The pole lunge exercise is the perfect stretch for you if you want to tone your butt and have rock hard muscles!
How to perform the exercise
You want to begin this stretch by grasping your pole at around your waist height.
Choose one foot then place it forward so that your toes nearly touch the base of your pole.
Then, lift your other leg behind you while bending your knee, making an L shape.
Get ready by engaging your core muscles!
Move your body weight backwards while slowly bending your standing leg as you lower your back knee to the floor.
You should allow the arm grasping the pole to stretch out so your upper body is away from your pole.
If you are having difficulty, imagine that something is pulling your back foot back and away from the pole.
What to expect
Don’t be discouraged if you cannot lower your back knee all the way down, especially if you are new to the exercise.
Be sure to maintain focus, good form, and control over your body while lowering yourself and you will be able to go lower and lower with practice.
With all types of exercises, always be sure to work within your limits and stop when it becomes uncomfortable!
The real work out and tight butt muscles, however, comes from getting back up again! Before you get back up, there are a few things to keep in mind.
You chest and spine, for example, should stay lifted and straight, and your tailbone should be tucked underneath the spine.
Adjust your body if you notice yourself leaning forward as this can lessen the effectiveness of your stretch, and possibly cause strains in your knee.
Additionally, be sure to keep your front knee above your ankle, not over the toes (this is a sure sign that you are leaning forward).
Keep in mind that your starting position is important to the overall stretch.
If your front foot is too far from your pole and your arm is bent, you body could tip forward and your knee will surely be over your toes.
Being in the wrong position will lead to future knee injuries and does not effectively stretch the targeted muscles.
Now, to continue with the stretch, squeeze your butt muscles and lift your body back to the starting position, being careful not to use your arms.
It might be difficult to maintain a light grip on your pole and to resist the temptation to pull yourself up using your upper body strength, but doing so will not give you the toned butt muscles you desire! You will, of course, need to use your arms very slightly but the majority of the focus should remain on your butt muscles.
It might be helpful to try and relax your arm muscles while squeezing a hundred dollar bill between their butt cheeks!
In short, all the work should come from the butt muscles in your front leg.
how many should you be doing?
Whatever amount your comfortable with, without overexerting yourself, and while maintain a proper stance! It is common to only be able to do 3 or 4 if you aren’t familiar with lunges before your posture wavers, but that’s perfectly alright! Remember that it is more beneficial to do 3 lunges with great form, then to do more with poor form.
I suggest making 12 lunges on each leg your goal.
When you reach this point and are able to do this many easily, you will surely have noticed people complimented your new toned butt!
Important information to keep in mind
When doing this stretch, there are, as with all forms of exercise, some things to keep in mind:
This type of lunge is not necessarily for beginners so it is important to gauge and be aware of your fitness level.
If you are capable of doing the pole lunch stretch, remember to keep your upper body upright and to not lean forward while doing the lunge.
You don’t need to go too low right off the bat, take a smaller lunges until you are comfortable moving forward.
When lowering into the lunge, be sure to keep your front knee from going part your toes as this can cause knee injuries.
Finally, remember to only (or mostly) use your butt muscles to lift yourself from the lunge! This will help form your tush the best!