/forums/comment/181350-chto-budem-delat-s-anglojazychnoj-versiej-ja-tak
16.04.2015 21:20
Что будем делать с англоязычной версией? Я так понимаю желание / свободное время у переводчиков закончилось?
/forums/comment/193915-den-47-kardio-perevod-v-rabote-i-uzhe-gotov
30.07.2015 08:17
день 47: Кардио. Перевод в работе и уже готов (исправления внесены 2015-07-31):

Day 47: Cardio. Busting myths.

Cardio. Not many love it but everyone heard it that you need cardio to get into shape. If you run or spin a lot you will surely lose those kilograms and get slimmer. That is what they keep writing about cardio on fitness dedicated sites and in those posh magazines, probably the main source of information for most people. Now you will learn that it is not like that and the information above is one of the typical myths about cardio!

There are quite a lot of myths about aerobic training doing rounds among gym-goers but we will concentrate on the seven most popular.

Myth #1: Aerobic training is all you need to lose weight.

To lose weight you need to create deficit of energy, that is you have to spend more than you consume. If you do not have a diet and you chaotically consume food from the fridge, you will not lose any weight no matter how long and intensive you training is.

Myth #2: Low intensity aerobic training helps lose more fat than high intensity training.

Low intensity training involves less muscle that high intensity and it primarily recruits only slow muscle fibres, not fast ones (those fast ones create pretty bulging profiles).

Although low intensity training indeed uses fat as a primary source of energy, the body also tries to conserve more fat for future use thus creating a vicious circle.

Myth #3: Cardio is a waste of time

If you think that aerobic training is useless, then you are wrong again. It is important because it trains your cardiovascular system, respiratory system and muscular endurance! Not the useless qualities, are they?

Myth #4: The more cardio the better for losing weight

Cardio is getting less and less effective because the body adapts to it and works more efficiently.

If your primary goal is endurance than it is Ok to train more. If you want to be fit and lose weight there are more efficient ways.

Myth #5: Aerobic training takes too much time

Since many think that the more cardio the better then aerobic training might take too much time. Actually it is just not like this. On avergage cardio takes practically the same amount of time as strength training.

<
Правда, ogrudko напоминает о том, чтобы добиться чистого расхода энергии скажем в 100ккал, бегать нужно 20 минут (условно), а подтянуться 20 раз (тоже условно). То есть сжигание одного и того же количества калорий в случае кардио займет больше времени, чем в случае силовых тренировок.

Не стал переводить, т.к. сомнительная аналогия, которую некоторые могут понять буквально. Скорее всего чтобы потратить столько же энергии сколько займет 20 минут бега (для 70 кг чел бегущего 6 мин/км это будет условно 233 ккал, то надо будет подтянуться ~233 раза).
>

Myth #6: The best aerobic training is running.

Running is one of the most popular kind of aerobic training and it makes people think that it is the most efficient. It is not. The best way for you is the way you really like and the way which is safe for your health. Indeed, not everyone can or should run <отсебятина: and it might be even dangerous for really overweight people >. It is better to choose from aerobic activities the best one you can do and want to do regularly.

Myth #7: Cardio is bad for joints

We have already mentioned it before that there are many ways to do cardio. Some of them are easier for joints than, for instance, running. Cycling, rowing, walking upstairs, <отсебятина: rope jumping, skating and roller blading>. Cycling, rowing and using step or elliptical machines produce very little impact on joints.

Those who believe that they have to do a lot of aerobic training are worried for their joints too because of overuse but have already debunked that myth before.
/forums/comment/193928-beru-na-perevod-den-48-chto-takoe-vorkaut
30.07.2015 11:50
Беру на перевод
День 48. Что такое воркаут
Дорогу осилит идущий
/forums/comment/193931-quote-name-midnight-sun-beru-na-perevod-den-48-chto
30.07.2015 12:31
Беру на перевод
День 48. Что такое воркаут</quote>

ой-ой. Я уже заканчиваю это. Забыл написать.
/forums/comment/193934-aaaa-ja-osilil-jeto-day-48-the-history-of-workout
30.07.2015 14:39
Аааа, я осилил ЭТО.

Day 48. The History of WorkOut.

!!! Today is an easy day before the next day's maximum tests !!!

I have already told you that the BASIC block of our program has more common with general conditioning than with workout but in a few days of the ADVANCED block you will get more information on workout-specific training. That is why I want to tell you about the workout today.

