Walking lunges are an excellent, yet thoroughly under used exercise for the legs. The exercise is especially good for training up the muscles of the legs either following injury, for a specific activity requiring a lot of leg work or for toning/encouraging weight-loss of the legs.
Following a lower limb injury it is often necessary to perform closed chain exercises to reduce/stop impact and allow recovery. These non-impact closed chain exercises (such as squats, static lunges and cycling) are superb for this type of immediate post injury recovery/strength building but must be progressed at some point. Walking lunges are perfect at this point, as they offer some impact, but it is controlled and steady, meaning it is a great precursor to running or even jumping.
As an exercise for building strength in the legs, walking lunges can prove very useful. Not only for specific sports requiring strong legs like rugby or football, but also for improving runners strength, power, endurance and stamina, especially in relation to running up hills. The same can be said for Hikers. In my time as a Marine I used the exercise (combined with a few other leg conditioning exercises) to really ensure my legs were strong for walking/running with a heavy backpack (Bergen).
The walking lunge can be done with no weight at all for very high reps, which is perfect for toning and fat burning, especially if put into a circuit. Adding some weight (say 10-30kg) and performing relatively high reps (around 20 each leg – 40 in total) is perfect for strengthening the legs for running, walking or injury recovery. Lastly performing lower reps (4-10 each leg) with higher weights is great for strengthening for sports such as rugby and of course mixed martial arts conditioning.
Check out the Leg Strengthening Circuits in my book Royal Marines Fitness: Physical Training Manual for an excellent way to incorporate the walking lunge into a circuit.
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hi, are these lunges the same as the RM get fit to apply guide? Thank you chris
Hi Chris,
Thanks for your comment. Sean is currently in London filming for a new horror flick, to be released in the New Year. He will respond shortly once he’s finished being a zombie.
Hi Chris,
Thanks for this comment.
These lunges are similar in start position, muscles used but still differ slightly. With the walking lunges, one leg lunges forward, then the other leg moves forward to stand you up and have the feet together, ready for the next lunges. Thus moving you along in a straight direction (walking in effect) The regular lunges you are referring too involves the lunging leg pushing against the floor to return the body upright on the spot, then the opposite leg lunges.
I hope this helps.
Hi
I find the walking lunge – I do 15 reps per leg and 3 sets with 2×12 kg dumbells – a great exercise which transfers better than probably squats to running and functional activities. I also find the step up to a table of about 28 inches high also a great exercise which I do without weights. All the best for 2011!