The Jump Lunge Works Every Muscle In Your Lower Body—As Long As You Don’t Make These 3 Common Mistakes

There are about as many ways to spice up the basic lunge as there are flavors of La Croix. And when it comes to finding a variation that will spike your heart rate while also burning out your lower body, the jumping lunge is the best of the best. With no equipment required, it’s easy to add this multi-tasking move into your workouts, but as with anything fitness-related, form is key.

In this episode of Well+Good’s YouTube series The Right Way, Colette Dong, founder of The Ness, demos how to do a jump lunge with proper form. But first, she walks you through the common mistakes to avoid.

Common mistakes when performing jumping lunges:

1. Forgetting to lunge through your back leg

The key ingredient to any good lunge is bringing both legs to a 90-degree angle as you lower down into the move, which means you want to be sure you’re keeping your back leg bent as you’re jumping. If you don’t, “you’re avoiding getting really low, which defeats the purpose of the move and puts a lot of strain and impact on that front leg because there’s no give to this jump,” says Dong.

2. Overarching your spine

Though a lunge is technically a lower-body move, it’s important to keep your core engaged in order to avoid overarching from your spine. When your back isn’t straight, your shoulders end up too far back over your hips, which creates a lot of instability in your spine and core. Think about keeping your shoulders positioned directly over your hips, creating a straight line from the top of your head all the way through your upper body.

3. Improperly tracking your knees

When you jump, it’s natural for your body to try to rotate, so you’ll want to avoid that by paying close attention to the way your knees are placed. As you jump, “track your knee over your toe and drive your back leg down towards the ground,” says Dong.

Ready to see how to do a jump lunge the right way? Press play to see Dong’s tips in action.

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