Daily Mobility Exercises by Dr. Kelly Starrett › Forums › General › On my way to a better Lunge pattern without knee pain › Re: On my way to a better Lunge pattern without knee pain

04/08/2014 at 10:02 am #74465
AvatarNathan Richer
Participant

so just to be clear – you are doing a lunge with the knee down on both sides?


try putting a pad or Abmat under the down knee. Does that help the pain?

the classic progression for developing stability in the lunge position with knee down would be:
1. feet shoulder width apart, facing fwd, perform lunge for 15 sec, 30 sec, etc.  hold for the entire time, goal is to not wobble and be very still. 
2. start moving the feet closer together and perform lunge for time. eventually end up with feet lined up which is the toughest stance.
3. get in stance 1, start slowly turning your head from left to right and back again.  this now challenges your balance. progress in time, and also moving your feet to be lined up.
4. get in stance 1, put PVC pipe or similar on your shoulders. slowly rotate your body and rotate the pole from left to right and back again. this again challenges your balance. progress in time and also moving your feet to be lined up.
5. i don’t know if you have access to “chopping” with a weight machine, or a Gray Cook Band, but the chop and lift work well:

6. as you progress, you can add weight. the half kneeling press is great:


this video also shows some interesting concepts like unweighting the lead leg, as well as the stance wide to narrow.

so the progression moves from static stability to dynamic stability to strengthen. i would not jump to the KB press until you are very ready.

Carl Paoli’s lunge progressions are worth watching after you get the above down: