Walking Lunge w/ Side Twist – Tara Peterson

I recently attended my first appointment with a personal trainer. I’ve been in the fitness/running industry for over eight years and never seemed to need a trainer; however, after I was sidelined by an injury, I felt I could use some guidance with balance/stabilizer/core work.

This strength/stretch exercise is one of the many moves I learned and feel that all runners and endurance athletes alike could benefit greatly by adding this to their weekly workouts.

The walking lunge is a classic exercise that strengthens the glutes, abs, and quads in addition to giving the hip flexors a fantastic stretch. We all know that runners use these muscles each time they lace up their shoes and hit the road so it’s important to keep them healthy, strong and pliable as these areas encompass the driving force of a runner…THE CORE.

In my training session, I learned that adding a twist to the bottom of the walking lunge adds flexibility to the top of the hip flexor and protects the cartilage.

The basic (lunge) movement: Stand with your feet together then take a large step forward with one foot leaving the other foot on the ground behind you. Drop your body into a lunge without allowing the knee (of the semi straight leg) to touch the ground.

Your bent knee (forward leg) should not extend over your toe; to encourage this, keep the weight of this leg in your heel. At this point or ‘the bottom of the movement,’ you should feel a stretch in the hip area of your straight leg.

Push through your heel to bring that straight leg forward to ‘center’ and/or a standing position momentarily before swinging it all the way through to become the forward, bent leg and the opposite leg should now be semi-straight behind you. (‘Semi-straight’ means you should have a slight bend in the knee.)

Add the twist: This time, as you step forward, raise your arms over your head and twist your body (at the hip) toward the forward/bent leg (see picture). If you can only twist part way, that’s OK but it also means you need to keep this exercise as a part of your routine so you can improve flexibility in your hips.

My recommendation is to perform this exercise a couple of times a week, completing 3 sets of 30 (total or 15 on each leg) each time.

I look forward to passing on more tips as I learn them in hopes to help our bodies sustain the training we put them through to reach our goals.

Happy Trails!

Tara Peterson, runner, coach and owner of www.askcoachtara.com lives in Seattle. While she enjoys racing all distances, her favorite is the marathon. She has run 5 marathons including Paris, Eugene, Seafair, Boston and Marine Corps Marathon. As a two time Boston Qualifier, she understands the joys, discipline and rewards of distance training. Tara is passionate about running, coaching, fitness and healthy nutrition.