I moved over the weekend. I did lots of bending, squatting, lifting and pulling. What a workout! It’s easy to get injured if you aren’t paying attention and attempting to lift a heavy box without using your legs and core properly.
Squats and Lunges should be performed with the majority of weight in your heels. This helps you to access your gluteal (buttocks) muscles. It isn’t called Gluteus Maximus for nothing! You want to use your glutes when lifting and lunging and squatting. You want to utilize this powerhouse muscle as well as tone it by using it. Putting your weight in your heels helps with this and also helps to protect your knees. If you put too much weight in your toes, the tendency is to put too much weight in your knees, thus stressing the knee joint. Think about it, would you rather use your gluteus maximus or your little kneecap to lift that load!!!!!
Watch the video for more tips on proper form for lunging and squatting.
Keep your knees happy and healthy by using proper form:
- Place about 80% of your weight in your heels for lunges and squats.
- Make sure you can peek down and see your toes when lunging and squatting, this should ensure that your weight is over your heel and not your toes.
- When lunging the force drives down and up NOT forward and back. Sometimes we lunge down and slightly forward causing undue stress on the knee joint. Go straight down
- When lunging, take a bigger stance than you think you should, this will ensure that you place more weight in the heel than the toe.