<Я думаю, что для иностранцев экскурс в "далекий" 2009 год и в непопулярность здорового образа жизни в то
время будет совершенно непонятно. Это и мне то непонятно, на наших соревнованиях "молодые" возрастные
категории к тому времени были больше всех остальных>

The information is first-hand since I was one of those who were there from the very beginning in the distant
year of 2009 and saw how the history was made. Healthy way of life was not a trend, it was not even popular,
street and school facilities were vacant, very few exercised on bars and there was not even a term
"workout". No one could have imagined the conseqences of what we had started and where it might have led us.

But first things first.

What does the term "workout" mean?

WorkOut is a fitness movement born in the streets and street training spots. Its foundation consists of basic bodyweight exercises like push-us, pull-ups and squats. However it is only the beginning because imagination allows athletes to invent endless variations of exercises and combine them into sequences making every training session different.

It is quite typical that when I give this definition of WorkOut I get questions how it is different from regular calisthenics. I think that the best answer I can muster is to offer you to watch some videos and I hope that they are able to answer the question in the best way possible:

<тут натыканы видюшки>

Some time before 2008, when these videos started appearing on YouTube, nobody could even have thought of this approach to training. Well, there had always been some exercises and elements of gymnastics but there were no such ideas as incorporating game into training, creative exercises, combinations and everything else that Bar-tendaz and other teams were suggesting at the time. They were the first to inspire hundreds of thousands people around the world to get out and start using street training spots. You can see that it is not gymnastics and you will not see any traditional gymnastics in the videos. Indeed, the people who first started it were not gymnasts and were not inspired by gymnastics at all. WorkOut was born in the streets, people exchanged their knowledge and experience and then there came YouTube.

WorkOut is not just training, it is also communication. Without communication WorkOut
becomes a street gym and all the spirit is gone. I know that it is probably a bit hard to understand that is why I recommend to read the following text since, I think, it demonstates the spirit of WorkOut.

The spirit of WorkOut is to demonstrate to the rest what is possible to achieve with steet training. The
spirit of WorkOut is to make it popular among the teenagers and advocate healthy living leading by
example. The spirit of WorkOut is to spend time together with friends, share your interests, with the
benefit for body and soul.

Where did WorkOut come from?

WorkOut can be split into two equal parts: non-traditional training and socializing.

With a purpose I have showed you already the american videos, because this new approach to well-known exercises was indeed born in the USA. Although many wrongly think that these videos are made in the slums which is actually not true. There was no distinction between the rich and the poor, people just gathered together in the streets and parks and worked out together. People are equal when they train and the only thing that means is that you come and train.

Now it is hardly possible to find out who was the first but it might be worth mentioning that such famous guys like Beast and GIANT were among the first and a little later teams like Harlem S.E.A.L.S., Calisthenics Kings, Wingate Family and Bar-Barians emerged. That is the list of those who became famous through the Internet but they had learned their craft from someone else and the names of those are still in the obscurity.

I want to emphasize that every team and every team member had their own distinguished style because WorkOut was not just a way to train the body but means of self-expression. Why do you need to repeat the same thing again and again every time? The same exercises and the same sets? Why do you need to fit yourself in a program or a plan? If a street training spot makes it possible to do different exercises why
cannot you use it? That is why WorkOut is close to breakdance.

In Russia we learned this new approach in the autumn of 2008 when several guys from One More Day team stumbled upon the above-mentioned videos on YouTube and were sincerly surprised. Embarking on this idea they decided that it was really cool and that they have to train like that themselves and deliver this idea
to as many people as possible. They created a VK group called 'Ghetto Workout', the name derived from one of the videos, because nobody knew how to call this new movement. They started to provide open training sessions at weekends for anyone who was willing to join. The idea behind it was to show that it was possible
to become stronger, fitter and more physically attractive through training with your own body weight and a bit of imagination.

Unlike Bar-tendaz, who provided master classes for money, One More Day team made everything for free. They wanted to show that there were hardly any requirements to join in, just get together and start training. About that time the philosophy of WorkOut started to take shape.

After several years, thanks to simplicity, appeal and effectiveness, WorkOut gained significant popularity between pupils and students making Russia world leader and leaving other countries behind both by the amount of participants and by the speed of infrastructure development. In the beginning we trained and invited our friends to join in but gradually the amount of supporters grew and the Internet became the main source of new adherents. Nowadays there are over 200 000 workouters in Russia.

