No matter how many times trainers shout "your knees should never come over your toes!" it will never cause the universe to morph into an alternate universe where the physics make this statement true.
Here is a lunge instructional video from ACE:
It's not perfect in every way. But the user comments are focused on the "knees over toes" myth. There are a couple of people just shouting the myth and then there is the one guy talking about bringing the hips back and blah, blah…..again, lunges are not that complicated.
Most gym trainers still believe this knees over toes nonsense to be true. I made a post on it years back and I looked around today and not much has changed.
ACE has provided an excellent article in response to the questions about this video, written by Fabio Comana and Pete McCall:
Knee Movement & Proper Form during Lunge Exercises
Here are a number of other resources:
Tony Gentilcore
Knees Beyond Toes pdf from Diesel Crew
ExRx
18 Tips for Bulletproof Knees by MR
I would like to point out for all the "elite" out there (Mark Rippetoe) that the organization I just pointed to at the beginning of this is ACE not NSCA or some other quasi authoritarian "strength" organization. Good mechanics is good mechanics and I have found that certain organizations are more set on dogma than on growth of knowledge. NSCA is excellent but is just as prawn to dogmatic nonsense as any other, not withstanding the "studies" in their joke of a journal. Any time knowledge is "institutionalized" it becomes something that builds walls instead of tearing them down. But I am sick of this dismissive attitude by many coaches of any institution that they themselves don't happen to be certified by. Never limit your horizons based on authoritarian attitudes.
The idea that "this organization is for strength" and "this one is for exercise" is just stupid. What is strength? Depends on your needs, goals, and YOU as an individual. But I digress…
Yes, the length of your legs and your body's specific geometry have everything to do with it but it comes down to this…good form is good form. Where your knees end up is a combination of good technique and body mechanics. How anybody could ever have come to the conclusion that FORCING your knees to stay in a position that is entirely unnatural is a good thing is beyond my comprehension.
When I say "unnaturally" I mean something that has forced you to purposely force your body to do something that works against it's biomechanics. I could just as well could say "mechanically inefficient" but that doesn't quite cover it.
The author supplies this information in good faith. The reader is responsible for his or her own neuroses.







