Trouble with Lunges

[fortyisfab]

I'm new to NROLW but not exercising. Today my knees hurt so bad from lunges that I subbed step up instead. I tried to reverse lunge as suggested...still in pain. Any suggestions? Thanks!

[wendyr67]

I have trouble with my knees too. I've been told in the past that I need to strengthen the muscles around the knee with exercises that don't put your body weight on it, like seated leg extensions for the quads. Also, it's been suggested that taking glucosamine supplements helps.

[newdawn]

My experience with NROL4W and knees:

In the beginning I went very gently with my knees. Very low weights and less depth in squats and lunges. I also did lunges one leg at a time rather than alternating legs as this seemed to be more "stable" for me. (less side to side movement of the knee while bent)

After awhile I was amazed at how much more I could do. ATG squats and full ROM lunges, even alternating. I was also thrilled that I could, for the first time in years, jog for a couple miles without knee pain for days after!

perhaps I got complacent b/c this past Tuesday I did back squats for the first time in a long time and I hurt my knee. fortunately on the 3rd day after it seems to be back to normal. But I learned that my knees were not "cured" by NROL4W, and though they vastly improved, I will always have to be careful with them. I had done some BW squats to warm them up before the squats Tuesday, but I should also have done some squats with half the weights I planned to use for the exercise. Or perhaps not used as much weight at all.

[Bytsi]

Originally Posted by wendyr67

I have trouble with my knees too. I've been told in the past that I need to strengthen the muscles around the knee with exercises that don't put your body weight on it, like seated leg extensions for the quads. Also, it's been suggested that taking glucosamine supplements helps.

Seated leg extensions made my knees hurt - a lot worse than they did before I did them (I haven't done them in years!). They put the leg in an unnatural path, and can exert shearing forces across the kneecap... you might want to post in the injury subforum about ways to strengthen knees without making them worse...

I'm sure some people can manage use that exercise in a good way, but it's easy to make things worse with it too.

[fortyisfab]

Thanks girls for all your advice! I'll go easy on the knees for now and hopefully they'll strengthen enough to do proper lunges. I am so inspired by the posts at this forum! Thank you to everyone for sharing all your wisdom and experience. I just started lifting (at 45!) and I love it!

[John Izzo]

Your trouble with lunges is all too common. Especially when a novice trainee attempts a pretty advanced, complex movement. Sounds all too simple of an exercise to do, but there are many variables to it.

Here is an article explaining what I mean:

www.izzostrengthtraining.com/C omplexities_of_Lunge.html

[maryfl]

John, Thank you for posting the article and video. I have always struggled with lunges (had a significant knee injury and knee surgery as a child) and didn't feel comfortable with them even after completing stage 1 with light weights. I think I am going to work on the knee to stand drills and be more comfortable with regular lunges before I advance to the more difficult lunges in stage 2. What you wrote makes so much sense - I was feeling the stretch and pain right above my knee cap on my right leg (the one had I had injured). Sometimes I think we push ourselves to quickly trying to do lunges with heavy weights and atg squats without making sure our bodies are ready!
Mary

[fortyisfab]

Thanks John for the awesome article/video and advice on lunges! I have been running since Nov.08 and have great lower body strength but little core strength (think 3 C-sections!) I am going to use your demo to work up to lunges. Thanks for taking the time to help!