To be fair, some people in the US are starting to provide free training sessions. For example, famous Beast, after his comeback to WorkOut, pays more attention to visiting parks, training spots and training with different people.

(If you want to know more about the history of WorkOut, you can read the article:
http://workout.su/articles/13)

How did I get into WorkOut?

As I have already mentioned above, I was a member of the group who first started it. I found the famous videos on YouTube at the same time with the guys from One More Day and started spreading the information about the videos in our country. After a while Danila Cherkasov contacted me, we met, and after the meeting
with him and Sergey Ivanov we decided to join our forces and move along together.

It is worth mentioning that those guys had years of parkour training in their pockets and I was starting from scratch. I was hardly able to master a few pull-ups let alone bar dips but I wanted to train and learn because I saw it with my own eyes what I could achieve.

I was impressed with the video of Hannibal For King but I understood that it had taken him years and he had spent a lot of time training. Of course, Hannibal is very motivating but I would not have started training just because of his videos. The turning point were the videos of guys from Wingate Park. They were not professionals, only mere mortals with jobs and families but they were able to find time to train and got some astounding results! They moved me most when I saw how WorkOut was able to transform regular people!

(If you are interested I was most impressed with Cruz and Cleive).

What do you need to know about WorkOut?

Concluding the today's post I would like you to remember the next major points:

* Non-traditional training was invented in the US;
* WorkOut as we know it was born in Russia;
* There is no relationship between gymnastics and WorkOut;
* Anyone can participate in WorkOut, without any gender, age and fitness level limitations;
* WorkOut is not a sport and, particularly, not an extreme sport;
* WorkOut training sessions have always been, are and will always be free.
* The main goal of WorkOut is to spread the ideas of WorkOut.

Now I want to expound a bit more on the last three points.

First, anyone can participate in WorkOut, without any gender, age and fitness level limitations. Why? Because WorkOut is based on using only your own body but also because of a huge list of exercises which never stops growing! There are exercises for every fitness level and every age. Everyone can find their own exercises!

Second, WorkOut is not a sport and, particularly, not an extreme sport. Why is it not a sport? Because any sport is a competition between athletes, it is always about getting and being better than others. WorkOut defies competitive part of sport since the major goal is health and self-fulfilment. You can read more thouroughly on this subject in my article "Street fitness or professional sport?".

Why is it not an extreme sport? Because any extreme sport is about getting adrenaline in your blood. WorkOut is totally opposite to that. Its task is human development without any risk to health. That is why WorkOut is founded on basic and natural movements with applying a sound part of imagination and creativity to them.

Unfortunately, mass media promote a slightly different image of WorkOut displaying only the most impressive elements and tricks and forming an opinion that WorkOut is just another teenage hype or fad, a street kind of gymnastics.

What is more disturbing, there are now guys who are convinced that WorkOut is just like this. They cannot see the hard side of training, self-development. All they see is that WorkOut is another way to impress (Adam Raw made a great video on that subject). Usually they train for a year or two, reach some level and drop out because they either do not have time to train for hours to advance further or they find some new exciting interest in something or because they get injured trying to learn a new complex trick without proper training. I have been training since 2009 and have seen this a lot of this in many cities. The guys I started with they still train and stay loyal to WorkOut. They might have less time due to work or family commitments but they keep getting together and they still train because WorkOut has become major part of their lives. For them it has grown to something bigger than just a passing interest.

The next point is about the growing number of so called coaches, coming from fitness industry or gymnastics or just some dubious guys who are trying to exploit a new trendy term for earning quick money without having a bit of understanding what WorkOut is. I just cannot stand such people. They and their behaviour have strong negative impact on WorkOut in the eyes of ordinary people.

Third, WorkOut training sessions have always been, are and will be free. From the very first days, both in Russia and the US, WorkOut was based on the principle that everyone teaches everyone. There are no coaches or tutors, everyone is equal but is always eager to help others with advice or share their knowledge. WorkOut turns training spots into gathering places of people who are willing to communicate, learn and share. That is how WorkOut reaches its goal of engaging more people.

That is it for today. Too many letters for one day but I thought that it might be of interest for you to know how it all started and where it is heading now while you are learning the basics with your 100 days.
/forums/comment/193936-quote-name-mtbrdot-quote-name-midnight-sun-beru-na
30.07.2015 14:54
Беру на перевод
День 48. Что такое воркаут</quote>

ой-ой. Я уже заканчиваю это. Забыл написать.</quote>

Хорошо, тогда беру
49 BASIC block ending
Дорогу осилит идущий
/forums/comment/193937-day-49-the-last-day-of-the-basic-block-today-is-the
30.07.2015 15:06
Day 49. The last day of the BASIC block.

