DISCLAIMER: This post has a very serious undertone to it.
Form. It’s not for safety. I can hear the Internet vultures now. BUT. Let me explain.
When people think about practicing form they think it’s to stay safe. While this is true it is not the primary reason. The PRIMARY Reason for Perfect Form is to target the correct muscles for the job. The side effect is safety.
For example, when people lunge while leaning over their front foot they almost completely shut down their glutes and back leg and put major stress on the knee in front.
This is one of the primary jobs of a personal trainer. You may have been bench pressing, squatting, and lifting in various ways for 30 years now. But how are your joints? How’s your posture now. How is the chronic pain that developed in your shoulders, lower back, ankles, and knees, or are they on the verge (or already have been) of being replaced through surgery?
And for you 20-something-year-olds reading this thinking that it won’t happen to you: Unless you have been professionally trained there is a big chance that you are doing it wrong.
NOW. I am not trying to scare you. This is a very technical science and if you take the time by yourself, you will eventually find the right answers. Through trial and error and hopefully finding some people that know what they are doing (wink wink).
The reason I said all of the above is so that you take the below more seriously.
— the below
How to Lunge & Split Squat
There are many variations of both, but, most of you see a quad-dominant lunge with the knee and upper body weight shifted forward.
Let’s talk about a proper lunge.(If you cannot perform the below in any way, you need corrective exercise)
This is a Unilateral Compound Exercise. This means It is performed by one side of the body at a time, and it involves many muscle groups.
Set-Up
- Have your knee on a pad on the floor below you
- Have your right foot firmly on the ground in front of you
- Have the center of the right knee joint directly over the center of the right ankle joint
- Have the center of your left hip joint directly over the center of your left knee joint
- Square your hips
- Your back foot should have its toes pads down and the balls of your foot should be supporting the weight
- You should now be in an erect posture, where the ear-hole and center of your shoulder joint are directly above your hip and knee
- Have your shoulder blades pinched together behind you
- Flex your shoulders back and down
- Lift your chest (look like you are about to fight someone)
Now. it’s time to activate. Let’s start the engine.
- Tilt your pelvis up in the front
This should tighten EVERYTHING up and activate the glutes and stretch the hip flexors, Now. you ready
- Squeeze the glutes together and DO NOT LEAN FORWARD WHEN YOU lift off the ground by activating both legs at the same time. Like two tectonic plates colliding – if you find that your front leg is doing most of the work, shut it down and try to do ALL of it with your back leg. That’s not actually going to happen but in your mind, it will feel that way.
- Keep your back straight, your upper body should not lean in any direction!
- KEEP THE POSTERIOR PELVIC TILT THE ENTIRE TIME. (when your hips are a bucket and the water is spilling out the back, that’s a PPT, if it’s spilling out the front (like with chronic lumbar lordosis) that is an anterior pelvic tilt)
- So basically keep your hips tilted up in the front the whole time.
- Do not round your back in the attempt, move your hips independently
PROGRESSION
- Now hold weight in your hands
- Now make that weight a bar
- now put that bar between your legs and hold it with your hands (that’s why you need the deadlift posture the entire time)
- now give me 5!
Congrats! Now you know how to split squat properly. The muscles you covered: All of them.
What are your thoughts? Do you have any exercises that you may not be doing to the fullest? Leave them in the comments section below!
