Hello, it’s Home Exercise of the Week time again and this week I have a full body exercise for you to try called the Lateral Lunge Medicine Ball Extension.

The Lateral Lunge Medicine Ball Extension works your gluteus medius (the sides of the glutes), quadriceps, hamstrings, and your adductor muscles which are the muscles of the inner thigh.  The medicine ball extension works your shoulders and to a lesser degree your biceps and triceps.  So as you can see you are working a lot of muscles here which means you’ll be burning more calories and making your heart work more creating a cardiovascular component to the exercise.

If you don’t have a medicine ball that’s ok.  You can use any heavy object you have around the house.  You can even hold your baby or pet for this one!

Let’s take a look at the key performance points of the Lateral Lunge Medicine Ball Extension.

• stand tall with your feet together and holding the medicine ball close to your chest
• take a big step to the right while keeping your toes pointed forward
• bend your right leg so you are descending in to a lunge
• keep your weight on your right heel and drive your hips back as you lunge
• keep your back straight as well as your left leg
• make sure your right knee stays in line with your right toes (you don’t want your knee going forward past the toes)
• hold this lunge position and push the medicine ball forward away from your chest
• pull the ball back to your chest and push up through your right heel to the starting position
• repeat the movement for your left leg
• lunge side to side for your desired amount of reps or time

So there you have the Lateral Lunge Medicine Ball Extension!  Add this in to your full body routine to spice things up and hit your legs in a different way.

Let me know how you do with this exercise in the comments below or if you have any questions.

See you next week with another new exercise!