Today is the last day of the BASIC block and this means that it is time to take a look at the intermediary results and achievements.

First of all, I think, that it might be interesing to find out your new maximums for each exercise. This is why I advise you to test yourself after the warm-up. If you want, you can do it only for those exercises that you are interested in.

It would be great if you post your results like this:

Pull-ups: then – 15, now – 20 (+5)
Push-ups: then – 30, now – 40 (+10)

and so on.

I am not a huge fan of going for the maximum right away after the warm-up because I have concerns that it might be harmful to cardiovascular system.

This is my idea how to perform a test for maximum. Warm up thoughroughly and do the first set with 30-50% of your possible maximum. Then rest for 5-10 minutes to calm down the heart and nervious system and make another go for 60-100%. I have tried this with pull-ups, this scheme is safe and does not interfere with your maximums. If it works for pull-ups it must work for other exercises too.

If your suggested maximum is about 10 then it is worth doing two warm-up sets of 3 and 6. If it is about 8 then you might as well warm up with 4 and then go for 8. The logic behind it seems to be like this. Anyway, try to listen to the body. For instance, with maximum of 25 I would go for 10 and then 25 but if the maximum is 30, then I would do 10-20-30.

I think you might as well agree that it feels better to know your stable new maximum.

Secondly, if you were willing to gain or lose weight, it is time to look at this aspect too. If you wish to share this information with us, we will be pleased and it's Ok if you don't.

Weight: then – 55 kg, now – 60 kg (+5)

If there are participants who are tranformed themselves so much that they think they can motivate others, it would be great if you share your photos then and now. Do not be shy!

Thirdly, we want to make the program more effective and useful. We want to hear your comments and opinions on the order of the information posts, on what was missing from the first half of the program or what was not necessary.

If you keep training but do not want to share your results just post a smiley to let us know that you are still with us.
/forums/comment/193938-quote-name-midnight-sun-quote-name-mtbrdot-quote-name
30.07.2015 15:07
Беру на перевод
День 48. Что такое воркаут</quote>

ой-ой. Я уже заканчиваю это. Забыл написать.</quote>

Хорошо, тогда беру
49 BASIC block ending
</quote>

sorry gal... read the post above. did it in 5 minutes. That's it for today. I just need some practice
/forums/comment/193940-zapishite-na-menja-51-54
30.07.2015 15:26
Запишите на меня 51-54.
/forums/comment/193951-day-51-pull-ups-revisited-our-advanced-block-starts
30.07.2015 17:11
Day 51: Pull-ups revisited.

Our ADVANCED block starts with the analysis of all the exercises used in this program but we will be looking at them from a slightly different angle. Now we will look into how muscles work depending on variations of an exercise and how to engage different muscle groups.

Actually there are only two things you need to know which were missing from the previous post on pull-ups during the BASIC block.

Firstly, there are different grips and everyone should know that to attain maximum effect you need to alternate your grips.

Let's look into grips and what makes them different. Imagine your spine. The narrower your grip (that is the closer your hands are to each other) the more you stress the muscles along the spine. The wider the grip the more you stress the muscles further from the spine. Practically, with changing grips you can shift load from one muscle to another, stressing the whole back.

It is also worth mentioning that the largest back muscle (latissimus dorsi, we talked about it earlier  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1_O7l565sM) is wide, large and always work as one in comparison to chest muscles which are three-part or the arm flexor (bicep), which is two-part. That means that different grips cannot work out different parts of the back muscle but they can move stress from the back muscles to other muscles.

There are funny pieces on the Internet stating that vertical pulls help to widen the back muscles while horizontal pulls, like australian pull-ups or back row pull-ups, target the thickness of the back muscles. I have already mentioned that in the post about strength training myths that a muscle either grows or shrinks and it does it evenly. You cannot make a muscle grow in one specific direction.

A good remark from ogrudko: I would say that grips and work in different planes is more important for shoulder joints. In a horizontal pull it is natural to use pronated grip, while with a vertical pull it is natural to use neutral grip. It is also worth to grips from time to time for the benefit of secondary muscle groups. While the main group remains the same, the stress on secondary groups can be shifted from one group to another. You should never employ uncomfortable grips. If a grip causes discomfort or even pain it should certainly be avoided.

