Strong glutes and hamstrings are a benefit for any activity involving the lower body – from running to weight lifting.
Our glute muscles are often weak and lazy due to our sedentary lifestyles and poor sitting postures.
This can lead to injury, as the lower back or the hamstrings take over the task that the glutes should be doing.
The lower back and hamstrings can suffer from overuse, tightness or bad movement patterns compensating for lack of glute recruitment.
So doing lunges for glutes and hamstrings is a great idea, to target the glutes and make them work properly. Use these lunges both for strengthening and for injury prevention.
Incorporating lunges for glutes and hamstrings in your training
This exercise is best done after you have finished your main compound lower body exercise of the session, like squats or deadlifts.
You can perform the lunges with heavy dumbbells and keep the reps low, at 5 or 6 per set. This is ideal if you want to focus on strength. Recommended for strength athletes such as weightlifters and powerlifters.
Also recommended runners or other athletes who need to be strong but don’t want to put on too much muscle weight.
Alternatively you can do this exercise with moderate dumbbells and higher reps, 8 or more. This will likely result in more muscle growth. So if you’re keen to build up your glutes, use an 8-12 rep range minimum on each leg.
To make your workout more efficient, pair the lunges for glutes and hamstrings with an upper body exercise, such as chest press or pull up, in a superset.
Happy lunging!
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