Hello again. I have been doing lunges for over a month now, and when I first started doing that exercise I did the long lunge version where I would lunge as much as I can (without losing my balance) in order maximize my range of motion on my legs. So everytime I would do that variation of the lunge, I would fully extend the back leg while letting my hips rotate back toward the back leg during the lunging phase of the exercises.
However, many fitness and bodybuilding experts say that both legs need to be bent 90 degrees when doing long lunges. So then I eventually switched to doing shorter lunges (also because I wanted to switch emphasis on working the glutes and hams to quads. Yet, I am wondering if it is okay to do the very long lunge version that I just described above, or could that actually likely lead to both hip and knee problems?
[quote]Bull_Scientist wrote:
Yet, I am wondering if it is okay to do the very long lunge version that I just described above, or could that actually likely lead to both hip and knee problems?[/quote]
If you currently have healthy hips, knees, and ankles, there’s little risk of exercising them through a full ROM with an appropriate load. If anything, intentionally shortening your stride could increase joint stress. I’m 6’2" and I know that longer strides feel (obviously) more natural and more comfortable on my knees compared to taking shorter strides.
Mike Robertson’s article about all things lunge-y.