Another remark from mtbrDot on the diameter of the bar. The thicker the bar the more stress is on the grip (and less on blisters!) thus hitting the arms more. It can be either positive or negative thing. It is positive because thicker bars would work out your arms and grip better but it is also negative because thicker bars would tire arms first thus reducing stress and training effect for the back and shoulders.

Secondly, pull-ups come in all sorts and colours thus you have to decide on your goals.

If you want to increase the number of pull-ups then you have to train in one way. If you want to gain muscle size then you have to use another way. If you want to be most effective you need to learn to feel how the muscle works. During every exercise, during every set, every repetition you have to feel how the muscle works. If you do not feel it then it either is not completely stressed or does not work at all!

In addition to that it is worth saying that the negative phase is more effective than the positive. Why is it so? All muscles are programmed to work in a positive way, to contract. They are more used to contraction and when you load them they are not used to it improves the effect of your training session.

The pace or speed is equally important and has to concur with your goals. The negative phase should be 2-3 times longer than the positive one. The slow negative phase can be used both with the fast positive phase and the slow positive phase. It depends on where you gain most (personally, the first one works for me). In any case the training sessions should be intensive! That is you cannot rest more than 60 seconds between sets (I prefer to rest for 45 seconds). If you rest longer than that your muscles will have enough time to recover and this will reduce the effeciency of the training.

That is it for today. Should any questions arise feel free to post them below.

/forums/comment/193952-vychitajte-menja-pzhst-mne-jeto-vazhno-naskolko
30.07.2015 17:19
Вычитайте меня пжст, мне это важно - насколько получается. с английского переводил, но что-то на английский не приходилось пока.

думаю, что прямо сейчас для меня это очень полезная практика, но надо посмотреть насколько это качественно. Наверно покажу еще и нейтиву, который не спец в теме совсем.
/forums/comment/193969-beru-den-50-50-advanced-block-training-scheme
30.07.2015 21:20
Беру день 50
50 ADVANCED block training scheme
Дорогу осилит идущий
/forums/comment/194033-day-52-squats-revisited-in-the-second-information-post
31.07.2015 13:53
Day 52: Squats revisited

In the second information post of the ADVANCED block I keep giving out additional information on base exercises making the foundation of 100 Days. I think you have already found out what I will be discussing now from the header of the post.

Well, now we are talking about squats. This exercise is the key from training the lower body but very few try to make variations of it. While our legs have several muscle groups and they all can be worked only by combining difference stances and feet positions. That is what I am going to discuss.

First of all, no matter what stance or variation you use, you have to do squats with proper form. Do not forget that the whole body should be tense, you look straight ahead, the chest is leaned forward. The depth of the squat is what you decide on yourselves, to 90 degrees or lower but when you straighten up do not lock your knees, it can be harmful and the intensity of the exercise suffers because the muscles involved are getting relaxed for a moment.

Secondly, the standard stance supposes that the feet are at shoulder width, give or take, and are parallel to each other. This is the initial stance from which we will deviate some. With this stance quads are loaded evenly and that is fine. If you want to shift the stress then let's start with changing feet position. If you point your toes inward then you will move the stress onto exterior muscles. If you point your toes outward, you will stress the interior muscles. If you point toes more outward completely then you will use interior muscles. Please do not think that there are only three feet positions (parallel, inward, outward), on the contrary, you have a whole range of positions, with moving through the, you can change ther amount of stress on different muscles.

Let's talk about the leg position. Depending on the width of the stance you can change stress from exterior quads to interior quads as well as moving stress from glutes to quads. With a shoulder width the stress is spread evenly but the wider the stance the more you stress glutes and less quads. The same principle applies to narrowing the stance. The narrow the stance the more load is on the quads. The best case scenario for quads when you feet are set together. Although it is hard to do squats in this position but you can you a smooth wall for help as it is shown in the picture below:

<картинка>

Put your feet together and try doing squats like this. Use the wall only for support and put as much weight as possible on legs to maximise the effect.

Finally, let's talk about pistol squats or pistols. I really think that pistol squats are very hard and not very effective (непонятно – силу отлично развивает, не эффективно для мышц – противоречние). You have to keep your balance on one foot and that can be an issue. It is hard to make pistol squats intensive because of the need to keep balance and it reduces the stress on muscles. If you want to eliminate imbalances between legs you'd rather do lunges.

