The jump lunge exercise is a great addition to any interval or circuit training session. Add 30 to 60 seconds of jump lunges in between your other exercises and you can keep your heart-rate high during your entire workout. This simple exercise can be modified for beginners or elite athletes: you can vary the speed of the jumps, the length and depth of each lunge, and the height of each transition. This movement challenges balance and coordination while building power and strength.

Do It Right -> Jump Lunge Tips and Safety

Start in a deep lunge position.

Quickly and powerfully push off your forward foot and change feet in the air.

Land softly to absorb the impact and prepare for the next jump.

Jump Lunge Exercise originally appeared on About.com Sports Medicine on Sunday, February 5th, 2012 at 06:51:23.

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With thousands of exercises you could do, it's not hard to imagine that some are better than others. Some exercises give you a lot of bang for the buck; some exercises are just plain dangerous; and some exercises are just overrated. If you ask the experts what are the most overrated exercises you get a pretty long list. But those that show up over and over include the following.

The Most Overrated Exercises

1. Traditional Crunches.

Walk into any gym at any time of the day or night and you can probably find someone doing crunches. While this exercise is easy to do, and targets the rectus abdominus  pretty well, there are far better exercise choices for the abs and core.

Do a Plank on a balance ball instead.  All by itself the plank gives you a better core workout than a crunch, but do it on an unstable surface and it works your entire body--shoulders, torso, hips and legs--while improving spine stability.

2. Seated Knee Extensions

The standard seated knee extension is not only over-rated, but it's not great for building any sort of functional strength. This movement focuses exclusively on quad strength, but misses out of the entire movement chain and doesn't help athletes develop lower body strength and stability.

Do a Walking Dumbbell Lunge instead. You'll get a better complete lower body workout with the walking lunge. This helps build dynamic strength and stability throughout the body: quads, hamstrings, and glutes as it improves single-leg strength and stability.

3. Abduction/Adduction Machines

I imagine most people would be happy to avoid this silly machine at the gym. This contraption is intended to condition your abductor and adductor muscles, which are critical for hip and knee stability. The only problem is these monstrous machines don't do a very good job of it. You will never do this movement in real life. In real life the adductor and abductor muscles (the glute medius in particular) help maintain stability in the hip as you move through the entire range of motion (this includes flexion, extension and rotation). In real life this occurs during walking, running, jumping and lateral movements while in a standing position.

Do a Lateral Mini Band Walking instead.
This exercise specifically targets hip function and stability in a real-life way.

4. Traditional Bench Press

Here is another exercise that you will most likely never perform in real life or in most sports. The bench press puts tremendous stress on the shoulder joint, by limiting the movement of the scapula during the movement. (see this explanation) You can modify the bench, or try another exercise.

Do a Push Up instead.
There a literally dozens of ways to modify push ups and increase the intensity and complexity of this basic exercise. If you think you've tried them all, check out the superman push up and the Aztec push up.

The Most Overrated Exercises originally appeared on About.com Sports Medicine on Wednesday, February 1st, 2012 at 06:17:37.

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Stretching to improve of maintain flexibility is important for all athletes.  But do you know if the stretches you are doing are actually targeting the right muscles? Unless you have a thorough understanding of anatomy or physiology, it can be hard to visualize where a specific muscle is located. And it can be even harder to know if that stretch you are doing for your quads is really targeting the quads or if you are stretching the psoas instead.

That is what I love about Brad Walker's The Anatomy of Stretching. Even if you don't know a ton about anatomy, this illustrated stretching guide gives you plenty of visual cues to help you understand what muscle is being targeted during specific stretching exercises.

Going through each stretch while referring to the book will help you visualize the muscle you want to stretch and get a better understanding of where the muscle begins and ends. After reviewing the book, stretching will not only feel good, but it will do some good as well.

Stretching Exercises By Sport

Here are some basic stretching routines for athletes who play specific sports.

• Best Stretches for Cycling
• Best Stretches for Golfers
• Best Stretches for Runners
• Best Stretches for Snowboarding
• Best Stretches for Soccer

Injury-Specific Stretching Routines

Here are some sample stretching routines for athletes who have specific injuries.

• IT (Iliotibial) Band Pain Stretching Routine
• Back Pain Stretching Routine
• Calf Pull Stretching Routine

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Is Your Stretching Routine Targeting the Right Muscles? originally appeared on About.com Sports Medicine on Sunday, January 29th, 2012 at 06:18:50.

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It seems everyone wants toned and defined "Six Pack Abs."

While it's not a simple thing to develop, it is possible. The key is living a lifestyle that combines good nutrition, and quality exercise that, when combined over time, melts away the layer of fat covering the core. Once this fat is reduced, you'll begin to see the muscle definition.

If you want to start seeing some ab definition, start here:

10 Tips to help uncover your six pack abs

What It Takes to Get Defined Abs originally appeared on About.com Sports Medicine on Wednesday, January 25th, 2012 at 04:43:42.

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Some of the best exercises for your hips and knees a simple moves that work your hip through the entire range of motion,

To reduce knee pain, and help the patella track properly, it helps to do exercises that engage the abductors and adductors. Theses muscles are critical for providing integrity of the hip joint and create a strong, balanced link between the lower body and the core. If you routinely exercise the hip only in one direction (with walking, running, clycing, etc.) you are missing out on some lateral movement that helps improve that structural integrity of the hip, as well as the entire lower body.

If abductor and adductor muscles are not strong, flexible, and balanced, the patella (kneecap) may not track properly as the knee bends and you may wind up with knee pain, patellofemoral syndrome, or another injury.

Learn how to add the best knee and hip exercises to your workouts to help build hip joint integrity:

Example Beginner Exercises

• Clam Exercise
• Bridge Exercise

Example Intermediate Exercises

• Side Plank
• Lateral Mini Band Walking
• Single Leg Bridge

Example Advanced Exercises

• Lateral Plyometric Jumps
• Yoga Pose for Abductors and Adductors

Exercises for Hips and Knees originally appeared on About.com Sports Medicine on Saturday, January 21st, 2012 at 03:56:45.

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