Jowett Lunge, A Forgotten Gem

If you dig into the Sandow Site, into George Jowett's pages, into Molding Mighty Legs, you'll find a set of exercises for the legs, among them is "exercise six". It's an odd lunge that I was intruiged with and I decided to try in November, 2005. Trouble was, it didn't work as well as I wanted it to. It was the bent knee starting position. Besides, my legs weren't strong enough to do it quite yet so I gave up on it for a while.


After a while, I wanted to make a more concerted effort to bulk up my legs so I gave it another look. I tried it again but this time it was too easy. So, I played with it a little bit and decided to start with my lead leg straight rather than bent. The results were intense and satisfying. Here's How I do this variation of "exercise six" that I'm now calling the Jowett Lunge:


1. Stand with your feet together,your hands on your wais, and take a comfortable step backwards with one foot.

2. Raise your heels off the floor. It doesn't have to be very much.

3. Keeping your back in line with your rear leg, lower your bodyweight onto your lead foot while inhaling. Don't bounce.

4. Go down as far as possible. Exhale and slowly come back up.

5. Repeat with the rear leg up front.


There are a few important points to remember while doing this exercise. Keep your weight over your front leg going both down and up while keeping your heels off the ground. If you fail to do either, you'll lose the benefit of the exercise. When you come back up, try to push your foot into the ground while pushing yourself back up. This will add more stimulation to the calf muscles. This is a more advanced exercise so proceed with care. You could also do this near a wall or a chair if you need balance. Properly done, this lunge will hammer every muscle in your legs. Enjoy!