Adding a new piece of equipment can improve your workout as well as help keep you engaged. An Airex pad increases the instability of a lunge, further challenging the muscles that stabilize you during that exercise. Airex pads are relatively common in commercial gyms, and you can buy them at sporting goods stores or online. Recognize the Airex pad by its bright blue color and square shape.
Stabilizing Muscles
When you step forward into a lunge, your torso stabilizes you, preventing you from falling to the side. The muscles you engage include your erector spine, which runs up the back of your spinal column, as well as your obliques, which run on either side of your waist. As you descend, you use muscles that connect your shoulder to your neck and spine, the trapezius muscles, and muscles in your bottom, the gluteus medius and glueteus minimus. In your calf, you use the tibilias anterior, at the front of your calf, to control flexion of your ankle as you move up and down. Yours hamstrings and gastrocnemius, the muscles that run up the back of your thigh and your calf, stabilize you throughout the exercise.
Using the Pad
Adding an Airex pad introduces instability because the pad is made of a soft, foam-like material. This instability further challenges your stabilizing muscles as you perform the exercise, because you are not standing firm on the floor. Place the pad under your front foot, step back into your lunge position and complete your lunges. If you are comfortable with the level of balance challenge, step in and out of the lunge to add another level of challenge. Be careful, however. The American Council on Exercise reviewed the Airex pad and found it to be somewhat slippery; therefore, before you step in and out, make sure the pad is either against a wall or on a non-slip surface.
Form Tips
Using an Airex pad requires that you work harder to maintain your balance. When using one for the first time, use just your body weight to ensure you can keep your balance, and also so that your hands are free should the instability prove too much. Lunge in a slow and controlled movement; don't rush. This makes the exercise more challenging and also enables you to correct your balance more easily. As you descend, make sure your front knee is aligned with your foot and behind your toes.
Benefits
Working on an Airex pad engages your gluteal muscles more actively than does a regular lunge. In a "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research" study published in December 2009, use of the gluteus medius muscle was recorded using electromyographic signals of muscle activation. A single-leg exercise on a pad that introduced instability to the exercise activated the gluteus medius more than a regular lunge or a squat.
References
- American Council on Exercise: Airex Balance Pad
- ExRx: Erector Spinae
- ExRx: Obliques
- ExRx: Dumbbell Lunge
- ExRx: Trapezius (Lower Fibers)
- ExRx: Gluteus Medius
- ExRx: Tibialis Anterior
- "Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research"; "Electromyographic Analysis of the Gluteus Medius in Five Weight-Bearing Exercises; D.A. Krause et. al.; December 2009
