.css-13y9o4w{display:block;font-family:GraphikBold,GraphikBold-fallback,Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-weight:bold;margin-bottom:0;margin-top:0;-webkit-text-decoration:none;text-decoration:none;}@media (any-hover: hover){.css-13y9o4w:hover{color:link-hover;}}@media(max-width: 48rem){.css-13y9o4w{font-size:1.05rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0.25rem;}}@media(min-width: 40.625rem){.css-13y9o4w{font-size:1.28598rem;line-height:1.2;}}@media(min-width: 48rem){.css-13y9o4w{font-size:1.39461rem;line-height:1.2;margin-bottom:0.5rem;}}@media(min-width: 64rem){.css-13y9o4w{font-size:1.23488rem;line-height:1.3;}}How to Do the Single-Leg Hip Thrust, Build Up Your Back With This Key Gym Machine, How to Do Rack Pulls for Stronger Deadlifts, The Heels-Elevated Goblet Squat Is a Leg Day MVP, The Suitcase Carry Is an Underrated Core Exercise. Bodybuilding and leg workout this move will help build bigger legs, and stronger quads, hamstrings, and glutes. Take a step back, place the ball of your foot on the floor, bend your legs, and lower your rear knee down to about an inch above the floor. But before you begin, make sure you spend a few minutes warming up to prepare your muscles and joints for what you are about to do. All Rights Reserved. Bilateral deficit, muscle activation, correlation with speed, and jumping abilityall of that matters and is indeed important, but safety and practical considerations are paramount. Nice article with pertinent information for coaches and athletes. For this reason, we'll cover each muscle worked in the reverse lunge and pinpoint how the muscles worked in the forward lunge differ. Do you have a question about deficit reverse lunges? Once you've worked through this exercise and understand the mechanics, then you can progress to reverse. The deficit reverse lunge is a compound exercise that builds strength and size in the hips and thighs. Reverse the movement to return to the starting position. The deficit reverse lunge is a compound exercise that builds strength and size in the hips and thighs. The problem with knees touching is the speed of descent sometimes means an uncomfortable bounce, or the anatomy not matching up with the technique. I just care that the leg is active and the balance is solid. Lets be honest, its a lunge, so lets not make it seem like an obstacle to learn. Place a low platform about two feet in front of an exercise bench. A slightly easier exercise compared to deficit rear lunges. 3. Deficit reverse lunges are an effective, knee-friendly leg exercise that can build muscle and improve lower body mobility. When going up, the front leg is also the one working harder. Chopper Lunge. Just to be sure, we are talking shorter than a Reebok step in regard to height with most athletes. Its not that hard to lower yourself, so excuses are more about coaching competence than the nature of the exercise. So, feel free to mix up your leg workouts and include some of the alternatives and variations listed in this article. Lunges and deficit-style options are not the only lower body exercise that can help improve knee health and challenge ankle mobility. The first is the lean and the second is the non-support leg. However, our reviews are based on well research backed analysis. For example, if you are a powerlifter and want to squat HUGE weights, deficit reverse lunges dont offer many benefits. Transfer to the field and various qualities are important, but we need to think about general qualities as they complement specificity. Adding a barbell to the back does increase risk, but what is the plausibility that someone will collapse under the weight? Deficit Reverse Lunges (3:40 video mark) A deficit works perfectly to emphasize the glutes and hamstrings. While there is nothing wrong with regular lunges, deficit reverse lunges will take your leg workouts to a whole new level. Compared to the regular reverse lunge done on the floor, lunging from a raised platform allows for a greater degree of hip flexion, working your lower body muscles . I give about a 20% difference between the deficit reverse lunge and the step-up height, with the lunge always being significantly shorter. This is a very challenging but rewarding exercise. Make sure your rear knee is below the level of your feet. It also makes for a formidable finishing move. The deficit reverse lunge is a great move for helping build bigger squat numbers (it can work as a primary leg day movement). Your left knee should hover an inch or two above the floor. Keep in mind the athlete should be able to handle an eccentric step-up thats higher than the height of their deficit reverse lunge. Typical reverse lunges with moderate loads are knee friendly and popular with coaches. Yep, that hard-to-reach spot, along . Not only have your lower body be feeling the punishment, the additional weight will force your upper body to work harder as well. You dont necessary need skyscraper-level heights to get all the gains from deficit reverse lunges. The side lunge targets the quads, glutes, and hamstrings, but also adds in a few additional muscles on the inner and outer thighs: adductor longus, adductor brevis, and adductor magnus, which work with the quads and hamstrings to control the movements of the knee and hips on the lunging leg. Bend your legs and lower your rear knee down to about an inch above the floor. If you have a good plan and can see progress from year to year with your athletes, its likely the programming works. Deficit reverse lunges are pretty intense, so youll probably need a day or two of rest between workouts. The abductors have an essential role to play in deficit reverse lunges as they help stabilize your knees and hips to prevent unwanted movements. Regarding the number of sets two to four should be plenty. Reverse Lunge. With lunging, whether heavy or light, you really are just managing the strength program and becoming familiar with the exercise. Again, bend your legs and lower your knee down to within an inch of the floor. Time your rest periods and stick to 60-90 seconds. One of the reasons I think we overlook lunges is that most of the time coaches use the lunge as an ancillary lift instead of making it a primary exercise. You can also do this exercise by raising just your front foot. Below are more alternatives that will serve to work the same muscles. What loads are risky and what is just normal? 