Lunges

The Fundamentals of Lunging

knee positioning
Cues:
  • Ensure that your lead foot is pointed straight forward with the four corners of the feet strongly rooted into the ground
  • Have the knee directly over the ankle and make sure you can see the toes in front of the knee

hip positioning
Cues:
  • Bring your hips as square as possible facing forward
  • With subtle movement bring your front hip back and your back hip forward so that you are bringing your pelvis into a neutral position
  • You should feel like the hips are cinching together towards centre with a connection to the core

High Lunge
Cues:
  • Feel the front foot as you would in mountain pose. Connecting with the four corners of the feet
  • Have the knee directly in line with the ankle making sure that you can see your toes in front of your knee
  • With your back leg have a small bend in the knee pressing into the ball of the foot and through the heel
  • Feel the hip of the lead leg move back and the opposite hip move forward to put the hips in a neutral position
  • Feel the upper body as it would be in mountain - pelvic floor engaged, light engagement through the core, ribs towards spine, spine towards ribs, shoulders back and down and neck long
  • In a high lunge if you feel stable and strong you can raise the arms overhead

dynamic lunge - Forward Fold

Moving Lunge
Cues:
  • Feel the front foot as you would in mountain pose. Connecting with the four corners of the feet
  • Have the knee directly in line with the ankle making sure that you can see your toes in front of your knee
  • With your back leg have a small bend in the knee pressing into the ball of the foot and through the heel
  • Feel the hip of the lead leg move back and the opposite hip move forward to put the hips in a neutral position
  • Feel the upper body as it would be in mountain - pelvic floor engaged, light engagement through the core, ribs towards spine, spine towards ribs, shoulders back and down and neck long
  • Inhale bring your arms up overhead
  • Exhale keeping the core strong and the spine long fold forward at the hips bringing your arms back behind you
  • Inhale come back to a high lunge in the same manner
Cues:
  • Come into a high lunge
  • On an inhale lower the back knee towards being two inches above the ground
  • On an exhale come back up to the higher positioning of the back knee

low lunge
Cues:
  • Feel the front foot as you would in mountain pose. Connecting with the four corners of the feet
  • Have the knee directly in line with the ankle making sure that you can see your toes in front of your knee
  • With your back leg have place the knee down on the mat keeping the toes tucked under the foot
  • Feel the hip of the lead leg move back and the opposite hip move forward to put the hips in a neutral position
  • Feel the upper body as it would be in mountain - pelvic floor engaged, light engagement through the core, ribs towards spine, spine towards ribs, shoulders back and down and neck long

Lunge with quad stretch
Cues:
  • Feel the front foot as you would in mountain pose. Connecting with the four corners of the feet
  • Have the knee directly in line with the ankle making sure that you can see your toes in front of your knee
  • With your back leg have place the knee down on the mat keeping the toes tucked under the foot
  • Feel the hip of the lead leg move back and the opposite hip move forward to put the hips in a neutral position
  • Feel the upper body as it would be in mountain - pelvic floor engaged, light engagement through the core, ribs towards spine, spine towards ribs, shoulders back and down and neck long
  • Inhale place the hand that is on the same side as the back leg just off the mat
  • On the next inhale bring the heel of your back leg towards your seat reach behind you with the opposite hand to hold the foot and twist through the spine to open up the chest
  • If you do not have the range of motion to reach your foot you can use a block or a strap which will assist you in getting into the proper position

Dragon
Cues:
  • Feel the front foot as you would in mountain pose. Connecting with the four corners of the feet
  • Have the knee directly in line with the ankle making sure that you can see your toes in front of your knee
  • With your back leg have place the knee down on the mat and untuck the toes so that the top of the foot is on the mat
  • Feel the hip of the lead leg move back and the opposite hip move forward to put the hips in a neutral position
  • Move the foot of the lead leg to the outer edge of the mat placing both hands on the inside of the lead leg
  • You should feel an intense stretch in the hip flexor of the trailing leg
  • If you do feel this stretch you can - move your knee further back, bring your front knee forward, shift your hips as described above or come down to your forearms on a block or on the mat

Dragon with hip opener
Cues:
  • Come into Dragon pose
  • Inhale turn your front foot to a 45 degree angle with the toes pointing out to the side
  • Exhale allow the front knee to fall to the side possibly coming onto the outside edge of the front foot

Upright Dragon
Cues:
  • ​Come into a low lunge position
  • Place your right knee about an inch in front of your toes and bring your left knee back enough that you feel a stretch in the left hip flexor
  • Bring the quads towards each other feeling the hips synch up
  • On an inhale place your hands on your thigh, press the heel of your hands down and forward on your thigh so that you feel a stronger stretch in your left hip flexor

