Lunges: The Secret to Better Balance and Coordination | Move for Life (Part 3)

Lunges are a cornerstone of healthy aging - building lower-body strength, improving balance, and supporting joint health.  

This episode is the third in our twenty-part series, Move for Life, exploring the intersection of longevity, strength training and movement. Miami-based fitness coaches Shebah Carfagna and Nate Wilkins contrast front, back, and side lunges, explaining how each targets different muscle groups and mimics gait to enhance functional movement.

Shebah underscores posture, pelvic floor engagement, and proprioception as critical factors in reducing chronic pain and preventing falls, while Nate connects lunge training to real-world demands, from pickleball to travel, arguing that balance and foot placement are non-negotiable for injury prevention. 

We also discuss how integrating short, accessible sessions into everyday life - at home, in gyms, or even at airports - support longevity.

You should seek medical advice before embarking on a new exercise.

This episode is the second in our 20-part series, Move for Life, exploring the intersection of longevity, strength training and movement. 

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Transcript

Peter Bowes: 0:27

Lunges. They're one of the most powerful longevity exercises simple, effective in building lower body strength, improving balance, and supporting joint health. Hello again! Welcome to the Live Long podcast and the third in our series with Shebah Carfagna and Nate Wilkins, Move for life, exploring lifestyle interventions designed to make us stronger, more agile and vibrant. As we grow older.

Nate Wilkins: 0:53

Lunges actually begin to isolate a certain part of the lower body. As an example, if you're doing front lunges, then you're more apt to focus on the quadriceps if you are doing back lunges. And incidentally, Peter, I love the back lunge more than the front lunge because the back lunge, you know, I'm able to find the work in my hamstrings and my glutes and I need that. So some people prefer front lunges more, but I think it begins to form the body, and it also helps the quad and the knee and the calf working together. So I think those are the benefits of a lunge. But again, it's all about building that lower body.

Shebah Carfagna : 1:40

Right. And lunges imitate gait. Whether you can do a smaller lunge, you know if you have issues or you do a larger lunge, they imitate gait stance again which is optimal aging. Okay. That movement forward and backward on different planes is good. You can do side lunges. That gives you on the sagittal plane. So you're moving all over. With squats you're basically stationary and you're aligned whether your feet are turned externally internally. But the lunge is actually a gait and it trains the muscles differently than a squat. All the muscles are used, but it trains them in a different way. So you want to be sure to train the muscles all the way around. Muscles are not flat, so that training needs to happen so you develop the muscle fully.

Peter Bowes: 2:24

And how do lunges help us with our posture?

Shebah Carfagna : 2:27

Oh, all of it helps with the posture. You should be cognizant of your posture on all exercises, because better posture reduces the incidence of chronic pain. And sometimes, based on what we've seen in data, is it also reduces disease. So, you know, good posture is critical. But the lunges do that because you're moving forward again, forward thinking about holding your chest up individuals a lot of times do lunges with a hinge back and so their back is rounded. What you want to do is build that lower abdominal strength pelvic floor. You hear a lot about how it helps with the pelvic floor, to strength in the legs, the dynamic strength because you're moving back and forth. So there's dynamic strength there as well. You know if you do a stationary lunge, then you have a different angle that you're hitting the lunges with. So all of those are good.

Nate Wilkins: 3:20

But you know what's interesting about this conversation is that nowadays you see people playing a pickleball or example and they haven't trained, and so they find themselves getting injured because they have to make these fast movements. So if you are practicing lunges, that'll allow you to make better moves when you're playing.

Shebah Carfagna : 3:42

Right.

Nate Wilkins: 3:43

Paddleball or padel.

Shebah Carfagna : 3:45

Yeah. Just because you play tennis doesn't mean you can play padel. And that's where we find a lot of breakdown is with individuals who don't realize that they need to train. So for example, we see people go to a Zumba class and then they're hurt. Well, Zumba are dancers and dancers train. So you have to do multifunction movements. Back to the Ageless Workout method, multifunction movements. What we believe is our program will have you strong enough to go into any modality, a bar class, or lift weights in the gym, or go whitewater rafting and you will have that basic core strength and that fluidity in your muscles. And then all you have to do is focus on the technique.

Peter Bowes: 4:29

And one of the crucial outcomes from doing this form of exercise is our overall balance. And you really can't overstate, can you, how important balance is as we get older.

