New Exercises to Try – Crossover Lunges

Lunges are never far from any personal trainer’s mind and never are we more excited than when we learn a new one.

Today’s version is kind of like a curtsy lunge, which involves stepping back and across into the lunge. In this version, you’re actually crossing over in the front, which makes it more challenging. Rotating the upper body with straight arms is like the cherry on top.

There’s a lot going on with this exercise and the one thing you want to avoid is tweaking the knee.

The idea is to try and keep the knee over the toes, although you’ll find that adding the rotation will naturally pull your knee to the side a little. Watch out for that and skip this exercise if you feel anything bad happening in your knee.

Do it right: With the arms straight out in front of you, step the right foot across your body to the left into a lunge, pausing to make sure the shin is straight and the knee is over the toes. For added intensity, rotate the torso to the left, taking the arms to the side as far as you can. Step back to start and repeat for 1-3 sets of 8-16 reps.