Just do lunges and deep bodyweight squats for a while and you too can have a sore butt. Man, those glute muscles really have lots to do with your ambulatory functions, and yet, they’re so overlooked. Besides that one little machine folks use at the gym (and by folks, I mean mostly girls), there’s not a lot of focus on getting your butt muscles stronger.
But, if doing lots of lunges is any indication, these muscles are obviously very necessary for running and other movement activities, so it stands to reason that you’d want to really work them harder.
Lunges, in case you haven’t done any, are when you take a good long step forward, and then dip your back knee down until it almost touches the floor. Your front knee shouldn’t go past the tip of your foot, aka your front shin area should be in a straight line. You can do walking lunges, where you take a step, dip down, get up, and take the next step. Or you can do standing lunges, where you take the step, dip, get up, dip, get up, etc.
Or, you can do backward lunges with a twist. Take a big step backwards, dip the back knee towards the ground (same stuff as the forward), but then, when you twist, you turn your upper torso towards the forward knee and then some, with your arms outstretched kind of like you’re a karate master, until you can look over your shoulder at whoever might come up behind you. (Finding a picture through google might help).
I’m finding that doing this calisthenics and cardio only program right now is really exciting. Coupled with re-learning something the other day, I think I’m going to nail this weight now. Want to know what I re-learned?
Eating sugar tells your metabolism to go into fat-storing mode. I don’t know the chemical reasons behind it (or I forgot them), but I buy it. One thing I haven’t cut out much over the last several weeks is sweets. So, armed with this little ditty, I think I’m going to have even more success.
My first goal to that effect: one week with no added sugar whatsoever. (If a nectarine has sugars, so be it, but no cookies or whatever). Then, if I can do a week, I’ll go for two. Then a month. So, today’s day one.
Now, get out there and try this lunge business. Do some bodyweight squats, too. Use your stability ball and lean against a wall with the ball between you and the wall. Dip down until your thighs are parallel to the ground. Hold it there five seconds, and go back up slowly. Repeat 15-20 times.
Between that and the lunges, see if you don’t report some “OW” of your own. : ) It’ll be the good kind, okay?
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