The Forward Lunge and Twist Exercise is a great way to stretch your hip flexors and glutes while improving mobility in your torso.
This is a simpler variation of the Forward Lunge and Twist with Golf Club Exercise.
The Forward Lunge and Twist Exercise forms part of the Golf Stability series of innovative and dynamic exercises that will build stability in your joints and core for better consistency and ball-striking.
Steps
- Start by standing tall, in perfect posture, with your arms by your sides.
- Step forwards with your right leg into a lunge – bending your right knee and dropping your left knee to just above the ground.
- Contract your left glutes and rotate your torso to the right, reaching behind you with your right arm.
- Relax and rotate back to neutral, then step forwards into the next lunge with your left leg by driving tall through your hips, lifting your left knee high as you do so.
- Rotate again, this time to the left, contracting your right glutes and as you reach behind you with your left arm.
- Relax and rotate back to neutral, then continue to step forwards, lifting your knee high as you do so, for the desired number of repetitions with each leg.
Try to maintain perfect posture throughout the exercise – your head over your shoulders, your chin up, your chest up and abdominals engaged to stabilise your spine, and your shoulder blades back and down.
Do not let your squatting knee slide over your toes – your front thigh should be parallel with the floor with your shinbone in a slight forwards lean and your knee aligned with the second toe of your foot.
You should feel it stretching the hip flexors of your back leg and working the glutes of your front leg, then a stretch in your obliques as you twist.
Variation
Once you can perform this exercise without difficulty, try the Forward Lunge and Twist with Golf Club Exercise – this will stabilise your upper body and force you to perform the twist more with your lower back and obliques.
For an easier version of this exercise, try the Reverse Lunge and Twist Exercise – the more vertical nature of the reverse lunge means that it requires less balance.
There are a number of other lunge exercises in the Golf Loopy Train like a Champion System that offer a variety of challenges, you can see them all by clicking here.
Target Muscles
The exercise involves mainly your gluteus maximus, quadriceps, and your internal and external obliques, and to a lesser extent your gluteus medius, psoas major, and hamstrings.
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