That is all for today, do squats, train your legs because you can build a house only on a good foundation! Should any questions arise do not be afraid to post them.
/forums/comment/194034-day-53-push-ups-revisited-we-keep-posting-on-our-base
31.07.2015 14:57
Day 53. Push-ups revisited.

We keep posting on our base exercises. After pull-ups and squats now it is time to look at push-ups.

It might seem that we have already covered the topic quite well in our video. Nonetheless, push-ups are one of the base exercises in building the upper body and particularly the chest, triceps and deltiods. Someone might as well notice that parallel bar dips are better but they produce a bit different stress so we will get back to them later.

<pic 1>

<pic 2>

To understand this post better first let's take a tour through chest muscles.

There are three muscle bundles constituting chest: lower chest, middle chest and upper chest.

Different push-up stances can stress different bundles. Only using this approach you can develop good balances chest muscles like the ones Nick Auger has:

<pic 3>

To reach this state of development you need to use different kinds of push-ups all the time (I am not talking about 100 Days, since we do not use variations for now). If one of the bundles is lagging behind you need to stress this bundle more and focus on its development.

Depending on the relative position of legs to chest muscles you can train different bundles moving stress vertically. When the chest is lower than the legs then you stress the lower chest more, the higher the legs the more you train the upper chest.

Paraller bar dips are the extreme position where legs are right below the chest that is the dips ultimately work the lower chest. Arnold Schwarzenegger said that dips are the only way if you want to shape up the lower chest.

Then I would like to bust another popular internet myth on chest muscles. Quite often you can read on 'inner chest muscles' and 'outer chest muscles' depending on how close is the muscle to the centre of the body. You have already seen it on the picture above there is no such distinction that is there are no exercises to work either inner or outer parts of the chest because the muscle strains equally along itself.

Ok, then why you feel muscles in the centre or on the sides during the exercise? This happens because you feel the points where muscles are attached to bones and these places are put under strain too and these places are painful, not the muscle itself.

That is there is no difference on the width of the hand stance for all chest bundles but there is a difference how hard chest muscles are stressed.

You can possibly remember from the first post on push-ups and from the video that one the major functions of the chest is shoulder adduction. If you put your hands narrower than the shoulder width then your shoulder is already adducted and most of work happends at the elbow. Narrow hand stance push-ups are practically done by flexing at elbow by elbow extensors like triceps, not with chest muscles. That is the wider your hands are the more you stress chest. It is hard to explain without pictures and I hope you grasped the gist.

One more thing. Another variable in push-ups is the relative position of hands to the body. By default you put your hands on shoulder level. However, the closer the hands to the stomach the more stress is moved from chest muscles on shoulder muscles, posterior deltoids particularly. Moving hands closer and above the head works anterior deltoids more. This is another useful piece of knowledge to make push-ups even more functional and effective than you used to think.

I want to underline it again that training is always based on biomechanics and physics. That is all you need to know is to learn how th body works and to handle it.

As I have already mentioned before, if your goal is muscle mass you need to feel muscles at work otherwise you are just wasting time and effort. It is more important while doing push-ups variations because it is the only criterium for assessing how correct your form is. Do not be afraid to experiment with different positions of hands and legs to find new effective stances when your (sic!) muscles will work at their maximum.

Another thing worth mentioning. Do not let yourself copy famous athletes word for word. They do what works for them. Use videos and programs on the Internet as a source but not a bible, always apply thought to it and look for what works for you.
/forums/comment/194035-day-54-lunges-revisited-last-but-not-least-in-our
31.07.2015 15:07
Day 54: Lunges revisited

Last but not least in our training program: lunges. Now we talk about what variables are in lunges and what
these variables might affect.

Lunges are great if we talk about one-sided exercises that is the exercises that allow to work only one side of the body. For instance, to work the left leg without touching the right one. With lunges you can eliminate your
imbalances as well as shift load from one muscle group to another.

To understand this idea better look at the picture, where muscles worked by lunged are highlighted:

<picture with a lunge>

Stride length: A shorter stride moves stress to quads and relieves hamstrings. If you do it otherwise and lengthen the stride then you stress hamstrings and glutes more than quads.

Four sides: lunges can be done in all four directions not just back and forward. These variations shift stress inside quads and glutes and to a lesser degree outside quads.

Lunges can be done with a step up. That makes it harder and more intense and hits quads even more.