 Alternating lunges are arguably my favorite warm-up exercise that exists. It's great because I'm moving from side to side, I can move from front to back, I can easily change the type of lunge variation that I do so that it's appropriate for where I'm at now. Somebody who's a little bit newer to exercise might do a reverse lunge variation or maybe just a split squat variation where my feet aren't actually moving and somebody who's a little bit more advanced might actually walk forward with their lunging. It's nice because I'm loading my legs, I'm loading my hips, I got quads, I got hamstrings, I got glutes, all sorts of good stuff. I'm letting my knee bend forward, I'm bending at the ankle. It's a great mobility warm-up and I can even throw in some upper body rotation stuff to warm up my upper body as well. There are four main lunge variations that we like to talk about with lower body movements. There's the split squat where the lower body doesn't really move that much. There's the I step backwards reverse lunge. There's the I step forward forward lunge. And then there's the I keep stepping forward walking lunge. Okay, now this first variation, the split squat is nice because I don't have this dynamic movement of my feet. I just plant them like this and I squat down and I squat up. Okay, now to know where to set your feet up, like I've done a lot of lunges, right? When I'm teaching someone what I like to start with is I put them on the ground at like about a 90 degree angle here, put our toe under here, about a 90 degree angle here and you're going to push through this foot to stand straight up. Come down, come up. I do want a little bit of knee coming forward. I don't want this much knee coming forward. Big thing that you need to look out for is this foot. Is this foot staying flat? If my heel comes up or even if I just can't feel the same amount of pressure, it's not quite ideal. It doesn't matter if it happens occasionally, but if it happens consistently every time, it's something you got to fix. If you can't feel it and you have trouble feeling it, a lot of my clients have trouble feeling some stuff. Just film yourself kind of like I'm doing right now and then you can really take a look at it. That might look like this. So my heel comes up. I like to push through the ball of my foot that way. You could maybe do that variation. I just think it puts too much stress on the knee for me to prescribe that to you on the internet. So again, I'm up tall. I come straight down and up here. Now, what do I do with my arms? Well, a couple of different things. I can put them on my hips. I can put them up here or I could kind of move them like I'm walking or like I'm running with my movement. Okay. So that's variation number one, the split squat. Second variation, very similar. But this time we're going to step backwards. I like this one because it really helps me load this posterior chain of muscles that I have back here. My hamstring, my glute, even my back a little bit in a right way, right? And not in a way that's going to tighten me up, but in a way that's going to make me stronger for especially for warm up purposes. I really like to alternate side to side. So I'm going to set up. I'm going to do the same thing. I've already done split squats a bunch. So I know the pattern that I need to step into. I know where this back foot needs to go. I'm going to step here. I'm going to keep pushing through this foot, even on the way down because it helps me maintain my position. And then I'm going to come back up and then I'm going to switch sides, keep pushing and come back up. Now same thing with the hands. They can be on the hips. They can be behind the head. You can move them as you lunge. And that's where this becomes a really good warm up exercise because now I've got my lower body going, but I've also got my upper body going. That's the second variation. So we had our split squat. We had our reverse lunge. And now we're going to talk about our forward lunge. So from here, same idea, right? It's just the return becomes a lot harder. This is me decelerating a fall. Same kind of thing. I'm still loading the same kind of muscles. I'm just keeping myself from falling forward rather than falling backward this time. So just like this. Now, this one I don't prescribe as often as I prescribe the other two because it's really easy to lose that even pressure on this foot. It's really easy to fall into my toe and use that to push me back. The other thing you'll see is maybe even with the toe at the same time as I lean back to stand back up. Both of those things I don't want. I want you to land on a whole foot, finish your split squat, your lunge, and then push through the whole foot. Push through the heel specifically to come back up to push my whole body as a unit. It's like you're trying to push yourself away from a wall rather than lifting yourself up if that difference makes sense. Again, with arms, I can alternate sides. Move them up like that. I can put them behind my head. This is a little more challenging than this is just because the levers are a little bit harder. Now, so we did split squat. We did reverse lunge. We did forward lunge. Now, our last variation is a walking lunge. This is a really nice one for somebody who's warming up and who's pretty physically able. I like to give these to my clients who, you know, have been with me a while, have kind of earned their stripes. I can trust that they're going to do it the right way. And it's nice because you just get to move through space, right? You're not just sitting around in the same spot. So what I'll do is I'll come back here and then I'm going to take a step forward just like this. And I'm going to think I'm coming straight up so I can come into the next one. Now, with a forward lunge, I pushed myself back. This one, I'm coming straight up and I'm coming down here and I can alternate my arms just like before. So it's a simple event. Those are our four lunge variations. We have the split squat, the reverse lunge, the forward lunge, and then the walking lunge. I encourage you to work through this progression to try to get yourself competently doing walking lunges. I want you to feel your quad, your hamstring, your glute, your leg in general. And I want you to feel those muscles propelling you through each lunge. If you can't do it, then maybe let's step back in the progression so that you're doing something that's a little bit more effective for you. Just because it's a more complex or more difficult exercise doesn't mean that it's better, right? I don't want you to forget about the split squats and the reverse lunges because those are great ways to load the lower body even in your training sessions outside of your warm-up. If you have any questions, leave them in the comments below and don't forget to smash that like button.