Whether you're hoping to increase your aerobic fitness or lose weight, your heart rate plays a factor in the effectiveness of your workout. Incorporating lunges into your workout provides a lower-body focus that also impacts your heart rate. When you lunge, your heart rate increases above it's normal resting rate.
Function
Lunges use both legs and focus either primarily on the gluteal muscles, the muscles of your buttocks, or your quadriceps, the muscles at the front of your thigh. In addition, lunges work the calves, hamstrings and inner thighs. The length of your stride determines whether the glutes or quads are most impacted. The longer the stride, the more your glute muscles are the focus.
Effects
The human body is more than 50 percent muscle in most healthy people. As you lunge, you engage the muscles of your lower body, which incorporate the majority of muscle mass in the human body. Muscles require oxygen as they work. Since these muscles include a significant amount of muscle mass, the more you lunge, the more oxygen required, and the harder the heart works to circulate your blood to provide nourishment to the muscles involved.
Benefits
As a result of increased heart rate, lunges provide a good compliment to many forms of exercise. They can be a gentle warm up prior to a run or an effective weightlifting interval when alternating cardio and resistance exercises.
Misconceptions
You cannot, however, count lunges toward your weekly aerobic requirement. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend 150 minutes of cardiovascular exercise every week. While lunges do get your heart rate going, they are considered a resistance or strength exercise, not an aerobic activity.
Types
You can get your heart rate up using a variety of lunges. When lunging, you may start with just your body weight, but you can add dumbbells or barbells to increase the challenge. You can also use a Smith machine, which places a barbell on a horizontal plane. Walking lunges, where you stride the perimeter of a room, are a common variation. Balance beam lunges, where you step to create a straight line, as if on a beam, help work the gluteus medias, which are responsible for helping with lateral movement.
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