Jumping Lunges – Bodyweight Cardio Exercise Guide with Photos

Muscles Targeted: The primary muscles targeted with jumping lunges are the major ones located in the lower body that include the quadriceps, hamstrings and glutes. The core muscles of your abdominals are also engaged as stabilizer muscles while performing this exercise. Your cardiovascular system also benefits from this exercise by helping to improve your stamina and endurance while strengthening your heart and lungs. If your goal is to slim down your lower body, then jumping lunges are an excellent choice for tightening and toning your thighs and butt.

Jumping Lunges

Exercise Instructions: To begin jumping lunges, position your body in an athletic stance with your feet apart at about shoulder width. Bring your right leg forward while simultaneously dropping your left leg back behind you. Your arms should swing in unison with your legs. Repeat this technique with your opposite leg and continue in this fashion while jumping back and forth for your desired number of repetitions. Jumping lunges are a little different from regular lunges since you will be in a stationary position (not moving forward and backward) during the exercise. This is a fast paced movement so make sure to focus on keeping your balance while performing it. Always keep your head up and your eyes focused straight ahead while executing this exercise.

Why This Exercise is Important: The jumping lunge exercise is great for anyone who wants to strengthen, tone and tighten the muscles in the lower body. For athletes, it’s an excellent agility exercise to include in your training routine to build up endurance and power in your legs. For people who are looking for a tighter butt and thighs then implementing this exercise a few times per week will help in toning those muscles. Jumping lunges are also great because you can perform them anywhere with just a minimal amount of space so it makes this an ideal exercise to perform in the convenience of your own home. The major benefit of bodyweight exercises like this one is that you don’t need to have access to expensive leg machines or bulky equipment in order to get a great workout!

Things To Avoid: The key thing to avoid when doing jumping lunges is moving your body forward and/or backward. This is not a traditional lunge where you move forward onto one leg and then push backward. It’s also not a walking lunge where you cover a lot of ground. With jumping lunges, you will basically stay in a fixed position during the movement and just move your legs back and forth into two positions. You also want to avoid hunching your shoulders over and rounding your back. Keep your back flat with your chest out and your shoulders back while looking straight forward. Performing this exercise in front of a mirror can be very beneficial for monitoring your form and technique.

Reps and Sets: Beginners will start with 10-15 reps of 2-3 sets for jumping lunges. Advanced individuals can do higher reps in the range of 50-100 for multiple sets. A great way to incorporate this exercise into a workout is by combining a few other movements with it, like those listed below:

• Burpee: 10 reps
• Mountain Climbers: 20 reps
• Jumping Lunges: 20 reps

Jumping lunges are perfect if you want a lower body exercise you can do anywhere which targets the major muscles of your lower body while burning calories and toning your legs, thighs and butt. Add it into your cardio workout routine or use it as a finishing movement on your leg training days when you hit the weights. Doing a few high repetition sets of jumping lunges after heavy squats or leg press will definitely burn out your quadriceps, hamstrings, calves and glutes! Check out our entire exercise guides database for exclusive access to over 500 muscle building and fat burning exercises!

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