1, you haven't yet mastered the basics.

That solves that then