I had a client in last week who had knee pain on lunges.
I will rarely just throw an exercise out.
Instead we problem solve together. We try to find a way she CAN do the exercise without pain. Or at the very least, choose an exercise that works the same muscle group with a plan to return to the exercise in the future.
When lunges hurt, we try:
⭐️ Reducing load, or depth
⭐️ Hinging at the hips for more glutes and less knee load
⭐️ Release some tension in the quad or hip flexor with a stretch or ball/roller (often helpful if the back knee is the one giving you grief on lunges)
⭐️ Choose a box squat, b-stance squat, goblet squat or wall squat instead, and work on building capacity for lunges in the future
Have you been avoiding lunges because of knee pain?