Warrior One
Cues:
  • Your front foot will be pointed straight forward and grounded through the four corners of the foot as you would be in mountain pose
  • The knee should be pointed straight forward and in line with the ankle
  • You should always be able to see your toes in front of your front knee
  • The legs will be be parallel as if you were standing on railroad tracks 
  • The back leg will have a micro bend in the knee with the foot pointed to a 45 degree angle 
  • Feel the side of the hip of the front leg move forward and the side of the hip of the back leg move forward to bring the hips into neutral
  • Raise the arms overhead you want to have them in a position that allow the upper traps to relax and have the biceps in line with the ears
  • If you need to have a bend in the arms to accomplish this do so

Warrior Two
Cues:
  • The foot of the lead leg should be grounded through the four corners of the foot as it would be in mountain pose
  • Have the knee of the lead leg bent and in line with the ankle. The front knee can be behind the ankle but never in front
  • There should be a micro bend in the knee of the back leg with the foot at a 90 degree angle
  • The front heel should be lined up with the center of the arch of the back foot
  • Have each arm extended from the shoulders like airplane wings 
  • Have your upper body as in would be in mountain pose - engage the pelvic floor, have a soft engagement through the core, ribs drawn towards the spine, the spine drawn towards the ribs, shoulders relaxed back and down with a long neck 
  • To feel the shoulders drop back and down you can turn the palms skyward and keeping the that position turn your palms to point towards the mat

Crescent Warrior
Cues:
  • Start in Warrior II
  • Inhale turn the palm of your lead hand skyward while reaching back with the trailing arm placing your hand on your back leg
  • Turn the palm of your top hand to face the wall behind you and look up at that hand
  • As you exhale you can start to bend more into the front leg coming into a deeper lunge

Side Angle 
Cues:
  • Start in a Warrior II
  • Inhale and shifting your body forward placing your lead forearm on the quad or on the inside of the knee
  • Bring your trailing arm up with the palm down stretching directly from your side
  • You can come deeper into this pose by straightening the lead arm and placing the finger tips on to the ground

Side Angle with Bind

triangle
Cues:
  • Starting in Warrior II
  • Bring your front leg towards straight
  • Inhale reaching the finger tips of your lead arm forward stretching through your side
  • Exhale bend from your side and bring the finger tips of your lead hand towards the ground - you can place the fingers at the knee, shin or use a block
  • Have the top arm in line with the bottom arm throught

Side lunge
Cues:
  • Your upper body should be in mountain pose
  • The trailing leg should be towards straight with a micro bend in the knee with the foot pointed straight forward 
  • Place lead foot and knee at a 45 degree angle bending towards a 90 degree angle
  • Place the outside of the foot strongly on the ground 

gate

revolved lunge
Cues:
  • Staring in a low lunge position exhale bringing the palms together and down through centre towards the sternum
  • Inhale round through the shoulders on the exhale rotate through the spine bringing the right elbow to the outside of the left knee
  • Keep the spine long from the tailbone to the crown of the head
  • If you feel stable and balanced enough you can bring the back knee off of the floor

Hip Flexor to Hamstring
Cues:
  • ​Begin in a low lunge position bringing your toes an inch or two in front of the toes (it is okay to do this because you do not have an force on the legs in this positioning)
  • Bring your back knee far enough that you begin to feel a stretch through the back hip flexor
  • On an inhale start walking your hands back towards your seat bringing the front leg towards straight coming into a stretch in the hamstring
  • Exhale come back forward to the hip flexor stretch

*You can keep the back toes tucked under, this will stretch out the bottom of the foot. You can also untuck the back toes and place the top of the foot on the ground

Rotating Lunge
Cues:
  • Come into a high lunge
  • On an inhale bring your arms into a cactus position - a 90° angle at the shoulders and at the elbows
  • On an exhale turn to the right 
  • On an inhale come to centre and on an exhale turn to the left
  • You can do this with your back knee down or lifted

Rotating Lunge with extended arms

Lunge with side stretch
Cues:
  • Come into a high lunge position
  • On an inhale bring your left wrist into your right hand 
  • On an exhale bend over to your right side

Low lunge with twist
Cues:
  • Come into a low lunge
  • Bring your left hand out to the left edge of the mat
  • On an inhale place your right hand on your left thigh
  • On an exhale twist towards your right side opening up through the chest and shoulder

Lunge with hip opener