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Bodyweight Front lunge vs Reverse lunge

mvikred

mvikred

Level 6 Valued Member
Certified Instructor
Hi

I used to have issues with my knees a couple of years back. When I squatted, lunged, especially when the volume went up. However, since I got into kettlebells, I started doing reverse lunges and over time with goblet squats my knee pain completely went away. Now I don't feel any issues with my squats. However, last evening, I did an overhead walking lunges as a part of my workout. This seems to mimic forward lunge movement and I did feel a bit of pain/strain on my knees more than I have ever felt. that got me curious how forward lunge loads the body differently vs reverse lunge. Also when I do split squats or Bulgarian squats, the sensation I get is similar to forward lunges. So I wonder how exactly can I safely program single leg squat work into my workouts ???
 
mvikred said:
Hi

I used to have issues with my knees a couple of years back. When I squatted, lunged, especially when the volume went up. However, since I got into kettlebells, I started doing reverse lunges and over time with goblet squats my knee pain completely went away. Now I don't feel any issues with my squats. However, last evening, I did an overhead walking lunges as a part of my workout. This seems to mimic forward lunge movement and I did feel a bit of pain/strain on my knees more than I have ever felt. that got me curious how forward lunge loads the body differently vs reverse lunge. Also when I do split squats or Bulgarian squats, the sensation I get is similar to forward lunges. So I wonder how exactly can I safely program single leg squat work into my workouts ???
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Can you do a couple reps without pain?

If you can, the issue would seem to be one of capacity and not capability, and I would recommend adding in low volume as tolerated pain free, and gradually building volume/weight.

To quote a physical therapist that used to work on me, there are no bad exercises, but there are exercises you aren't ready for.
 
John K said:
Can you do a couple reps without pain?

If you can, the issue would seem to be one of capacity and not capability, and I would recommend adding in low volume as tolerated pain free, and gradually building volume/weight.

To quote a physical therapist that used to work on me, there are no bad exercises, but there are exercises you aren't ready for.
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Yes .. couple of reps are pain free and I dont think there is any major problem as such but I feel some part of my knee did not develop as I almost exclusively did rev lunges all these days.
 
mvikred said:
Yes .. couple of reps are pain free and I dont think there is any major problem as such but I feel some part of my knee did not develop as I almost exclusively did rev lunges all these days.
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Like Mark mentioned, a video might help. A lot of folks doing forward lunges have a knee far over the toes. This isn't bad, but if they aren't used to it and jump in quickly with volume and weight, it can aggravate that front tendon. All that is just based on my experience, I'm not a doc.
 
+1 to video.

If you can go one direction pain-free but not the other, then you may be moving differently somehow between the two.
 
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mvikred said:
Hi

I used to have issues with my knees a couple of years back. When I squatted, lunged, especially when the volume went up. However, since I got into kettlebells, I started doing reverse lunges and over time with goblet squats my knee pain completely went away. Now I don't feel any issues with my squats. However, last evening, I did an overhead walking lunges as a part of my workout. This seems to mimic forward lunge movement and I did feel a bit of pain/strain on my knees more than I have ever felt. that got me curious how forward lunge loads the body differently vs reverse lunge. Also when I do split squats or Bulgarian squats, the sensation I get is similar to forward lunges. So I wonder how exactly can I safely program single leg squat work into my workouts ???
Click to expand...
I think it might be due to the weight distribution. I used to experience pain in the lunge part of a TGU.

Wher ein the movement does the pain oocur? For me it was around the 90° bent. I then started doing lots of split squats (substituting 50% or so of my Goblet Squats) and that helped a lot. I keep the front leg on the first or second step of a stairway and rack a KB on my squat side.

 
mvikred said:
So I wonder how exactly can I safely program single leg squat work into my workouts ???
Click to expand...
I do box pistol squats, with optimal height of box being just below parallel. You can of course adjust the height according to your conditions.
 
I had a similar issue when I went through a phase of doing heavy Bulgarian Split Squats during my workout.

Thought everything was alright until I filmed my last set and noticed how much my form had depreciated.

Here is the video in question. That is a 30kg York SSB.
 
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mvikred said:
I started doing reverse lunges and over time,,,my knee pain completely went away.
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Shear Force

Driving the knees forward places a lot of Shear Force on them.

That is usually what occurs in a Forward Lunge and in Squat where the knees are driven forward, over the toes.

Some individual have no issue with Forward Lunges. Other do.

Reverse Lunge

A Reverse Lunge keeps the shins perpendicular to the floor; keeping the knees in a neutral postion which minimize Shear Force on the knees.

It is hard to say why something hurts with bad pain and other thing don't.

A good rule, as you know, is...

"If it hurts (bad pain) don't do it."
 
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IMO much of the reason lies in that in the Reverse, the front (non-moving) leg is working, so it's work but no deceleration/force pounding.
Forward, it's the front leg (moving) where there IS deceleration/force pounding.
Controlling deceleration = eccentric load = higher stress.
Quads are primary decelerator in the movement. Anterior dominance without posterior balance often = knee pain
 
@mvikred I know this thread is a little older, so I hope you aren't experiencing these issues anymore. After watching and rewatching your video a handful of times since it was bumped up again, I do have a couple observations.

When you do forward lunges, you don't load your left leg the same way as the right. Your upper body/pelvis twists clockwise when you step forward with the left, and it appears like your left foot, in these instances, does not always pronate the same amount as the left. You can see the inside arch/instep moving up and down. It could just be a fluke when you filmed however. Was your issue both legs or just one?

When you do backwards lunges, you keep your weight centered better over the planted leg, but the left foot still moves noticeably more than the right.

Were you able to solve your issue since then?
 
bluejeff said:
@mvikred I know this thread is a little older, so I hope you aren't experiencing these issues anymore. After watching and rewatching your video a handful of times since it was bumped up again, I do have a couple observations.

When you do forward lunges, you don't load your left leg the same way as the right. Your upper body/pelvis twists clockwise when you step forward with the left, and it appears like your left foot, in these instances, does not always pronate the same amount as the left. You can see the inside arch/instep moving up and down. It could just be a fluke when you filmed however. Was your issue both legs or just one?

When you do backwards lunges, you keep your weight centered better over the planted leg, but the left foot still moves noticeably more than the right.

Were you able to solve your issue since then?
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Hey ... thanks for that. I haven't been focusing on lunges and therefore did not follow through after this post. But glad you bumped it up. After you mentioned, I do notice how the left lunge is different (for both rev and front). As I haven't necessarily focused on lunges I can't say if things are better now. I've been preparing for the SFG weekend, so once that is done I could start looking into resolve the issues I have with lunges !!!
 
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