3. Reverse lunges are a single-leg exercise. An excellent exercise for developing better balance. Body weight deficit reverse lunges will work, but adding weight will eventually provide you with a greater lower body (and upper body) challenge. Alternatively, take a bigger step back to emphasize your glutes and hamstrings. Natural bouncing back is fine if the support leg is working during the exercise, and a force plate can teach us enough about how an athlete is able to manage the task. If you're a beginner, then I'd highly suggest to start with the reverse lunge. Of course each lunge variation differs and has it's own benefits, but the deficit lunge and elevated foot secret explained below allows for greater results and muscle building benefits thanks to a greater . Therefore, when the loads become enough that a rack is needed, coaches should make sure they also consider the height of the step, as that becomes a challenge. Deficit reverse lunges are a handy way to identify and fix any imbalances. If they do bother your knees, skip the deficit altogether and just do regular reverse lunges. While its normal to have one leg slightly stronger than the other, big left-to-right strength imbalances can cause joint pain and injuries. With deficit training, you perform your chosen exercise on a raised platform so you can descend further than usual. A VERY effective glute and hamstring-dominant exercise. As great as deficit reverse lunges are (and were definitely fans of this exercise! Hold a dumbbell or kettlebell in one hand and stand on an aerobics step or small box. His inclusion of the exercise and promotion of the movement to build better athletes was so convincing that I put more effort into implementing it this past year. In addition to sport, he is a supporter of environmental protection as well as the arts. Easy to scale by adjusting the step height or using weights. 7 Deficit Reverse Lunge Variations and Alternatives. As always, its always better to master the basics before adding a new twist, or this case a deeper stretch, to your exercise. 5 Reverse Lunge Benefits 1. Video 1. While the exercise is not new, better science and practice of the movement are. Hold dumbbells by your sides, a kettlebell in front of your chest, or a barbell across your shoulders to make this exercise even harder. Deficit Reverse Lunges Lunges are great for strengthening your entire lower body, including your glutes. Deficit Reverse Lunge Stand on a small platform and lunge back as you normally would. You can go slightly higher with dumbbells, but the contributions of the rear legs become a little murky. Even though there are a myriad deficit reverse lunge benefits, that doesnt mean that everyone needs to immediately find a spot for this exercise in their routine. Be warned, though; deficit deadlifts are a lot tougher than standard deadlifts, so dont go too heavy too soon. You can vary the intensity of deficit reverse lunges pretty easily. Deficit reverse lunges work because they take you further into hip flexion. Hold the dumbbell with your opposite hand of your elevated leg. Compared to forward lunges, deficit reverse lunges are very knee friendly. Many coaches will be fine programming single leg variants as an accessory lift, but when it becomes the main course, then it seems the arguments begin. That means they should allow you to focus on developing one leg at a time, with very little input from the other side. While they are great options for athletic training programs, they require the same attention to detail as the other big lifts like squats and power cleans. Like all lunge exercises, deficit reverse lunges are not a good move for building maximal strength. The reverse lunge can be a great alternative to the traditional forward lunge without the anterior knee pain. How to perform: Lay on your side with the hips and knees bent, supporting your head with your hand. But that's hard to do with reverse lunges. Here you can work with a greater loadobviously, its double the weight of a single dumbbellwhich increases the challenge level. The only difference with conventional step-ups and reverse lunges is the commonly followed sequence of events, stepping up first rather than stepping back and down. Since reverse lunges are a subset of the lunge pattern, I did some reading on lunges in general and focused on the reverse movement. Compared to a classic forward lunge that makes your quads do more of the work, the reverse lunge tends to challenge your glutes a little extra. Even many negligent and poorly designed programs are still less dangerous than playing sports, on average, so we cant be scared by the weight room injury bogeyman. This creates a much more demanding workout thats also good for mobility and flexibility.