Shebah Carfagna : 4:40

You really can. And that relates to proprioception. So proprioception is a concept where you know where your body is in space. Can you close your eyes and have your two fingers go together and watch me miss. See that? So and that is a critical part of working out and movement and exercise that you have to work on every single day. But balance, everyone needs to work on balance. So if I go to a class where I'm teaching and their age range is 20 to 70 and I can do that very well, you put a little balance in there. It evens the score. Balance is critical to avoid slips and falls, which is very hot topic these days. Slips and falls. What do we do to avoid slips and falls, right?

Nate Wilkins: 5:22

So in a lunge as an example, you find sometimes people try to rush through a lunge and you see them stumbling because they haven't placed their feet or their bodies, their posture in a proper place. So a lunge will will force you to work on your balance and pay attention to where your body is in space.

Shebah Carfagna : 5:45

Technique, technique, technique.

Peter Bowes: 5:47

And lunges can be modified, can't they? According to someone's initial fitness level.

Shebah Carfagna : 5:53

Oh, absolutely. Without a shadow of a doubt. There's forward lunges, backward lunges, side lunges. You can do a mini lunge, curtsy lunges, you can do a mini lunge. But ever so important because they cross train the body. You know, if you do a curtsy lunge where your body is twisting, you're training the body from here to here. You know that. That brings up a good point. Let me digress for a second. You know, lifting weights in the gym is one thing, but that's very stable against the stable surface. Okay. We also need movement where we're twisting and turning the body, because the body is on a 360 degree axis. So you have to be able to move it. You'll see those bodybuilders, they're really strong and their muscles are really big. But do they have mobility. You know and that's really what you're looking for. The mobility flexibility continued motion. Right?

Nate Wilkins: 6:41

Absolutely. I mean that's what we're talking about in terms of pro aging and longevity. Now some people would say they don't need that or they don't want to do that. But I think if you want to have if you want to have a long and lasting life, you got to be able to turn, you got to be able to make pivots quickly. It's again going back to that athlete in you.

Peter Bowes: 7:01

And like squats, the beauty of lunges is that we can do them anywhere.

Shebah Carfagna : 7:06

Yeah. Yes you can. Typically if we travel, I do my exercise. If we have an early flight in the airport, it doesn't bother me, you know. But you can do them anywhere. You can do a wall sit anywhere, which is a very popular exercises that engages isometric and posture because you have to sit up and how long can you hold that? And then your legs start to shake. But I think doing lunges and squats are critical lower body exercises that directly relate to your movement and your ADLs, and your ability to stay independent.

Nate Wilkins: 7:39

You get support for the knee, you get the quadriceps, and you get the calf as well as the ankle. Because when you do a lunge, you want to plant your feet solid to make sure that you again, going back to balance, to make sure that your down, that your feet is solid on the ground and you can hold your ground.

Peter Bowes: 7:58

And again, talking of as you did exercising at the airport as part of a journey, I think part of the mindset and why it's important is that we should think of exercise as literally part of our everyday lives. It isn't just going to the studio, it isn't just going to the gym, and it's the value of grabbing grubbing those few minutes as you're traveling to do some lunges or to do some squats, whatever it is, just to move the body.

Shebah Carfagna : 8:23

Some personal time is always good, and it's good for the mind. It's good to relax and get into it and reset. It works as a reset around here.

We get up at 4:00 and typically we're in the gym at 5: 8:32

00 and then we're off to teach, train and perhaps do a podcast. But we find that that kind of centralizes us, you know, to get our day going and reducing the endorphins. You know, as you get older, you tend can get a little foggy, your mind can get a little foggy, and your your movements are a little slower. But the movement of exercise right there in the airport, you know, you do. 1015 while you're waiting for your flight. We all have to be there terribly early. The flight is long. The critical thing is I do it also because you're sitting for a long time. If you're traveling on a plane over three hours, that is a long time, whether you're in first class or a coach. It's still a long time, and you need that movement before to get up and walk around. Typically on a flight, I walk around on a four hour flight. I'm walking around every hour.

Nate Wilkins: 9:25

The program we call. Train to travel.

Shebah Carfagna : 9:27

Train to travel? Yes.

Nate Wilkins: 9:29

And so lunges would be a part of that train and travel program.

Shebah Carfagna : 9:31

Yes. Yes yes. Lunges. Squats. Getting in and out of that seat. Putting a suitcase up.

Peter Bowes: 9:37

The Live Long podcast is a healthspan media production. I'm Peter Bowes. You can contact me through our website, LiveLongPodcast.com Or you'll also find shownotes for this episode.

DISCLAIMER: 9:48

This podcast is for informational, educational and entertainment purposes only. We do not offer medical advice. If you have health concerns of any kind or you are considering adopting a new diet or exercise regime, you should first consult your doctor.