help me out.

[papercut]

I have a couple basic training questions regarding two completely unrelated body parts.

First question, when doing walking lunges how far out should I be stepping? I've been doing these for the last couple months and have noticed the muscles around my knee (ACL MCL etc.) feel strange. as though they are weak and want to give out all the time. its not a pain or anything. just general feeling of weakness. I always warm my legs up with light one legged extensions and leg curls. generally the warm up is 15 reps by 20lbs then 12 reps at 30lbs then 10 @ 30lbs. then both legs for 2 sets of 10 at 50lbs for both extensions and curls. after that I feel pretty warmed up and then move on to squats then to the lunges. I make sure not to allow my lead knee to go past my toes on the step but before I started incorporating these in I never felt this in my knees. any ideas or tweaks I can make to maybe put a stop to it?


Second question is for lower lats. I'm looking for the best workouts to isolate these effectively. I've read doing close grip chin ups, DB rows (pulling the weight back toward the hip) and neutral grip T-bar rows are good lifts to do for lower lats but I must say I can only really feel my lower lats engaging on the close grip chin ups. it is most likely just a form issue for the DB rows and TBRs. I try to keep my elbow tight to my body when at the top of the rowing motion for these lifts. is that correct? I figure I'd be at risk for injury if I flair the elbow, but as I said I can't really feel it in my lower lats. I keep my back flat and try not to twist when doing DB rows. any tips on specific lifts or form tweaks I should use to hit lower lats more effectively?

[Sandman]

Not sure about the knee issues. But for lower lats reverse grip barbell rows work best for me. Make sure your rowing to your belly button.

[BB-FLEXPRO]

I have a couple basic training questions regarding two completely unrelated body parts.

First question, when doing walking lunges how far out should I be stepping? I've been doing these for the last couple months and have noticed the muscles around my knee (ACL MCL etc.) feel strange. as though they are weak and want to give out all the time. its not a pain or anything. just general feeling of weakness. I always warm my legs up with light one legged extensions and leg curls. generally the warm up is 15 reps by 20lbs then 12 reps at 30lbs then 10 @ 30lbs. then both legs for 2 sets of 10 at 50lbs for both extensions and curls. after that I feel pretty warmed up and then move on to squats then to the lunges. I make sure not to allow my lead knee to go past my toes on the step but before I started incorporating these in I never felt this in my knees. any ideas or tweaks I can make to maybe put a stop to it?


Second question is for lower lats. I'm looking for the best workouts to isolate these effectively. I've read doing close grip chin ups, DB rows (pulling the weight back toward the hip) and neutral grip T-bar rows are good lifts to do for lower lats but I must say I can only really feel my lower lats engaging on the close grip chin ups. it is most likely just a form issue for the DB rows and TBRs. I try to keep my elbow tight to my body when at the top of the rowing motion for these lifts. is that correct? I figure I'd be at risk for injury if I flair the elbow, but as I said I can't really feel it in my lower lats. I keep my back flat and try not to twist when doing DB rows. any tips on specific lifts or form tweaks I should use to hit lower lats more effectively?

When you do walking lunges, you should take medium steps. Focus on keeping your body straight and don´t bent over so that your knee don´t go past your toes (good that you´re already aware of this). Also make it a slow and controlled movement. many people just take random steps bouncing around and allowing for unequal distributed force which often leads to strains and injuries (especially knee pain). Do you use a lot of weight when you do lunges? Do you do them without any weight? Let me know but I wouldn´t go crazy on lunges especially if you are doing it at the end of your leg rountine. Just focus on burning the legs out with a lot of time under tension and no heavy weights. If all that doesn´t help you might want to consider skipping lunges and incorporate other finishing exercises like sissy squats. Some people just aren´t build for certain exercises and sometimes it´s better to replace it than to hold on to the old dogma of "you have to do this erxercise period". There is noch such thing as a "must do" exercise, you have to go with movements you feel comfortable with and you can exaust your muscles with best without feeling pain or anything like that. Meaning if Squats hurt you no matter what you do-> Don´t do them. If you get pec strains all the time from traditional Flat Barbell Bench Presses->Don´t do them. There are enough other movements to develop the muscle and after all it´s all about tension and not about a certain exercise.


Lower Lats. DB Rows with pulling back towards the hip are great. Chin-Ups with different grips too. You can also try Barbell rows with Underhand grip. As you said most often it´s a form issue. You have to focus your mind on that specific area you are trying to target. many people also see Deadlifts as a good way to get thickness overall and in the lower back/lats. Just experiment with all those excersises and based on which movement you feel your lower lats best you create your own workout. And yes keeping elbows closer to the body is correct if you flair them out you most often target more rear delts instead of lats. If you don´t feel certain movements as you would like to try following: Hold 2-3 seconds on the peak contraction of a movement. Squeeze the muscle as hard as you can and feel it. Weight is irrelevant for that matter. I used that technique a lot and still use it very often. It´s great to get up the intensity and build up the mind-muscle connection! You´ll most likely not be able to use your normal weight but I promise if you do it right it´s even more painful than lifting with quicker repititions and heavier weight.
Maybe some of that will help you.

Peace Flex

[papercut]

Thanks for the replies. I'll give the barbell rows a try and see how they feel.

As far as lunges go I don't do them at the end of my workout generally. They are somewhere around the middle. I dont use much weight. Usually just my bodyweight and up to 30lbs dumbbells as im still trying to tweak the form and everything to see if the knee looseness will stop. But even before I never went all that heavy. About 100lbs combined.

[GoodmanBarbell]

I have a couple basic training questions regarding two completely unrelated body parts.

First question, when doing walking lunges how far out should I be stepping? I've been doing these for the last couple months and have noticed the muscles around my knee (ACL MCL etc.) feel strange. as though they are weak and want to give out all the time. its not a pain or anything. just general feeling of weakness. I always warm my legs up with light one legged extensions and leg curls. generally the warm up is 15 reps by 20lbs then 12 reps at 30lbs then 10 @ 30lbs. then both legs for 2 sets of 10 at 50lbs for both extensions and curls. after that I feel pretty warmed up and then move on to squats then to the lunges. I make sure not to allow my lead knee to go past my toes on the step but before I started incorporating these in I never felt this in my knees. any ideas or tweaks I can make to maybe put a stop to it?


Second question is for lower lats. I'm looking for the best workouts to isolate these effectively. I've read doing close grip chin ups, DB rows (pulling the weight back toward the hip) and neutral grip T-bar rows are good lifts to do for lower lats but I must say I can only really feel my lower lats engaging on the close grip chin ups. it is most likely just a form issue for the DB rows and TBRs. I try to keep my elbow tight to my body when at the top of the rowing motion for these lifts. is that correct? I figure I'd be at risk for injury if I flair the elbow, but as I said I can't really feel it in my lower lats. I keep my back flat and try not to twist when doing DB rows. any tips on specific lifts or form tweaks I should use to hit lower lats more effectively?


The one thing I've done in the past to hit my lower lats are DB rows on a 45 degree bench. I find I can really squeeze the lower lat. It is something that has worked for me so give it a shot. If not at least your not leaving any stones unturned so to speak.

[Gino]

Flex makes some really good points. I think it's really all about form when it comes to hitting lower lats. For me, barbell rows work best, it's just my go to exercise for back overall. Sorry I can't offer you more help, just keep tweaking it.