The benefits of exercising your legs have us putting reverse lunges at number two of the Bullworker Hierarchy of Exercises.
When it comes to exercising your legs, reverse lunges are our favorite. We like reverse lunges due to their effectiveness, number of muscles engaged, and being relatively low impact.
What is a Reverse Lunge?
A reverse lunge is when you step back in a controlled manner with one foot and bring your body and back knee down towards the ground creating a 90-degree angle with your front knee. This movement effectively works multiple joints and muscle groups simultaneously making it one of the best compound exercises you can perform.
Benefits of Exercising Your Legs with Reverse Lunges
Burn More Calories
Your legs are comprised of some of the largest muscles in your body. Muscles use calories to convert to energy and the larger the muscles, the more calories they burn. Therefore, one of the benefits of activating your leg muscles is an increase in calories burned.
The more calories you burn, the more your metabolism works and the more fat you can lose. If you goal is to tone up and reduce your body fat, increasing your calorie burn by exercising your legs is a good place to start.
Exert More Power
Whether you are standing, running, or doing nearly any daily movement, your legs are a primary contributor to you power. The stronger you make your legs, the more power you can generate.
Reduce Risk of Injury
Reverse lunges place less stress on your joints than many other leg exercises. Whether you already have knee pain/damage or simply want to reduce your risk of injury, reverse lunges are an effective way to strengthen your glutes, hamstrings, quadriceps, and core while shoring up your knee and ankle joints.
Better Posture and Reduce Pain
Your butt, legs, and core muscles all play a large part in your posture. Maintaining good posture helps to keep your joints and nerves aligned which can reduce pain. In addition, reverse lunges are low impact, strengthening your back without putting too much stress on your spine like squats and some other leg exercises. Maintaining a strong back, core, and leg muscles all play a key role in keeping you healthy and reducing your risk of injury.
Improve Range of Motion
Due to the compound movement of a reverse lunge, you are also training your range of motion to improve your mobility. As you step back and lower into the lunge position your hip flexors stretch helping to make you more mobile.
Make Life Easier with Improved Functional Movements
Lunges translate into many common daily movements improving your daily performance whether it is carrying groceries, moving furniture around, getting off the floor after playing with the kids, or even walking up stairs. Improving your functional movements not only helps performance but also can help protect against the common ways people injure their backs.
Body Balance and Symmetry
We know that your body is one large connected system of muscles. When you work each leg separately you are ensuring each leg gets the same amount of work and one is not over compensating for the other. This helps to reduce or correct muscular imbalances resulting in better symmetry and potential tension relief.
Bone Health and Osteoporosis
Your legs contain many bones including your femur, the largest bone in your body. As we age, we become more susceptible to osteoporosis. One of the benefits of including leg exercises in your routine is to improve your bone health. Studies show once you reach a certain age, your bones become weaker, but luckily, studies also show effective exercise can reduce this process.
Better Butt
Who doesn’t want a nicer butt. Your glutes being the largest muscle in your body is effectively targeted during the reverse lunge. The reverse lunge helps you focus on your glutes to build a stronger and shapelier butt.
Improves Balance and Stability
If for nothing else, reverse lunges are worth it for the balance and stability improvement alone. Standing on one leg and maintaining your balance as you step backwards engages a plethora of stabilizing muscles to keep you upright.
Your improved balance and coordination will help you field life surprises, ultimately increasing your performance but also reducing your risk of injury from accidental slips or falls.
Boosts Testosterone / Stimulates Hormones
Studies have shown a benefit to exercising your legs is the boost in testosterone and hormones that are released. These hormones aid in muscle development and growth.
Benefits of Exercising Your Legs Conclusion:
There are many benefits to exercising your legs and the reverse lunge compound exercise is one of the most effective and efficient.